I’m Sourav Khanna and welcome to the session on network cabling, part three. Today I’m going to be talking about media converters, and then I’m going to talk about some cabling tools that you should know about. And with that, let’s go ahead and begin today’s session. I will begin by discussing media converters.
What are Media Converters?
It is not uncommon to be in a situation where the network contains more than one type of cabling. This can lead to a situation where there’s a desire to connect different types of media together in order to make a cohesive or single network.
Thankfully, media converters are readily available. The issue of trying to connect these disparate types of transmission together mostly comes into play when you’re trying to join a fibre optic transmission to a copper wire infrastructure.
And that’s actually represented in the types of readily available media converters that are out there. The most common media converters will connect single-mode fibre to Ethernet, multimode fibre to Ethernet or single-mode fibre to multimode fibre.
And finally, there is a fibre to the coaxial cabling media converter. You need to be aware that these devices are out there to help you create a solid network.
Now let’s move on to cabling tools. So every technician should put some thought into the tools that are in his or her toolbox. It is often said that you get what you pay for. And that is very true with tools.
While a good technician can get away with buying the most inexpensive tools, spending a little more money for a better tool can often make the task easier and ultimately make the technician more efficient.
But you also need to be aware that you can spend more money than is necessary and not utilize all of the features in a given tool. So you need to find that balance point between spending too much money and not spending enough money to become a really efficient technician.
Now let’s move on to the tools themselves. And we’ll begin with crimpers are used to placing cable ends on cables.
They can be designed to work with a single type of cable, as in twisted-pair wire with multiple types of cable. I’ve seen some crimpers that have been able to work with RJ elevens RJ 45 and with a coaxial f connector, next step or wire strippers.
What are Wire Strippers?
Wire strippers are used to removing the insulating covers on wires and cables. Many are designed to just cut through the insulation without damaging the cable contained within that insulation. But some are also designed to cut all the way through the cable so that excess cabling can be trimmed.
When you’re using those to cut insulation, you need to be careful that you don’t cut the underlying cable. Then there are punch down tools. These are used to secure cable wires in their punch down blocks. A good punch down tool will trim the ends at the same time as it places the wire in the punch down block. Then there are cable testers.
What are Cable Testers?
These are used to test cables for common problems such as misconfiguration of the ends or incorrect pinouts. Cable testers will often test for the cable standard used either the T 568 A or the T 560 a b or they can tell you whether or not you’ve created a crossover cable. Cable testers will test for shorts or breaks in the continuity of the cable.
Some types of testers can also test for cable length and quality. These types of testers are called cable certifiers. Then we have the TDR the time domain reflectometer. Now, this is a cable tester for copper cabling that can determine the length of a segment and the electrical characteristics of the cable. Also, a TDR can tell you where the break is in a segment.
A TDR is capable of performing all of the same tests that a cable tester can. But they are much more expensive than a standard cable tester. This is where you can spend too much money and not utilize all of the features available in the tool.
Let’s conclude this with the OTDR the optical time-domain reflectometer. It performs all of the same functions that a TDR can but it is specifically used for fibre optic cabling.
Now that concludes this session on network cabling, part three. I briefly talked about media converters, and then I brought up some cabling tools that you need to know about.