If your business is sensitive in nature or you simply want to make sure that thieves don’t end up with your precious inventory or computer equipment, you probably have some type of a security system in place already.

Older security systems often have very simple alarms with motion detectors that an entire generation of thieves have learned how to disable.  If this is what you are relying on today, it makes sense to consider an upgrade to a more sophisticated system that is harder to circumvent.

Older surveillance cameras also could only be viewed from one central location, which means that thefts could occur when security personnel step away momentarily.

Ethernet based security systems are scalable as your business grows, can send alarms to email addresses or mobile phones, and can allow a complete picture of your facility to be viewed over Ethernet connected security cameras from any Internet connection.  The images from multiple cameras can be used to form a real time collage, which allows a wider area to be seen and analyzed for abnormalities.

The only down side is that they will require additional Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable to be run if you choose not to take the additional risk of using a wireless network.

Ethernet security cameras come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and features.   Night vision cameras are available, as well as cameras that pan and zoom, include two way voice capabilities, and have hidden cabling to prevent hacking.

IP connected cameras can also send video or still images to any email address specified, allowing quick identification of intruders and enhanced communications with law enforcement personnel.

Another benefit is that hard disc drive storage of surveillance data that wasn’t possible with traditional CCTV systems is now enabled, as is computer enhancement of still images as well as video footage for greater clarity.

These systems tend to be much more cost effective than traditional CCTV based systems too, as they don’t require expensive splitters, multiplexers, and repeaters.  Enhanced competition among vendors continues to drive the price down, meaning having video added to your surveillance system no longer means high Capex.

The use of PoE or Power-over-Ethernet also means that only one wire needs to be run to each camera, instead of one for the signal and one to power the device.  This streamlines installation of Ethernet based surveillance cameras, and helps keep them unobtrusive for stealth reasons.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of an Ethernet- based security system is that it can integrate seamlessly with your company network – allowing voice, video, security, and information processing to be synchronized.   The entire capability of your network cabling can be brought to bear on solving tough security issues with this type of approach.

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Copper UTP Cat 5 or Cat 6 cabling is the most typical medium used to carry Ethernet signals within a corporate data network, as it is the least inexpensive and easiest to install.  However, with no shielding, it is also the easiest for a corporate spy to “sniff” and cannot be considered truly secure.

In contrast, 100Base FX fiber optic cable carries the data signals over glass fibers, which cannot be sniffed as the electromagnetic signals are transformed into light signals before being transported by the optical media.

The downside is that fiber optic cable is both more expensive and harder to install, which translates into higher installation costs as well.

The solution?  Use fiber optic cable where it matters most, and then convert the data signals into less expensive copper cabling using an efficient and inexpensive media converter such as those available from Allied Telesyn.  Or install a dual copper-fiber optic network, and use switches and routers that support both mediums – available from wide variety of providers.  Media conversion switches are also available, as are media conversion switches that source PoE (Power over Ethernet) for the copper portion of the network.

The downside to this approach is that your network will be hard wired in the wall – so if you choose to move the location of the group that requires the fiber optic cabling to a new location within the building just to keep people on their toes, you will have to upgrade wiring in that new location as well.   Another downside is that fiber optic cable does not allow the use of PoE or Power over Ethernet to be deployed.

But the added peace of mind that increased security brings for locations such as legal and accounting may be well worth this lack of future mobility.

It pays to plan your network infrastructure such that the fiber runs are kept as short as possible to minimize your overall cost.  Structured cabling installers can help you with this planning, which may mean relocating Finance or Legal (balance the costs of the move against the added costs of longer fiber runs) before the network upgrade happens so that shorter runs can be used.

Fiber optic cable also makes sense in areas where a telepresence system is to be installed, as fiber is not subject to EMI interference like copper UTP can be.  This leads to cleaner signals and better quality video service.   If you have areas that have a lot of electromagnetic noise or sources for interference, fiber cabling may make sense here too.

Last but not least, as signals don’t degrade as readily along fiber cabling as they do on copper cabling, fiber cables can be run for incredibly long distances.  This can be costly, but if you need to have a run longer than 500 meters (the limit for coaxial cable), then fiber is definitely the way to go.  This cable can be run underground as well.

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Most data networking cables are referred to as UTP – which stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair cabling.  This is perfectly adequate for many data networking applications as the twisting of the pairs is thought to cancel out any electromagnetic interference from external sources as well as undesirable cross talk.

Whether or not this is truly adequate depends on a number of factors, one being whether or not the twisting is preserved when the cable is installed.  In some mission critical applications, shielding is desirable just to give added stability to your infrastructure.

Shielded Twisted Pair cabling is primarily used in Europe for general installations, or in noisy electrical environments and combines the protection offered by twisting with an electromagnetic shield.  It was originally developed by IBM for Token Ring data communications, and termed STP at that time.  It is more expensive than UTP cable, harder to install, and can create some additional issues if the shields are not properly terminated.  If a shield is not properly terminated, it acts as an antenna and the resulting signal degradation is worse than if UTP were used!

Two types of Shielded Twisted Pair are commonly found – FTP or Foiled Twisted Pair uses a thin layer of foil as a shield, and S-FTP or Shielded Foiled Twisted Pair which uses both foil and an outer conductor of braided shielding.

If you are running Ethernet cabling near repeaters, routers, power sources, radio towers, or any electrical equipment that could create interference, it makes sense to use shielding in these areas just to be safe.   Remember, once the cable is in the wall, it is tougher to change it than to choose the right cable in the first place.

Shielding also provides some protection against security breaches.  Cable sniffers can detect and decode data packets being carried by sensing the electromagnetic emanations from the cable.   Added shielding makes this harder to do, although not quite providing the amount of protection offered by the use of more expensive fiber optic cable.

Coaxial cable offers the next level of shielding, as the second wire in the pair also acts as the shield – and a layer of insulation covers both.  Although more costly than UTP, coaxial cable allows longer overall cable runs to be made without signal degradation.  For example, UTP can run up to 100 meters (some manufacturers recommend only 90 meters), but coaxial cable can be run for 500 meters with no loss of signal integrity.  If you must have a long cable run, coaxial cabling is the way to go.

Data installation professionals can help you make the determination as to whether or not you need shielding, and if so, where in your network it should be used.   Call them today and they will provide you with a comprehensive infrastructure upgrade plan that includes cable types and installation details.  Your network will thank you, and so will your employees when their network operates more reliability – making them more productive.

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Although some businesses are lucky enough to be located in brand new buildings with new shiny cabling and infrastructure – most are living with cabling that was installed in the 1980’s or earlier.  Many business owners don’t associate the quality of their internal cabling with difficulties in their networks.  For the most part, network cables are hidden in the walls – out of sight, out of mind!

But upgrading your cabling NOW will pay dividends, and can help make your business more efficient now while allowing you to take advantage of new technologies that can have a great impact on your business in the future.  Eight good reasons to upgrade now include:

1)Most 1980’s cabling is cat 3 UTP cable, which is really not suitable for money saving technologies such as VoIP.  Moving to a cost effective VoIP system will more than pay for the cable upgrade within months!
2)Older cable can have insulation that is wearing off, which means shielding is also wearing off which can lead to crosstalk related network problems
3)Newer cabling is required for the installation of telepresence systems, which can cut down travel costs dramatically and improve communications between remote branch offices.
4)Older cabling is easier to “sniff”, meaning your competitors could tap into your networks and gain unauthorized knowledge about your business and products
5)When installing new cabling, you can run more cable to accommodate more computers, VoIP enabled fax machines, or phones – meaning you can streamline your switch and router locations and make your overall network more efficient.
6)You can install fiber optic cabling in areas where security is critical, and use media conversion to areas where cheaper copper cabling is adequate.  Fiber optic cabling is nearly impossible to sniff.
7)Gigabit Ethernet capable cat 6 cabling can be installed to allow use of faster download speeds in engineering areas or anywhere huge files have to be uploaded and downloaded.
8)PoE (power over Ethernet) switches can be added to your network which require newer cabling – these allow better overall power management, mean less wires to trip over for your employees, and can help save on your power bills.   You can also set up your infrastructure to run on a generator in the event of a power outage, which means productivity can continue no matter what the outside conditions are.

Your network cabling installer can help you achieve the perfect network infrastructure and cabling scenario that not only meets your present needs, but “future-proofs” your organization.  This allows you to take advantage of money-saving new technologies now and in the future.  They can assess the current state of your infrastructure, make detailed recommendations as to what needs to be done, then help you make the decision as to the best course of action for your organization in terms of budget, needs and future scalability.   Why not call one today and get started on your future IT plan?  There is no better time than now.

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Today’s business climate is motivating most business owners and managers to find new and innovative ways to cut costs – hence VoIP or voice-over-IP is becoming very popular.  But this leads to Capex spending; and budgets are just not there unless the ROI happens in short order.

Enter SIP trunking, which is a highly popular way of getting the benefits of lowered phone bills with minimum Capex.  SIP trunks allow voice and data to be carried over the same internal network, while allowing integration into the company’s existing phone system.  A company can purchase more sophisticated SIP or IP phones, but won’t have to upgrade immediately in order to get the cost benefits provided by SIP trunking.  With SIP trunking, the call is handled as little as possible by traditional telephone wires with their associated high costs.

SIP or “session-initiation-protocol” is a protocol which specifies signaling standards for IP telephony – it is very similar to web languages so also allows greater integration of telephony with web services such as click-to-talk. It is now the preferred protocol for IP telephony used.

A wide variety of SIP trunking providers have popped up to meet this growing demand – several of which are Broadvox, Bandwidth.com, and Etherspeak.  Charges for SIP trunking are often a fraction of the cost of a PSTN (public switched telephone network) carrier!

Central to the operation of a SIP trunked system is the IPPBX, or Internet Protocol PBX system.  Some IPPBXs such as the small business versions offered by Epygi have analog connections as well as digital connections – which means businesses can use their older analog phones and don’t have to buy all ATAs (analog telephone adapters that allow old phones to be used with IP telephony) or newer SIP phones.   This allows upgrades to happen more slowly, to keep finance people happy.

IPPBXs also offer rich feature sets such as music on hold, menu-driven call routing, call screening, auto-attendants, etc at a fraction of the cost of a traditional PBX system.  A small company that moves to a SIP trunking telephone architecture with an IPPBX not only will save money, but can achieve a big company presence with small company expenditures.

Service providers offer what is known as a “hosted” option also, which simply means the IPPBX is not located at the company premise, but in a data center or facility owned by the service provider.  This type of service provider usually contracts with a SIP trunking provider to provide the trunk, and charges the end customer for the actual IPPBX service.  One example of this type of provider is Silicon Valley based Ring Carrier.

Regardless of whether you opt for a hosted or premise based IPPBX system with SIP trunking – you WILL save money in the long run.  Typical payback periods are estimated at 6 months to 1 year.

But, the quality of your infrastructure and cabling will be critical if you opt to go with a SIP trunking solution.  It pays to call an expert structured wiring installer to come in and examine your structured cabling to see if it is up to the challenge.  If they find you need upgrades, they will provide a detailed estimate of the costs, and perform the work quickly and efficiently once you accept their proposal. They know that time is money!

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If your building infrastructure was put together during the 90s or later, chances are that you have some form of Cat 5 UTP cabling installed. Cat 5 UTP cable was designed to support the demands of an ATM, CDDI, or Fast Ethernet (100 Base TX) data networking system and represented a significant upgrade over the Cat 3 cable found in buildings designed for 10 Base TX systems installed in the 80s.

Cat 5e cabling was introduced a bit later and is fundamentally the same as Cat 5, but has a few additional items specified.   A chart showing the differences between all three common types of copper cabling is shown below:

CAT5, CAT5e, and CAT6 UTP Solid Cable Specifications Comparison

Chart from http://discountcablesusa.com/ethernet-cables100.html

Delay skew is a measure of the difference between the signal delay along the fastest pair of conductors and along the slowest pair of conductors, and is a measure of the uniformity of signal transmission along the cable.  Cat 5e cable and Cat 6 cable have the same specification, which is a max of 45 nS.

NEXT and PS-NEXT are specifications for cross talk, and near end cross talk, respectively.   Cat 6 cable has more stringent specifications for these parameters, and also is rated to support bandwidths of up to 250 MHz.   Cross talk, which is the bleeding of signals from one pair to another through induction, is highly undesirable and cause slower signal speeds as well as signal degradation.

When choosing which type cable to use for your implementation, it is important to note that cat 5e is probably fine for most small businesses running Fast Ethernet. Much of the cat 5 cable available today is also really cat 5e cable that simply hasn’t been tested to the new rigorous specifications.  Cat 6 is a good choice for 1) mission critical areas such as a data center, or key on-site servers, 2) networks you want to upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet, or 3) networks you want to “future-proof” so that new standards and speeds can be easily accommodated.

A new category of cabling, Cat 6a, is being introduced to support 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks as well. It will operate up to frequencies of 500 MHz.  Some Cat 6 cable can also support 10 Gigabit networks if properly installed, but only over shorter structured cable lengths due to losses.

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Quality of service, also known as QoS is a way that networking equipment companies and service providers can help voice and video packet traffic have priority over less critical data traffic.  It is important to have some kind of QoS system running in your network if you have a VoIP (voice-over-IP) system or telepresence system installed.

The simplest method for QoS is 802.11 p and q TOS (type of service) bit prioritization, where bits are toggled in the actual voice packet itself to show priority level. These bits let these IP packets be prioritized over the non-essential stuff, so that your voice calls are not choppy and disjointed because of late packet arrival or packets not showing up at all.

Without QoS in place, if someone downloads a huge file in your company, a voice call that is happening on the same network may fade in and out, get very choppy, or drop altogether.  And if you have an admin in the corner playing video games or watching Hulu on his or her lunch hour, the entire phone network could be slow and unresponsive.

Quality of Service can be put to use inside a company’s structured cabling network, for specific routers and switches, or just to control specific applications.  If you want QoS to improve the voice quality for a VoIP network, it is very important to make sure that you have “end-to-end” QoS.  This means that the same QoS prioritization scheme should be used from where the call originates to where the call terminates, which means any service provider’s networks that routers hop to along the call path should feature QoS as well.

Most service providers who offer Internet services that are specified for voice do offer QoS, but it is best to check to be sure.  The part that you usually can’t control is outside callers and callees – some of them may be on VoIP and some on the PSTN (public switched telephone network).  It makes sense to read carefully any SLA  (service level agreement) your provider sends you BEFORE signing up for their service, to make sure the Internet quality you are going to get is specified as being suitable for voice services.

Some networking companies broaden the definition of QoS; expanding it to mean anything and everything that contributes to better network operation, such as having in place a sophisticated network management system.  Certainly such a system is a plus for any company network, and will help you uncover potential bottlenecks and issues before they create any mission critical problems for your business.

At the most basic level, most routers you can purchase for small businesses allow you to set QoS priorities based on types of traffic – voice, video or data.  You can prioritize by IP tags, or by MAC (media access controller) so that some phones or computers in your network can have priority over others.  This can come in handy if you want to make sure that the CEO’s phone is always clear!

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Packet loss happens when packets traveling across a data network fail to reach their destination.  In the simple transfer of files or emails, dropping a few packets doesn’t really affect things much.  But if you have a voice-over-IP phone system, a telepresence video system or are running video intensive games or simulations over the web – a few dropped packets can be a major issue.

What are the causes of packet loss?  Packet loss happens when routers or switches are congested, when links are faulty, or when ISPs have oversubscription in their service to you.

Fixing packet loss issues means calling out a good technician to put a “sniffer” on your network to determine where the problem is occurring. If it is in your network, you may need to upgrade your switches or routers to be sure they can handle the load you are asking them to carry. Many older networks were never upgraded when employees and new networked printers, servers, etc were added. This creates problems just waiting to happen, which is why a solid network design for scalability makes sense from the onset!

Your network cabling installers can help you determine what upgrades are needed to your network and infrastructure, and then provide you with a time and cost estimate for implementation.  Sometimes, network cabling must also be upgraded so that you have the most optimal connections between your network nodes.  Older Cat 3 cabling was not designed for the demands of a Fast Ethernet network, nor was it designed to handle sensitive VoIP or voice-over-IP call packets.

Misconfigured IPPBXs or Call Managers can also create voice quality issues that have symptoms similar to packet loss conditions.  It is best to do a packet capture using Wireshark to take a look at the actual command signals to make this determination.  If anything is misconfigured and causing some signaling problems, your network cabling installer can help by reconfiguring the offending equipment.

If the problem is determined to be with your ISP, sending them sniffer data and packet loss data along with a copy of the SLA (service level agreement) they committed to when signing you up may help motivate them to improve their service. If you are trying to run sensitive telepresence or VoIP equipment on less than a business grade DSL Internet connection, your provider will recommend a service upgrade.

A T1 is a great choice, but can be pricey.  If you are in a remote area where business grade DSL is not available due to distance from the central office, a WiMax link may be a wonderful choice and WiMax service is expanding rapidly in availability.

Cable service has really improved over the last several years as well, and in some areas, 12MB of bandwidth is available as a standard business class service.

Packet loss doesn’t have to be an ongoing problem; and it makes sense to address any issues you have immediately before they impact your business communications further.  Packet loss symptoms include choppy VoIP connections, choppy video connections, and streaming media that is no longer smooth.

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