Yes, and I've replaced a handful (5-10) of these unreliable RJ45 terminations with jacks in the past couple of years. For a sense of scale, we have 275 APs and only about 20% of those have the service cable terminated with a plug instead of a jack.
Thomas Carter Network and Operations Manager Austin College 903-813-2564 [AusColl_Logo_Email] From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chuck Enfield Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 12:28 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Copper Cable Field Terminations for Access Points Traditionally, plug terminations on solid conductor cables have been considered unreliable, but recently there have been some new products introduced to address that problem. While I can't speak to longevity, one design that caught my attentions was OCC's<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.occfiber.com%2Fmain%2Fdownload.php%3Fd%3D232&ei=udlUVcLtGKGSsQThjoHACw&usg=AFQjCNE6lbaeho8I_31bKjk52zkyQjhRvA&sig2=elTAAn1hMUOt-XwNkPyyWQ&bvm=bv.93112503,d.cWc&cad=rja>. It's a little larger than the traditional plug, which could be an issue in tight spaces, but it looks promising. From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark H. Wehrle Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 1:06 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Copper Cable Field Terminations for Access Points Good afternoon all, We are faced with some challenges in upgrading our access points in our residence halls this summer. Our existing installation has access points wall mounted and we terminate Cat5E cable on a Cat5E type biscuit jack on the wall near where the access point is mounted. From there we place a short cable from the jack to the access point. In current state, this makes for easier troubleshooting to decipher cable versus AP problems, however it's understood that there could be other problems associated with multiple termination points etc. In our current project, we are looking install access points with internal antennas and we are looking to move these to ceiling mounts in most/all of these rooms where we can. We made this choice because we've found that some students will vary the positions of antennas, which have impacted RF coverage and we have added more access points in some areas to compensate (we cannot easily get into student rooms to inspect access points). The question I was asked before we move these jacks is whether we should save costs and time by just making a field termination of the Cat5E cable with an RJ45 connector crimped right on the cable then plug this cable directly into the access point and avoid the biscuit jack and short station cable. I'm wondering if anyone is doing this, was doing this and stopped, plans to do this etc? Does this present any problems like bad mechanical connection problems etc? Thanks for your feedback. --Mark Wehrle Phone: (215) 898-9664 Technical Director, ISC Network & Telecom Operations Fax: (215) 898-9348 University of Pennsylvania 3401 Walnut Suite 221a Email:weh...@isc.upenn.edu<mailto:weh...@isc.upenn.edu> Phila. PA 19104-6228 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
