atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring IT guys strike again!

They use cat 3 cable and 8 pin jacks for phone here at UT. I asked the telecom guys why and they really did not have an answer...I think the IT guys wrote the specs
I can't tell you how many people in the dorms have plugged their computer's network cable into the white 8 pin phone jack.

I have replaced numerous 8p8c jacks that have bent pins caused by a phone being plugged in and someone pulling or tripping on the wire.

Same here Merritt!

I color code jacks too;
Blue=8p8c for data
White/Ivory= 4p4c for digital phone
Black=4p4c for C.O. dial tone/analog system port

This doesn't stop idiots from switching all their cords to try and solver a problem.

I wire a customer up for what they purchased, not what they may purchase in the future.

That's not 568B, it's just plain wrong. 6p6c jacks get wired to USOC standards, not 568-anything. Learning it takes all of five minutes (less when the colors are marked right on the keystones), so you got an especially dumb IT guy who punched them down.

"And the brown pair, wrapped around the cable, probably not sure what to do with it..."

Most jacks we wire are set up as RJ14 (even if the plans call for just RJ11), so the green and brown pairs are neatly wrapped around the cable.

Leviton 6p6c keystones have a set of 'dummy terminals' for the brown pair - it can be punched down, but it isn't connected to any of the pins. We never punch down the brown pair on the jack end (unless it's data).

"If color coding and labeling isn't enough to prevent someone from trying to plug in a modem into a telephone system port, then that person has other issues."

True, but I prefer 6pxc for telephone and 8p8c for data because it's more idiot-resistant.

"Using the PROPER jacks for the cable is the mark of a craftsman. Jamming a round peg into a square hole isn't. 4 pair cable uses 8p8c jacks, 3 pair cable uses 6p6c jacks and 2 pair cable uses 4p4c jacks."

For PLUGS I would agree with you. With jacks I'd agree with Hal.

Jack

I wire a customer up for what they purchased, not what they may purchase in the future.


My opinion is that to do otherwise is taking advantage of the customer. You are asking the customer to gamble money on something that may never be used.

It seems that today everybody is a wiring expert, from the customer to the CG. Everybody except the person who has years of experience, is doing the work and gets second guessed.

-Hal

100% correct Hal.

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Merritt, I will back you up on that one, as well. I actually carry some "bent-pin" 8P8C jacks in the cup holder of my van to show customers. These are from real world screw-ups and I use them as a visual aid when explaining this to customers and their IT guys. Most IT guys never had it explained and shown to them, so they gladly comply and I have essentially started the "snowball of knowledge" and they will inform the next IT "wiring engineer"

The last time my employer remodeled and had new voice and data drops installed, the cabling contractor used 8p8c jacks for voice and data. They also connected all runs to a patch panel, even those for voice.

I am often having problems with 6pxc plugs that don't make connection or bend the pins of the 8p8c jacks. Even if they don't *appear* to bend the jack pins, they still sometimes damage the outermost pins. This problem only shows up when we use that circuit for data in the future.

So, I can say from what I've seen at work that 8p8c jacks are a problem with 6 position plugs

I know, I know, using patch panels for voice is another discussion. It was not my choice.

-Nelson

The only time I make a "variation on this theme" is if I believe I'm going to be the next person who might have to run a new cable for a pony wall or hard cap area. Then I will suggest adding an additional jack or cable this point in time will be less expensive than after the walls and ceiling are all closed up.

But of course if it's a 2'x2' area and has four USOC and four DATA then I just whine to myself about why there is so many cables for such a small area.

-Dean

I ran across this problem over 10 years ago. It brought down about 30 servers in the small server room AND it was intermittent. I inspected the jack and saw the bent pins (I have no idea when or why a 6p4c phone cord was plugged into it) and I replaced it. Problem solved.

Since the title of the thread is "IT guys strike again", I should mention that I cleaned up the wiring in this room and not 2 hours later someone messed it up again (running patch cords willy-nilly over the front of the racks). I sent an email asking whomever made the mess please clean it up as it looks like crap and the culprit emailed me back all pissed off (till then I had no idea who it was). Real bright. This guy was the type of person that gives all IT guys a bad name. I didn't much like dealing with him, as I considered him a moron.

An IT guy once ordered material from us to do his own install because he didn't want to pay us to do something that was "so easy". He then called back all irate and said the cable I sold him was "No Good". I asked him which wiring scheme he used. He replied, "Wiring scheme? I just matched up the colors at both ends!

I've fixed a couple of networks that had split pairs. Barely works at 10mb, definitely not at 100mb.

The most common error that I see (when someone crimps their own 8p8c connectors):

1 white/orange
2 orange/white
3 white/green
4 green/white WRONG
5 white/blue
6 blue/white WRONG
7 white/brown
8 brown/white

All I can guess is that they look at a patch cable and duplicate the wiring, but don't notice how the blue pair is in the center and the green pair around it.