of couse i have no clue as to what i am doing, but i will just give this a whirl.

i have no idea what to say so if you all out there want to know something about just ask.

or Buy Cheap, Buy Thrice

In the summer of 2007 I ran my first coaxial cable run that was actually successful, and since I had no immediate plans for putting a television in that room, and was blowing lots of money on Cat5e, connectors and drywall repair I tried doing it without spending all that much money. That was a big mistake. This blog entry tells you about the tools that I've decided to use and why.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Home Depot is pretty much my exclusive supplier for cabling and related accessories. The prices seem reasonable compared to online, and I can go get the stuff the same day. I started out with the crimper from GE that was about $5, and the corresponding crimp-on connectors. I flat out couldn’t make those work, they could just not be properly jammed onto the cable that I was trying to jam them onto. I also couldn’t manage to properly adjust the cheap coaxial stripper, so I ended up turning to my commercial electric wire stripper; which is a little tool with big bang for the buck. I would include a picture, but these were useless enough that they went into the garbage can.

I had some success with the Ideal screw-on connectors, certainly more than with the GE crimp on connectors, but still wasn’t really happy and given even a little tug they would come off too easily. I then upgraded to the Ideal crimp on connectors, with this Ideal ratcheting crimp tool.




This tool is a quality tool, and combined with the ideal connectors I was able to get reasonable results, but still managed to mess up a few of the connectors. I’ve recently started replacing the 20 year old RG59 coaxial cable in my house with newer RG-6Q, and have settled on what for now is my final answer for terminating coaxial cable. The Ideal Omniseal compression tool and connectors:



The concept of this tool is a bit different than the crimp on connectors, in which the tool basically crushes the outside of the connector onto the cable. The compression connectors, are slipped onto the cable and then inserted into the tool. When you close the handle, a plunger compresses the connector, causing the plastic sleeve and the metal outside to come together.

Before:


After:


The action of the tool is that you have the jaws open like so:


And you squeeze them close, as you squeez, the top of the connector is pushed down onto the bottom, as seen from underneath the tool:


The compression connectors and tool are more expensive ($1.25 each), but I have only messed up one, because I did not push it on far enough. They result has also given me better video quality, so I can’t complain. Unfortunately, none of these tools (cheap or expensive) have really good directions, so I had to guess and practice a little bit to be able to use them effectively.

Finally, the Ideal coaxial cable stripper is worth the $15. I was able to get it cutting my RG-6Q cable with only about 5 minutes worth of fiddling and adjustment. There is a nice convenient selector for different cable sizes, and most importantly I could get the thing properly adjusted pretty easily.



How it works is there are three stepped knives with set screws that let you adjust the depth. One of them cuts the jacket, the next cuts the jacket, shield, and dielectric. Then you push back the shield over the cable like this:


It is important that you have no contact between the sheilding and the center conductor. I've found that after you start off folding back the shielding that by pushing on a compression connector you can get most of the rest down (you can push it on, take it off, double check everything, and then push it back on).

I think the moral of the story here is really that you shouldn’t screw around with cheap coaxial cable termination tools. Just go and buy the best one you can get, it will pay for itself. I’ve managed to spend $10 on a crappy crimp tool and connectors, $5 on screw on connectors, $55 on a good crimp tool and connectors, and now $60 on a good compression tool (and another $5 for an equivalent amount of connectors). Instead of going through a $135 progression, I should have just went for the $65 tool and connectors to begin with even though I didn’t plan on terminating that much coax. The $15 on a crappy tool might not have been a bad decision, but the $50 on a good crimp tool probably was. I should have gone straight for the compression connectors; and hopefully me telling you how I wasted a bunch of time and money will prevent you from doing the same.

What if I’m wrong—about Jesus, the Christian faith, God. What if I’m wrong and the atheists are right. What if Jesus is just a fabrication?

Ah, the curse of thoughtfulness…people who aren’t thoughtful don’t struggle with the curiosities of reality. They don’t struggle with the various conundrums of making sense with the world. If you are a sheep, or self satisfied, or just apathetic, it’s all no big deal.

There is a lot of ‘splainin’ to be done out there. And being a Christian doesn’t insulate you from doubts. Everyone has doubts (if you are a thoughtful type person, a thinker).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not teetering on the edge and could go either way. I think I have overwhelming evidence that my convictions are well placed. That my trust has been well spent. But could I be wrong? Absolutely! Everyone can’t be right and I see and hear people all the time with really goofy ideas that have 100% psychological certainty that they are right. I know the power of the mind to trick us and lead us off into very strange enterprises. Psychological certainty is not an indicator of truth.

So, when I read a seemingly persuasive argument from a skeptic or hear something that gives me cause for doubt, I go back to the evidence itself to see what am I missing.

And you know, of course, it’s not just Christians who have doubts. Any thoughtful person is in the same boat. Every single world view has its difficulties and conundrums, its unexplainable features which have to be dealt with. I think the Christian world view has less of these than most.



For some reason, a big stumbling block to many who are or would be Christians is the problem of evil. But do you think the problem of evil is only a Christian problem? Atheist still have to deal with the problem of evil, and also with the problem of good for that matter. Because they have no grounding to deal with either of those things. No God, no transcendence, no grounds for morality, no morality, just stuff. Is that more satisfying?

Bertrand Russell said, and I’m paraphrasing, “How can you talk about God when you are kneeling at the bed of a dying child?”
That sort of thing stymies Christians many times. But philosopher William Lane Craig said, “What is Bertrand Russell going to say when he is kneeling at the bed of a dying child, ‘tough luck, that’s the way it goes!’?” That’s all that’s left for him.

So going from Christianity to Atheism because of doubts about the problem of evil solves nothing. I personally think it compounds the problems.

Reality is messy and though, as a thinking, left-brain type person I would like it all tied up in a neat little package with no loose ends and everything explained, it is not to be so.

More later…..
Thanks to Greg Koukl at Stand to Reason for content.

or Even 54Mbps Wireless g is Slow

If you really need to have reliable fast internet access, then wired is the way to go. Wireless just has too many problems depending on how you move, compared to its tethered cousin. For both my wife and I this is very important, as we often work from home (doing computer programming and other similar activities). Therefore, I currently have about ¼ mile of Cat5e in my walls to provide Internet to almost every room of the house (none in the bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room, or one of the bedrooms – that last one will be corrected soon). Cat5 can also be used for up to four telephone lines, which should be plenty for most of us. I like being able to use a cable as a telephone or Ethernet interchangeably, so I didn’t bother running Cat3 or any other type of cables.

Cat5e even has uses beyond basic telephone and Ethernet. Leviton makes some video and audio connectors designed to run over Cat5e that integrate into the QuickPort system. I’ve installed some of the S-Video connectors, but haven’t actually tried them out. The S-Video connector uses two pairs, and the RCA connector can use either two pairs or all four pairs (for a longer distance signal).

The way I have chosen to setup my wiring is using Leviton QuickPort wall plates, which provide nice flush mounted RJ45 female jacks that you can plug a patch cable into.

I do this both on the room side and also at a “patch panel” in my basement. In other tutorials you may here this referred to as a “central wiring panel” or another name. Basically, it is the nerve center of the whole operation. Some people (e.g., my parent’s house) just have a cable sticking up out of the floor with a male RJ45 connector that can be directly plugged into the computer. Still others will do flush mount on the room side, and male RJ45s on the central wiring panel (if you do it this way, you can’t really refer to it as a patch panel).

I don’t like terminating male RJ45 connectors, I’ve done it in the past when we did my parent’s house and a bit at an old job. There are a bunch of things that can go wrong with the male termination and it is just a pickier kind of job. You need to untwist all of the wires on each end, put them in the right order, have them lined up nicely, trim them to just the right length (too short you won’t reach the contacts; too long you won’t correct crimp the jacket into the connector for strain relief), fit the connector on, and finally crimp it. I’ve found that when I am doing it fresh, I have a pretty low success rate (about 75%). When I have been doing multiple terminations in a short period of time, my success rate gets higher, but still there are enough failures that I find it frustrating. I haven’t actually done this in about seven years, except for taking pictures for this tutorial [and as a side note, the cable worked perfectly on the first try, maybe I am just getting less impatient and more careful in my old age!]. The RJ45 male connectors are definitely cheaper though ($0.40 for a male vs. $2.75 for a female), even if you are like me and don’t always get it right. You will need to buy a crimp tool, like the Ideal telemaster. You can get a kit that includes the tool, a few connectors, and also a UTP stripper.



There is also a ratcheting version of the crimp tool which makes it easier to get a good crimp.



Instead, I prefer to do all my wiring with female connectors, and then use manufactured patch cables to connect them. If you buy patch cables from a computer-type store, you’ll get totally hosed on the price. If you buy them from the Home Depot, CDW, or other online retailers you can get them for a few bucks a piece, and they are worth it. I have had a success rate on the female connectors in the 98% range, I can’t remember the last time that I messed one up. If you only terminate female connectors, you can get away without buying any specialized tools. If you’re like me, and are somewhat of a tool collector you can get a UTP stripper and a 110 impact tool.

No matter what kind of termination you are doing, the first thing you need to do is to strip the jacket from the cable. The two tools that I have used are a basic wire stripper or an Ideal UTP stripper. I’ve been able to get the same result with either, the UTP stripper is slightly easier in that you don’t need to worry about nicking the wires once it is dialed in. The basic wire stripper is a very inexpensive tool that has a whole bunch of uses, if you don’t have either tool I would get this one. I lightly grasp the cable in the jaws, and spin it around once to score the jacket and then pull it apart.



If you are a tool collector, or doing a lot of wiring you can get one of these UTP strippers. I actually cut the jacket with this one and don’t have to worry about nicking wires. I wouldn’t rush out to spend $17 on one if you are not going to be doing a lot of terminations. The regular stripper can be a bit more convenient because you can cut the Cat5 to length, strip the jacket, and cut the string all with one tool.


You should strip about 1-2” off of the jacket for either a male or female termination. Next separate the pairs and untwist them. For a male termination, you need to put them in order. You can use either the A color code or the B color code, which one you pick doesn’t matter. I use the B color code, which is:

1
White with Orange
2
Orange
3
White with Green
4
Blue
5
White with Blue
6
Green
7
White with Brown
8
Brown


I use B, because that is the order I was taught to memorize; and for Leviton quickport the B colors are closer to the wires, so it is easier to not mess up if you use those colors. If you need to make a cross-over cable, just switch the green and orange pairs. For the even rarer rollover cable, just do it backwards. If you use a Gigabit switch, you’ll never need to make a crossover cable because the switch detects it automatically. The only place I’ve seen a rollover cable used is for configuring Cisco switches by a serial port.

You should then try to straighten the connectors out as much as possible. I roll the wires over my finger to eliminate any twists. You might notice that the green and white with blue wires are inverted. I didn't notice that while taking the picture, but fortunately did before actually completing the connection. This is one of the reasons that male connectors are more difficult than female connectors.

Next cut the wires so that only about ½” is left


Push the wires into the connector, make sure all of them go to the end, the jacket is seated within the connector, and that your wires are still in the right order. The blue wire and white with green wire are the ones that I find switch themselves (because they are not in the original twist). After you check out the wire location and order, crimp.



After you do both sides, you can test it out by plugging in your computer. You can also buy a tester, but they are expensive and sometimes don’t catch cables that aren’t quite right (neither does your computer, but if your system works it is a pretty good test). You should see something like this:


You should read the next post for how to terminate the female connectors.

The female connectors use a 110 style “punchdown” that sandwiches the conductors in the Cat5 cable between two “teeth” that bite into the wire and make contact between the connector and the cable. To terminate the connector, you just need to lay the wires between the appropriate slots and push them down using a tool.

With the Leviton quickport jacks a cheesy piece of gray plastic is included. This is a cheap solution, but it works and I’ve terminated most of the jacks in my house using the free ones that come with the 10 packs of QuickPort cat 5 connectors.


After pushing down all of the wires, you will need to take a wire cutter and trim off the excess.

If you are going to be doing a lot of these, it is easier to get an impact tool. If you want to know how an impact tool works, the best place to look is probably Patent 3708852 “Termination Tool”: . As you push down the tool you compress a hammer spring, at some point a cam or other mechanism inside the tool is rotated enough and the hammer spring is released, causing the hammer to strike the blade with sufficient force to terminate the connection and cut the wire. This ensures consistent pressure is applied to the wires, and reduces the amount of manual pressure required. There are cheap versions of this without the spring or cutting action, which might be worth it just to have a nicer handle than the gray plastic thing.

The blade is reversible, one side has a cutting action the other side just has a seating action.


Normally you’ll want to use the cutting action. This tool is color coded, and the red side should be out so that you cut the correct side of the connector. If you flip the blade over, you can set it so that the wire is punched in, but is not cut.



This tool leaves a very neat connector in its wake:



Finally, you need to attach a dust jacket and rock the connector into place on the back of the wall plate:


You may notice that the top one on this picture is almond. Be careful when buying ten packs to get the color you want. Finally you screw in the wall plate, and you get something nice looking like this. As you can see the cat5 connector is suitable for both Ethernet (for the Internet) and also regular telephone wires. If you use male connectors on one end, you need adapters to convert the RJ45 plug into a regular RJ11 telephone wire. With the female connectors on both ends, you can just plug the RJ11into the RJ45 slot.