If you’ve visited one of our service centres you will have
seen that we have wire mesh wall displays that are used to organise small
peripherals, accessories, and of course many, many cables. Over time the range
of cables that manufacturers produce, and the frequency with which we sell
individual cables will change, so for the last month or so we've been reviewing
the ranges of cables that we want to carry in our retail display area.
Unlike Currys or PC World, we are a real tech shop, and this
is reflected in the cables, accessories and peripherals that we stock, and over
the years we've built up a diverse collection of legacy connectors and cables
that we tuck away in the corner, but it's been the mainstream products that
have been causing us the most problems. Generally for cables our preferred
manufacturer is Belkin, but our experience with the business-to-business sales
team has been pretty poor, to the point that, rather than relying on the stock
codes they are giving me, I've been visiting competitors’ stores and quietly
photographing stock codes from the retail packaged items that they carry.
We’ve got to the point where we can offer a fantastic
selection of excellent quality cables, unless of course you want to plug
anything into your network, at which point things get a little more difficult.
If like most people you aren’t familiar with both purchasing
processes as well as network technologies I need to explain a few things:
firstly cables are sold in two ways; retail packaged (these are the ones that
come in boxes or blister packaging and hang on hooks) and OEM, which stands for
own equipment manufacturer, and this means they come in plastic bags, and are
intended for bulk use. Next we need determine what we mean by a patch cable;
these are network cables that are intended to be used over short distances,
often to connect routers, switches, or computers to the network. And finally we
get to the tricky bit; there are many specific variations of cable types, but
when it comes to patch cables they come as either STP or UTP, which stands for
shielded twisted pair and unshielded twisted pair.
What we want to stock are retail packaged UTP patch cables,
preferably in a range of lengths up to 15 meters, and we also like to use
snagless cables as these are easier to work with them ones with sheaths. The
problem is that the retail lines we used to order have been discontinued, and while
we can still buy these cables in OEM packaging, Belkin only stock STP cables in
retail packaging.
This clearly isn't an issue for all our competitors who are
quite happy to fill their shelves with these STP cables, however for us this is
a serious issue, because we know our networking technologies and simply put,
Belkin, probably the largest cable manufacturer there is, have got it wrong. If
you're going to put something in retail packaging then you can reasonably
assume that it's going to be bought by consumers, and if a consumer is using a
network cable it should definitely be a UTP cable. STP cables have their place,
and that place is in the hands of professional cable installers who know how to
manage the cable, and how to ensure that the shielding is optimised by way of earthed
terminals.
This next bit is going to get a little bit technical, so
I'll forgive you if you want to skip the next couple of paragraphs. Shielded
cables are used to protect data packets from interference, and this is achieved
by sheathing the cables in foil which is then protected by the (usually) PVC
outer layer. You can also identify them by the metal sleeve on the outside of
the RJ45 connector at each end. The shielding is important when you're running
bundles of cables together (as they can interfere with each other, which is called cross-talk), and also when
running cables in close proximity to power cables, but it also comes at a
price. Because the shielding material is thin the cable is quite delicate, and
something as simple as coiling it for packaging can cause the shielding to tear
(particularly for CAT6 cable). Any tears will severely compromise the shielding,
as will failing to terminate the shielding, preferably at both ends, using an
RJ45 socket design for that purpose.
Unshielded twisted pair takes a different approach, and uses
different twist patterns and pairing of the eight wires that make up the cable to
tune out cross-talk. Because it doesn't rely on metal sheathing it is far more
robust, and can turn in a much tighter radius than STP cable. As there was no
sheathing to earth it also doesn't require the earthing of RJ45 sockets. While
we wouldn't recommend it we know from our experience that UTP cable can survive
the chair test, which is where you run over it on your swivel chair (probably
several times a day), and I'm constantly surprised to find UTP cables that have
been shredded to the point of multicoloured spaghetti which still manage to
transmit data adequately.
So what on earth are Belkin doing selling STP cables to
consumers? The first thing your average home user is going to do is use them to
connect their computer to their router, and a quick check of the router plug
will show that the earth prong is made of plastic, so the cable clearly isn't
being earthed at that end. The next thing that's going to happen is they are
going to ride their swivel chair over that cable repeatedly, in between letting
the cat, dog, and a small child have a good chew of the cable (and probably in
that order). Once the foil shielding has been completely destroyed you’re left
with a compromised cable that's pretty much guaranteed to perform poorly.
All this could be solved by Belkin quite simply by using
UTP cables in their retail lines, and relegating STP cables to their OEM lines.
What beggars belief is that somebody in a senior enough position at Belkin was
able to make this mistake in the first place. It's a sad indication that the
company whose name is synonymous with cables no longer employs decision-makers who
actually understand how they work.
And spare a thought for us as well, because we would much
rather wallow in ignorance like our competitors than have to face the near-impossible
task of trying to get a large company like Belkin to change the way they are
doing things.
