[off topic] Network wishlist with new building

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1
As I recall when we installed our backbone. We went with fiber on the shop
floor because it is more resistant to E.M.I noise. We have a lot of high
frequency welders in the building and also a lot of radio antennas nearby.
We also used all shielded cat 5 cable & terminations and patch cables in
other areas. The cost diferences were not that drastic.

Dan Shallbetter
States Electric Mfg.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lydia Coffman [mailto:lcoffman@...]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 3:32 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] [off topic] Network wishlist with new building


You guys have some great ideas. We are currently in the planning (initial
blueprints) stages for a new building, and your info will be a big help to
me as well. This is why we're on this list, now, isn't it?

Lydia






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
2
Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.

I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
optics, etc.

We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?

Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
differently?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics
3
We have two buildings right next to each other connected by an enclosed
hallway. If I had it to do over I'd connect the two with fiber as a
"backbone" and then run Cat5 from the end points throughout...

Cat5 will support over 100 mb so keep that in mind as well.

That's my two cents.

Rick
MIS
Osco

Troy Funte wrote:
>
> Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
> would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
> We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.
>
> I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
> wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
> optics, etc.
>
> We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
> about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?
>
> Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
> differently?
>
> Troy Funte
> Liberty Electronics
>
>
> We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files, please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
> (Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups, choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above will work the next time you try it.)
4
Troy,

We have two buildings separated by a parking lot and a township road with
underground wiring. For phone there is a 50 pair copper wire and for
network a 6 conductor multi-mode fiber. We also have a run in one of the
buildings that is further than the 100m max for copper, so there is a piece
of fiber to there as well. On each end of the fiber I have 3Com Superstack
II 3300 switches with fiber modules installed, so that eliminates the need
for media converters and other excess hardware.

Other suggestions I would have:

Stick with fiber for your backbone. It can easily handle 1gbps now and
probably whatever will come along down the road from now so it is one
upgrade you shouldn't have to worry about for a long time. Use Cat5e or
better wire, jack, patch panels, etc. for your network drops.

Run as many extra wires as practical. We ran into the problem of not enough
phone lines with the 50 pair, so we had to move our phone switch to the
bigger building and backfeed the smaller building. A 100 pair cable in the
pipe initially would have postponed the need for a new phone switch by
several years.

Make provisions for a comfortably sized wiring closet in the new building to
terminate your network and phone wiring to keep it protected and out of the
mainstream.

If the new building is going to have offices, put at least two if not more
ethernet ports in each office. You never know when two people will have to
be shoved into an office or the boss wants to move his desk to the other
side. It is much easier to put them in during construction and never use
them than to crawl over desks and filing cabinets later. Ask me how I know
this! I also run a phone wire with each ethernet port and put on double
jacks. More often than not the phone line gets used and in many cases I
split out pairs and end up with 2 ethernet and 2 phones off one pair of
wires.

In general think as far ahead as possible because it is much easier to do
this kind of stuff when the walls are just studs and the buildings are
empty. Just my $.02 also after 3 new buildings and many office additions.

Rick
5
Oh, one more wish list thing...

Make sure you run plenty of capability to rooms such as the conference
room and such. Multimedia is only going to get bigger over time.

R



rgors wrote:
>
> We have two buildings right next to each other connected by an enclosed
> hallway. If I had it to do over I'd connect the two with fiber as a
> "backbone" and then run Cat5 from the end points throughout...
>
> Cat5 will support over 100 mb so keep that in mind as well.
>
> That's my two cents.
>
> Rick
> MIS
> Osco
>
> Troy Funte wrote:
> >
> > Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
> > would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
> > We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.
> >
> > I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
> > wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
> > optics, etc.
> >
> > We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
> > about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?
> >
> > Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
> > differently?
> >
> > Troy Funte
> > Liberty Electronics
> >
> >
> > We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files, please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
> > (Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups, choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above will work the next time you try it.)
>
>
> We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files, please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
> (Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups, choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above will work the next time you try it.)
6
Troy,

We did this about 3 years ago, after a review of the building plans and expected
growth we decided that putting a computer connection with a phone connection in
each of the possible location that a computer maybe placed was the best idea. We
ran all CAT 5 cable to a 160 port RJ-45 patch panel in the computer room. This
way when people moved all we do is change the connections at the patch panel.
We have all switches, hubs, routers, and servers in one computer room
location which makes security very easy. We are not using any fiber here but speed
on the server and workstations are fine. I hope this helps

Jeff


Troy Funte wrote:

> Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
> would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
> We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.
>
> I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
> wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
> optics, etc.
>
> We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
> about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?
>
> Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
> differently?
>
> Troy Funte
> Liberty Electronics
7
In addition to all the other suggestions don't neglect power issues in the
wiring closet or computer room(s). Have the electrical plan call for
dedicated circuits to any location serving switches, hubs, etc... This keeps
the equipment isolated from anything else, like copiers, space heaters and
anything with a motor. Aside from electrical noise it will protect from
"other" stuff tripping a breaker. Of course all equipment should be on
battery UPS (we use APC stacks) and you will need to allow space for these
units. Usually on the floor due to weight. Also allow for plenty of
outlets. Most equipment requires pretty low power but over-rate the UPS and
the circuit anyway for better conditioning and longer up-time. Try not to
have a utility room containing things like HVAC or water heater used for the
wiring closet. These tend to be too warm and maintenance on these other
systems can cause accidents with the comm gear.

Another wiring closet thought - decide (depending on amount of equipment)
whether you are going to mount flush on a wall (usually plywood panel) or in
a rack. Racks are nicer and more tidy but might be overkill for a very
small location (one switch and patch panel). For bigger rooms install an
automatic power outage light (cheap) that comes on and allows you to
disconnect or replace equipment in even of power outage. Especially if
there is a server involved so you can do a graceful shutdown.

On the data side check out requirements for Voice over IP. VoIP may or may
not be ready for prime time yet but the trend will be in that direciton.
Might as well build infrastructure (wire, jacks, locations) now when it is
least expensive. Definitely wire for 100Mb or even 1Gb with Cat 5e.

-Todd C.
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 5:01 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] [off topic] Network wishlist with new building


Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.

I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
optics, etc.

We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?

Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
differently?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8
> Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
> differently?
We moved to this facility just over 2 years ago. One of the things that has
been great is each office and cube a CAT5 "D" network jack, a CAT5 "A" jack
and a CAT3 phone jack. The two CAT5 are actually the same type, but the "D"s
and "A"s run to different patch panels in the computer room for
organizational purposes. Besides a second computer, the A jacks are used to
patch an external phone lines (i.e. for a modem or piece of equipment) to
someone's desk. These "A" jacks were also used when we moved here for the
serial terminals that hooked into our "minicomputer" that was our
predecessor to Vantage (MAI Basic Four, if anyone cares).

We also have two patch panels outside the computer room to cover off the
areas in the plant that are more than 100m away. They connect back to the
central switch using CAT5, but if you are in a similar situation, go with
fibre if you can.

If things are still in the planning stage, push for a computer/wiring room
with lots of space. Allow space for a nice rack or set of shelves that will
allow you to get to both sides of the servers easily and include space for a
UPS. Also make sure there is plenty of room to mount phone equipment and
other stuff on the walls. We also have a desk that can be used as a work
area when needed.

In the office area, we went with cubes the have built-in wiring runs at desk
level. This has been a godsend for running wires and it keeps cords off the
floor as well.

The other suggestion I have is plan for growth. Make sure you have enough
capacity to accommodate more users being added and servers going in to you
computer room. Additionally, if you don't have much storage in your computer
room, make sure there is secure storage available to you somewhere (i.e. for
spare equipment).

Brian Boyes,
Systems Administrator,
Precision Resource Canada Ltd.
<http://www.precisionresource.com>
<mailto:brianb@...>
9
Thanks for all the great ideas. I'll run these past the powers that be. This list has been great for many things ... including some of these off topic issues.

You're all great.

Troy
----- Original Message -----
From: Troy Funte
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 3:01 PM
Subject: [Vantage] [off topic] Network wishlist with new building


Question. If you were building a new building (which we are), what
would you do in the planning stages for networking considerations.
We have 160 employees, using about 60 workstations.

I've been asked to think about what we should do now to prepare for
wiring considerations, are there advantages to changing to fiber
optics, etc.

We will probably use existing computer hardware for now, but what
about what would be your wishlist for a new facility installation?

Have any of you been through this before? Anything you would do
differently?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


eGroups Sponsor


We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files, please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups, choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above will work the next time you try it.)



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
10
The cost of fiber cable is close to the same as good CAT5 cable. It's the
connections at the end that make fiber expensive. So run fiber parallel to
the CAT5 (no extra labor costs) to any location that may need more speed in
the future ( is that every drop ??? ). Then only terminate the fiber ends
you need as you need them.

Just some more fiber for your network diet.

Regards,


Jerry Solobay

Ebco Aerospace
11
You guys have some great ideas. We are currently in the planning (initial
blueprints) stages for a new building, and your info will be a big help to
me as well. This is why we're on this list, now, isn't it?

Lydia