Is your network cabling a mess? How should you organise network cables? Here, we look at some best practices for managing your network cabling needs.
There is nothing funny about your network cabling looking like a jumbled mess! Cabling that is not organised correctly, with proper forward-planning, can impede good air flow which leads to over heating/heat retention, hardware failure and increased maintenance. All of these issues will come at a cost for your business but can be avoided by following some simple steps, with these cable management ideas.
Label, label, label
While cable rack size and rack accessories are important, correct and appropriate labelling is just as necessary. Labelling is time consuming, and often tedious, but will almost certainly pay off in the long term. Our tips for effective labelling include:
Label BOTH ends of cables and this means ALL cables – power cables, patch cables, network cables and any other type of cable in the installation. Labelling both ends of a cable will allow you to identify cables that pass under a floor or through a conduit into another room. One label can indicate where that end should be plugged in while the other label can indicate where its far end is plugged in.
Be consistent with your labelling. This will make life easier for any other installer who needs to work on the system.
Ensure that all installers and maintenance personnel are familiar with your labelling system by defining it in writing.
Isolate by type
Isolating cables will help to avoid the ‘Spaghetti Junction’ mess and will also:
Minimise interference between cable types. Power cables for example can cause electromagnetic interference with surrounding cables.
Make connections easier to find and troubleshoot
Give maintenance personnel easier access.
Releasable cable ties
Regular, single use cable ties play a huge part in cable management but where bundles may require later additions, releasable cable ties are a great cable management solution.
They can be re-used as they are easy to undo.
They have a high tensile strength so are capable of weight bearing.
They make it easier to re-bundle cables at a later date.
At cableties-online, we offer a wide range of cable management supplies to facilitate your cable management systems.
Marker cable ties are available in assorted lengths and widths, with a choice of colours and can be written on easily. Coloured cables ties are another great solution for colour coding types of cable for quick and easy identification.
When isolating power cables, our phase marking cable ties are indispensable. Perfect for single-phase and multi-phase installations, the ties are hot foil printed and can be used for live and neutral wires.
When mounting large bundles of cable, a releasable cable tie will take the weight of the cables and will make it easier if cables need to be added or removed at a later stage.
For more cable management ideas, our blogs ‘The ultimate guide to cable organisation’ and ‘5 ways to manage cables safely in an office’ have lots of helpful tips. For any further help and support with your network admin cable management, please call our friendly and knowledgeable staff on 01623 706241 or email the sales team at sales@cableties-online.co.uk
