Networking / Beginners

Ready, Set, Run

The way cable is strung through a building is called a run, and your plan for running the cable depends on how easily you can string the cable between the computers and the concentrator.

Your run is actually a series of runs because each computer must be individually attached to the concentrator. (The concentrator is the device that holds all the connections and provides the conversation pit for your computers; it can be a hub, a switch, or a router.)

[Contents] [Next]

In this tutorial:

  1. Installing Ethernet Cable
  2. Ready, Set, Run
  3. Ethernet cable has many aliases
  4. Concerning the concentrator
  5. Deciding Where to Put the Concentrator
  6. Concentrators are environmentally fussy
  7. Concentrators are innately powerless
  8. Distance Depends on What You Choose to Measure
  9. Handling Cable Correctly
  10. Connecting two patch cables
  11. Making your own patch cables
  12. The Chase Is On: Running the Cable
  13. Cabling within a room
  14. Cabling between adjacent rooms
  15. Cabling between nonadjacent rooms on the same floor
  16. Keeping your drill holes in the closet
  17. Cable that's all walled up
  18. Cabling between Floors
  19. Adding cable faceplates
  20. Using floor cable covers
  21. Curing Your Network's Growing Pains
  22. Don't add another router
  23. Getting into the Zone