Byte-Size Beginner

  In theory setting up a network seems pretty easy…and straight forward. Well, it can be if you know what you’re doing. I personally do not, and finding out how much planning it actually takes to install a business network is astonishing. Drastically different than setting up a home network. Which does make sense since it requires extensive installation. Getting the floor plans of the building you will be working in, making a plan as to where the cables will be, where they are dropping down from, and the path the cables will take from the server room to each office, what types of cabling will be used etc. Whether you want the cabling to run inside the wall, or outside…with the most important part of where the server room will be located at in the building. I was surprised to realize how much time it takes from beginning to end, and it's so much more then "just running" cables. Could you imagine how chaotic it would be to do all of this with out a plan?  The complexity a...

  Back in the day, data transfer wasn’t as easy as it is now… we now have various ways we can send data from one computer to another without the need to have a computer directly connected together: whether it be Bluetooth, cloud services, email, or sharing files locally over a network. Unfortunately, it never used to be this easy, at one point if you wanted to share data or transfer it from one computer to another you had to physically transfer the data. Meaning you would need to put the file on a storage device and then use that same storage device on the computer you wanted to add the file to. Eventually it upgraded to file or data transfers from one device to another by use of an ethernet cable What intrigues me the most regarding ethernet file transfer is how the data moves… I have always been curious… does it just slide from one end to another, or maybe it’s portrayed like you see in the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet. Unfortunately… it’s not that cool! It’s actually sen...

  Who knew that there are cables that are fire rated?! While there is a plethora of different types of cables… there are cables that are designed and or rated for different types of environments. This is designed to reduce the risks of producing toxic fumes/smoke. These cables are plenum-rated cable and PVC-rated cables, the primary difference is that plenum cables produce fewer toxic fumes and less smoke compared to a PVC cable. When installing new cables, it is important to decide which cable is better rated for your project and location. For instance, when installing a cable in a drop ceiling, using a plenum cable is your better choice as it has a protective coating that has the ability to withstand a higher temperature. This means that in the event of a fire there will be considerably fewer toxic fumes vs a PVC rated cable. On the other hand, if you need to install a general-purpose cable that is not going through an area that has active air flow (near or around HVAC) you can...