Cabling Chronicles

Beat the Heat with Versiv™ Cool Features

It seems no matter where you live – the plains, the east coast, the UK or even our typically-cool Pacific northwest – the news is all about record-setting heat.  Worse, a lot of our favorite coping methods are unavailable – gas makes it too costly to go to the beach or mountains, pools are closed due to lifeguard shortages, and now you can´t even help yourself to an ice-cold Choco Taco.

August 8, 2022

Faster Networks Demand More Accurate Measurements

Today’s high-tech data centers form the digital heart of communication and commerce in our world. But every industry has its “remember when” stories, and there's no better time than now to tell them.

June 21, 2022

What’s Happening with Single-Pair Ethernet?

It’s been a few years since the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) introduced the IEEE 802.3cg-2019 single-pair Ethernet (SPE) 10 Mb/s standards. There’s been a lot of industry activity and collaboration surrounding the technology since then — so we thought it would be a good time for an update on the status of Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE).

June 16, 2022

LinkIQ Duo: Cable, PoE, Wi-Fi, and Network Testing All in One Device

In a 2023 Network IT Management Report that surveyed more than 4,500 IT professionals, nearly 50 percent of them said they spend at least half their time on reactive network tasks like troubleshooting, mapping, and configuration — not to mention prioritizing robust, reliable, and secure Wi-Fi performance for all their users who connect wirelessly. So we’ve added Wi-Fi analysis to the LinkIQ™ tester’s already trusted cable, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and network capabilities. Introducing the LinkIQ Duo: your essential cable, Wi-Fi, and network tester.

 

June 9, 2022

5 Vital Safety Rules for Working with Fiber Optic Cables

There are plenty of hazards to watch for when working on commercial and industrial networks. Fiber optic cable can seem safe; it doesn’t carry an electrical charge, and it’s not a heat source. More often it’s a lack of understanding of the real hazards of fiber optic cable that can be the most dangerous safety hazard of all.

May 31, 2022

Fiber Polarity Basics

Polarity defines direction of flow, such as the direction of a magnetic field or an electrical current. In fiber optics, polarity is directional; light signals travel through a fiber optic cable from one end to the other. A fiber optic link’s transmit signal (Tx) at end of the cable must match the corresponding receiver (Rx) at the other end.

May 19, 2022

Ethernet Cable Categories Explained: A Brief History

Millennials who entered the workforce between 2003 and 2016 are accustomed to the digital era: high-speed internet access, smartphones, online everything. And while they’ve definitely experienced advancements in technology during their lifetime, they may not be aware of just how far copper Ethernet cabling has come to make it all possible. We thought we’d start off 2022 with a little Ethernet history lesson for the younger generation and a walk down memory lane for those of us that have been in the industry a bit longer than we’d like to admit.

February 24, 2022

How to Test an SFP Transceiver and Network Cable

Recently we have been getting questions about how to determine if an SFP (Small Form-factor Pluggable) transceiver is working. We refer to SFP generically here to represent a multitude of the various optical modules that are available. Fluke Networks fiber testers can be used to measure the light that is being put out by an SFP.

January 21, 2022

Choosing the Best Fiber Optic Scope for Today’s Fiber Inspection

Contaminated connections remain the number one cause of fiber related problems and failures in data centers, campus, and other enterprise or telecom networking environments. But it’s not enough to just clean every fiber end face—there is no way to know if the end face is clean unless you inspect it.

 

January 4, 2022