A new buzz word heard more and more in IT communities is SaaS – which stands for “Software as a Service”.   What is SaaS?  The best known application which fits a SaaS model is Salesforce.com, which provides extensive contract and account tracking for sales professionals using a web based approach, with all the data stored by Salesforce.com.   Each company using this application pays a subscription fee per user, and can access the data from anywhere and at any time, as long as an Internet connection is present.

Software-as-a-service takes the onus for upgrades, data and server maintenance, installation etc off of the end customer and makes it part of the value the company receives from the software vendor.

The data generated by the end users is said to live “in the cloud”, which refers to a data center or hosting facility managed by the SaaS vendor.  This means it is consolidated and all accessible from one place, instead of being resident in partial form in multiple PC hard drives across the network.

Given the success of Salesforce.com, many other SaaS model companies are popping up with great value propositions and solid offerings. Some of these are security-as-a service offerings which provide added protection for enterprises that don’t want to maintain these applications on site.   Still others, such as startup HealthHiway which focuses on hospital patient data and billing are adding value by managing business critical, data intensive functions that used to be managed via on premise server banks and resident applications.

What does this mean for your network?  First of all, a fast WAN connection so that data can be retrieved quickly is going to become essential in the coming years.  This means your “pipe” leading into each enterprise building must be capable of handling lots of data (cat 5e or better is recommended), and your relationship with your service provider will be mission critical.   Be sure to choose a package and provider who can handle ever growing traffic needs.

Last but not least, this means that your need for new servers and personnel to maintain those servers will be reduced by the extent you choose to embrace the new SaaS models for your business.   This will allow you to focus on the business, and less on maintenance intensive activities.

If your infrastructure is not up to the SaaS challenge, now is the time to call professional structured cabling installers to make sure you can take advantage of this exciting, new trend.

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VoIP or Voice-over-IP has replaced telephone “land-lines” in many businesses today due to ease of use, added features, and lowered costs.  Yet many things can cause call quality to degrade that are not well understood.

First of all, VoIP requires a good quality Internet connection – an asymmetric DSL connection to a small business, which is common, is usually not enough to run multiple phone lines without having some quality issues in the slower direction.   A T1 line, symmetrical business quality DSL, or higher speed cable modem is best for overall voice quality.

Secondly, VoIP connections can suffer call quality issues if there is no QoS or “Quality of Service” priority scheme built into the networking equipment used.  If voice is not prioritized over data, someone downloading a huge file in the next room or playing YouTube videos can cause a call to become very degraded or even dropped.

When choosing an Internet service provider, be sure to tell them that you plan to operate VoIP so that they give you a service that is designed for voice – otherwise, you may have issues such as packet loss that can also create gaps in the speech that you hear.

Choosing good VoIP phones is also critical to good quality and service, as well-designed phones have many features designed to make the overall VoIP experience as close to land line quality as possible. A good phone will have a good quality echo cancellation algorithm built into the chipset used, and will have a well designed headset with additional noise reduction features.  Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, and Shoretel all have superior products used by many businesses today.  Analog telephone adapter technology has also come a long way in the past several years – which means you can have a VoIP system using your old phones by simply buying boxes from Dlink, Linksys/Cisco or any number of other vendors and simply plugging them in.

A solid infrastructure built using at least cat5 Ethernet cabling is also a prerequisite for any business-class VoIP deployment.   If your infrastructure is not solid, or cabling is not run properly, high levels of interference or packet loss can cause your calls to be spotty or even inaudible.

The right structured cabling installers will be more than happy to do a detailed analysis of your network infrastructure and make cost effective yet useful recommendations for enhancements that will help keep your new VoIP system running efficiently.  Why not call them today?

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As Dick Tracy comic books and episodes of George Jetson foreshadowed, video IP phones are now a reality and are available in bulk from a reseller near you. But do you really need this exciting new gadget?

For the average rank and file worker, at this time, the answer is no.   These phones run upwards of $300 per handset, so at this time are mostly used by upper management.

But, if you are a manager who does a great deal of video conferencing but don’t yet have the Capex to put into a nice telepresence setup, a video phone might be just the ticket.   You will be able to get “face-time” with customers, employees and suppliers without leaving your office (or home, depending on where the equipment is installed), and you will be able to “look ‘em in the eye” and assess what is really going on if the business or sales situation requires it.

This can cut required travel costs and enhance how business is conducted dramatically.  It can even help position your business as a “green” business as it will cut carbon footprints.  Plus, many video phones have built in web browsers so they can act as multifunction devices.  They can be used to playback videos, view photos of system’s that need troubleshooting (which means they may be a great investment for field service or applications engineering teams), quickly check social networks for updates, and a wide variety of new applications that just require some simple API development.

While not suitable for every employee, a video phone may be perfect for the receptionist’s desk as he or she can then send a picture of the visitor to the employee whose time is being requested – a face may ring a bell and help make a quick decision to meet or not to meet with the guest.

Marketing communications or PR employees may also benefit from such a phone, as face time is critical when interfacing with magazine editors, analysts, and high profile industry experts as well.

But for most SMBs (small, medium businesses), this gadget is simply a high priced toy – whose value is yet to be proven.    Once the market matures, pricing is sure to fall to reasonable levels and video IP phones will become as affordable as simple IP phones are today.

Video IP phones require 100KB or more of bandwidth per second – so a solid IP infrastructure is a must even if you plan to deploy only one or two such devices.  Professional structured cabling installers can help make sure that the pipeline you have going to your video phones is strong, solid, and built on an infrastructure that will provide smooth, non-choppy video signals.  Call professional installers today, and they should be able to perform a comprehensive network assessment to make sure your existing cabling, routers, switches, and other equipment can handle the addition of video phones.

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In the dark ages, the Internet was nothing more than a toy or a hobby for those who liked to live on the “cutting-edge” of technology.  Slowly, it morphed into an individual tool for employees to use when doing extensive research on a particular topic, then it became a tool for those looking for art or photographs.  The first wave of Internet business tools provided new ways for companies to promote, position, and advertise their goods and services.

Innovations followed swiftly – and the Internet morphed from a one-to-one tool to a one-to-many tool, and ultimately to a many-to-many tool with the advent of social networks such as Linked-in and Facebook.

What’s next?  The latest buzz is all about the upcoming Internet migration from being a tool that is used mostly by people, to one that extends its reach to objects.   Can’t visualize your company’s inventory interacting with the Internet?  Read on…

RFID tagging – where small radio frequency transmitters are placed on containers of materials, piece parts, etc will drive one of the first waves of “things” interacting with the Internet.   Small radio waves will be sent from every container, box, or even individual component that will correlate with serial numbers, date codes, or any other piece of data you want to track.  Boxes in a storage facility can be tracked to exact location with the combination of RFID tracking and GPS technology.  Delivery vehicles can be tracked, and all individual shipping containers per delivery vehicle can also be tracked.   And this technology extends far beyond simple package and inventory tracking!  It can be used to track retail products purchased by individuals (imagine how useful it would be to have your cereal box announce that it is no longer fresh once past its use date), auto parts installed in your car, medical equipment used, and even articles of clothing.

Another wave of this movement will happen as the “Smart Grid” replaces the antiquated world power delivery systems.   This will use the Internet as a communications platform between your home and power distribution stations – saving you money, saving power, and allowing selective shut down of some less critical appliances and outlets in the advent of a brown-out or overload.  No more blown transformers or complete black-outs!

Home Appliances can become “smart” as things increasingly begin to interact with the Internet.   Your refrigerator can IM you to let you know you are about to run out of eggs, or that the milk has gone bad (based on days of storage).   You can tap a few keys on your computer before leaving work, and come home to a warm hot tub and soft music to unwind from your day.

Your business – small or large – as well as your home needs to be equipped to take advantage of these new trends.  This means having a solid networking backbone based on either a cat 5e or cat6 cable scheme, and a well-designed data storage and delivery system.   It also may mean consulting with professionals, like structured cabling installers, in order to plan for both current, and future needs for your “smart” home and business.

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Here we offer you a quick explanation of cable conversion basics so that you learn a bit more about everything that goes on with a structured cabling job:

-Combining Composite/S-Video to Coaxial cable using and RF modulator
This modulator is capable of converting Composite or S-Video inputs into Coaxial output.  The majority of RF modulators only output the video through channels 3 or 4, but there are some that allow you to pick a channel up to 125.

Composite and S-Video are limited as to how long the cables can be, but Coaxial cable is not, and it is a lot cheaper.  If your TV just has one Coaxial input that is already being used, you can use an A/B switch to change between two different Coaxial wires.

-Splitting Composite signals
To split Coaxial wire is as easy as using a Y RCA splitter.  To split an audio/video signal, you require three splitters: one for video- yellow-, one for the right audio- red-, and one for the left audio- white.

You lose some signal when you split Composite wire or when you run them a long distance.

-Splitting Coaxial signals for Cable/Antenna
This is also simple to do.  You can get splitters that split in two, four, or more lines.  The use of a splitter will break down the strength of the signal, so you may need a cable booster or amplifier.

-Splitting Coaxial signals for Satellite
This is a lot more complicated.  You need a multiplexer to split a satellite signal.

One satellite dish can produce two, three, four, or even more coaxial outputs, each one with a different signal.  You can even have several satellite dishes to get all the channels you want.

It will not work to simply split one of these wires for two different TVs.  A multiplexer takes all the satellite wires and produces additional outputs.  Its capacities are written as 2×4, meaning it converts two wires into 4, or 5×8, meaning it converts five into eight.

You have to make sure the multiplexer works for your service, for example, DirecTV or DishNetwork, and know that some inputs could be dedicated to a local channel antenna or for international satellites that may not be of your liking.

-Combining Analog TV signals over Coaxial cable
Coaxial cables can be combined under special conditions, for example, if you have a Coax feed from an RF modulator with a signal only on channel 3, and you also have an antenna/cable feed and there is no station on channel 3, you can combine the two Coaxial feeds into one through a Coaxial splitter backwards.

-Converting DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort
This is easy to do and may be necessary if you are connecting a computer to a TV.  You can do it with a standalone adapter or a wire that converts the signal.

Know that their capabilities are not the same, so, you are ruled by the lowest denominator, for example, HDMI and DisplayPort carry digital audio, but DVI doesn’t, and DisplayPort offers higher resolution and refresh rate.

-Converting VGA to Component
If you own a computer with a VGA output, and you want to connect it to a TV that has a Component input, you can use a converter.

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The wiring panel is the central part of any structured wiring job.  The location of this panel is defined when you create a wiring plan, but it is normally placed in the basement, or else, in a closet or attic.

The great thing about a good structured wiring plan is that all the wires are streamed into one sole location, the wiring panel, making it a lot easier to change your setup or to diagnose and repair problems that arise.

Buying a wiring panel can make any wiring work look professional, however, it is expensive.  The shell of the panel may start as low as $50; nevertheless, you will most certainly start adding extra and expensive modules for phones, cable, and Internet distribution.

If the wiring panel will not be located at a visible spot, you’d better get a real wiring panel, which is not very attractive, but in this way you’ll save money and just have to worry about mounting everything on the wall.  The wires will be visible. Still, it offers more room and makes it easier to move cables around.

The non-electrical wires from the outside of the home must be run to the wiring panel.  Since most companies are now offering the three services together, that is, phone, TV, and Internet, having everything in the same place makes it easier to switch companies, if that is your wish.

The panel will distribute these three cables throughout the rest of the home, like this:

-Cable: TV, phone, or Internet

-Phone: Phone or Internet

-Satellite: TV or Internet

-Fiber: TV, phone or Internet

-Antenna: TV

For example, the cable company supplies a special cable modem for the Internet service.  They would like you to have a cable connection close to your computer, because then they can place the cable modem nearby, run the cable wire to the modem, and then the Internet Cat5 cable from the modem to your computer.  If you need two computers connected to the Internet, you would have to run a wire from the modem to the computer in another room.

When you have a structured wiring plan, the cable modem is located in the wiring panel in the basement.  The incoming cable is run to the cable modem, the Cat5 cable is run to an Internet switch that can then distribute the Internet throughout the home.

A basic wiring panel will have a Cable or DSL modem, an Internet switch, a Wi-Fi router, phone splitter, TV/satellite splitters, and an alarm panel.

Before wires are cut, do an estimated layout of where each switch, splitter, and panel will be.  You can start at the top, with the wires coming from the street, then the grounds, and end with the splitters at the bottom.

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There are many types of wires that can be installed inside a wall, for example, Internet, phone, and cable wires, as well as speaker and alarm wires, which depend on the application.  There are also different video formats that you may require if you are going to hang a flat panel TV on the wall, and for these, and many other necessities, here we give you a list of the different wires there are:

1.Coaxial cable
This one is used mainly for TV, satellite, and cable modems, and can also be used to move video between rooms, let’s say, to share a Tivo or cable/satellite box output on two TVs.  You can adapt 3 coaxial wires together to work as component or composite wires.  Not very often, it is also used for security cameras and digital audio.

There are 2 types of coaxial cable: RG-59 and RG-6.  This last one is the only one that you should be using, since everything is moving towards digital, and it is high quality.

2.Category 3 wire
This is used as phone wire.  Each pair of twisted wires handles one phone line.  The typical kind has two pairs of wire for two phone lines; however, the plugs can handle three pairs for three lines.  Phone wire can be black, red, green, and yellow, or orange stripe, blue, blue stripe, and orange.

3.Category 5, 5e, 6, and 7 wire
These are used for Internet connections and network cabling.  Your cable or DSL modem will output this network wire, where category 5 is the lowest quality and category 7 is the top.  All of them look the same, but the best ones have extra twists and better shielding that allow for the transmission of more data.  These can also be used for other data applications like remote volume control knobs, security cameras, and infrared distribution.

4.Alarm/Security wire
This one’s thicker than the Cat 3 cable and is used to wire security systems, that is, alarm panels, window/door sensors, motion detectors, and sirens.

5.Speaker wire
This is needed for in wall/in ceiling speakers.  It comes in 2 conductor (red and black for + and -) or 4 conductor (red, black, white, and green, for left+, left-, right+ and right-).

6.Optical wire
It is used for digital audio, however in the future it may be used for other applications like Internet and TV.

7.Composite cable
This is used for audio and video.  It is a very popular and inexpensive format although the video quality is the worst available and can’t handle HDTV signals.

8.S-Video
This popular video format is being replaced with DVI and HDMI.  It is actually two coaxial cables in one, with two signal cables (Y and C) and two grounds.

9.Component
This video format is better than S-Video even though it is less common and is also being replaced by DVI and HDMI.

10.VGA (Video Graphics Array)
This is the old computer monitor video format that can be found in old flat panel TVs.

11.DVI (Digital Visual Interface)
This is the video format used now in most flat panel computer monitors.  It comes in three formats: DVI-D (Digital), DVI-A (Analog), and DVI-I (Integrated).

12.HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)
This is the latest standard for high-end flat panel TVs.

13.UDI (Unified Display Interface)
This is trying to become the next video standard.  It offers higher resolutions than HDMI.

14.DisplayPort
It also offers higher resolutions than HDMI, but it is still being developed.

15.Infrared
You need it if you have your remote in one room and your stereo components in another.  The sensor must be where the remote is, and the main unit where the stereo components are.

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The ideal scenario is to wire a home while it is being built; however, there are ways to do it afterwards.  Here we will show you what you can ask for, so that you make an informed decision when installing structured cabling.

When you build a house, wiring it right can add thousands, and even tens of thousands, of dollars to its future value, but you have to consider its getting wired correctly can cost you just as much.  Most builders won’t let you do this kind of work yourself while the home is being built because of safety, insurance, and theft reasons, nevertheless, anything is possible.

In any case, whether you hire a structured cabling professional or you decide to do it yourself, a good wiring plan will have all the wires streamed to a central location, normally the basement.

If you don’t have a basement, you will need another central location to stream the wires to.  Your builder should give you some suggestions, but the most common places are the closet or utility room where the hot water heater and the electrical box are, or the attic.  All this must be specified in your wiring plan.

The majority of contractors will run the wires room to room, this means, for example, that if the builder is adding a phone line to the kitchen and main bedroom, he will run the wire from the basement, to the kitchen, to the bedroom, and this not the best.

The right way to do it is to stream a line from the basement to the kitchen, and a second one from the basement to the bedroom.  This method has two main advantages:

1.If there is a problem with the connection, you just have to look at the two ends.  There is no need to remember and check every spot that the wire goes through.

2.In the room-to-room way you are limited as to what you can do with the wires, because you can run phone lines in series, but not Internet network cables.  Most builders run Internet wires for the phone lines, and this is how it should be done, otherwise, only one room will be able to use the wire as a network cable.

Everything must be defined before the wiring begins.  You must know what wires will be streamed where, and you better run too much wire rather than too little, because an unused wire is inexpensive but trying to run a new wire after the walls are up can take a long time.

After the wiring plan is ready, you must establish how much wire you need and where you can get it.  Only then, you are ready to get started.

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Wireless networks are fashionable for small businesses, and it is no wonder.  Having a good wireless network allows employees to work anywhere in the building without being tethered to their offices.   Customers and visitors can work in conference rooms, after being given guest access to the network.  And costly wire drops become unnecessary.

However, there are key tradeoffs to be considered – and more and more companies are opting for both a wired and a wireless network so that the benefits of both can be combined.

Wireless networks are subject to “dead” spots within any building. Although this can be minimized by careful placement of access points and the use of analysis tools such as those available from Air Magnet, dead spots are unavoidable in most structures.  The fastest bandwidth available with any wireless networking protocol today is 55 Mbps, as opposed to 100 Mbps for fast Ethernet wired networks (with Gigabit Ethernet networks offering up to 1,000 Mbps speeds).  And they are notoriously easier to hack into, although newer security protocols such as WPA-2 are being used to address this concern.

Wired networks limit freedom, but are tougher to hack into and very reliable.  Many companies provide workers the choice between the two options – if they need to work in a conference room, a wireless network is available to enable this.  If they need speed and reliability, a cable drop is available to plug into their laptops or PCs.   Added security connections can be had by using wired fiber optic Ethernet drops instead of copper Ethernet drops.

VoIP is also deployed only with wired connections today – as call quality with VoIP over 802.11 is not yet considered solid.  Enterprise VoIP desktop phones from all major manufacturers require that a copper Cat5, Cat5E or Cat6 Ethernet cable be connected.  ATAs or “analog telephone adapters” also require a hard wired connection.

When considering what to deploy for your company, if you have the resources, both a wired and wireless network is optimum.  If you have a smaller company and only want one or the other, deploying VoIP or voice-over-IP is a great cost saving step and requires the installation of static wiring to work properly.  This means a structured cabling network is your best choice.  The monthly cost savings realized from eliminating long distance toll charges and high land line charges will more than pay for the added expense of installing copper cabling over a short amount of time.

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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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