COMPUTER SYSTEMS SERVICING 3

Network Tools, Materials and

Network Media
OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be
able to:

• Identify the different testing and network devices

• Classify different functions and its uses.
• Identify different Network Media or Transmission Media
 Qwerty was designed to
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originally made for.
 Network Tools, Materials and Testing Equipment

Network Tools
Hand tools are the essential allies of the networking
professionals. If you have a wide range of insulated
tools, you will be able to rest easy in the knowledge
that no jobs will be too difficult on the basis of
having low-quality hand tools. Here are a few of the
essential insulated hand tools you need in the
ultimate networking toolkit: Different networking
devices have different roles to play in a computer
network. These networks performing different
works. To work these devices, you may need tools to
complete the task in this computer networking set
up.
 Wire cutter
• Used in cutting wires of various sizes
 Cable Stripper
• Used to strip the end of the UTP cable where the
RJ-45 is to be attached.
 Keystone Wall plate/Modular Box
Cover
• It is used in a commercial and industry buildings to
cleanly attach network cables to a modular box. It
also called as face plate
 Network Keystone Module
• A network keystone module is a network
peripheral for mounting network jack/connector
into a keystone wall plate
 Modular Box
• Also known as, wall jack or plate, it is used to cover
a portion of a wall where there is an opening for
networking outlets. The cover is usually rectangular
in shape and allows the cables to come through the
wall while still covering the larger opening.
 RJ-45
• Short for Registered Jack-45, a RJ-45 is an 8-pin
connection used for ethernet network adapters.
This connector resembles the RJ-11 or 6-pin
connector used with telephones in the United
States, but they’re completely different. The picture
is of a RJ-45 connector separated from the cable.
 Patch Panel
• A panel that allows multiple devices to be
connected and managed in a more efficient
manner. Computer networks, sound studios,
television stations, and a number of other systems
use patch panels to deal with components of their
electronic systems.
 UTP Cable
• Short for unshielded twisted pair, a popular type of
cable that consists of two unshielded wires twisted
around each other. Due to its low cost, UTP cabling
is used extensively for local-area networks (LANs)
and telephone connections.
 LAN Tester
• LAN Cable Tester is a device that is used to test the
strength and connectivity of a particular type of
cable or other wired assemblies. A LAN Cable Tester
can test whether a cable or wire is set up properly,
connected correctly, and the communication
strength between the source and destination.
 Patch Down Tool
• A punch down tool, also called a krone tool, is a hand tool
used to connect telecommunications and network wires to
patch panel, punch down block, keystone module, or
surface mount box. The “Punch down’ part of the name
comes from punching a wire into place using an impact
action. It consists of a handle, a spring mechanism, and a
removable slotted blade. When the punch down tool
connects a wire, the blade cuts off the excess wire
 Crimping Tool
• A crimping tool is a device used to conjoin two pieces of
metal by deforming one or both of them in a way that
causes them to hold each other. The result of the tool’s
work is called a crimp. A good example of crimping is the
process of affixing a connector to the end of a cable. For
instance, network cables and phone cables are created
using a crimping tool (shown below) to join the RJ-45 and
RJ-11 connectors to the both ends of either phone or CAT5
cable.
 Rubber Boot
• Use for covering RJ45 at the end of UTP cable.
Open Bay rack / Server Cabinet
• The open bay design provides
easy access for installation and
maintenance. Incoming cables
are terminated on the back,
separating them from cross
connects installed on the front
 Network Media or Transmission
Media
Network Media – also known as “Transmission
Media”. It refers to the medium over which signals
can travel in a network.
Magnetic Media
• One of the most convenient way to transfer data from
one computer to another, even before the birth of
networking, was to save it on some storage media and
transfer physical from one station to another. Though it
may seem odd in today’s world of high speed Internet,
but when the size of data to transfer is huge, Magnetic
media comes into play.
 In these kinds of cases, data backup is stored onto magnetic
tapes or magnetic discs and then shifted physically at remote
places.

Twisted Pair Cable

A twisted pair cable is made of two plastic insulated

copper wires twisted together to form a single
media. Out of these two wires only one carries actual
signal and another is used for ground reference. The
twists between wires are helpful in reducing noise
(electro-magnetic interference) and crosstalk.
 There are two types of twisted pair
cables available:
• Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable
• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable

• STP cables comes with twisted wire pair covered in

metal foil. This makes it more indifferent to noise
and crosstalk.

• UTP has seven categories, each suitable for specific

use. In computer networks, Cat-5, Cat-5e and Cat-6
cables are mostly used. UTP cables are connected
by RJ45 connectors.
 Categories of Twisted-Pair
• There are two types of twisted-pair: UTP and STP. In
STP, a metallic shield around the wire pairs
minimizes the impact of outside interference. Most
implementations today use UTP.
• Twisted-pair is divided into categories that specify
the maximum data rate possible. In general, the
cable category term refers to ANSI/TIA/EIA 568-A:
Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling
Standards. The purpose of EIA/TIA 568-A was to
create a multiproduct, multivendor standard for
connectivity. Other standards bodies—including
the ISO/IEC, NEMA, and ICEA—are also working on
specifying Category 6 and above cable.
 The following are the cable types specified
in ANSI/TIA/EIA 568-A:
• Category 1—Cat 1 cable was originally designed for
voice telephony only, but thanks to some new
techniques, long-range Ethernet and DSL, operating
at 10Mbps and even faster, can be deployed over
Cat 1.
• Category 2—Cat 2 cable can accommodate up to
4Mbps and is associated with token-ring LANs.
• Category 3—Cat 3 cable operates over a bandwidth
of 16MHz on UTP and supports up to 10Mbps over
a range of 330 feet (100 m). Key LAN applications
include 10Mbps Ethernet and 4Mbps token-ring
LANs.
• Category 4—Cat 4 cable operates over a bandwidth of 20MHz
on UTP and can carry up to 16Mbps over a range of 330 feet
(100 m). The key LAN application is 16Mbps token ring.
• Category 5—Cat 5 cable operates over a bandwidth of
100MHz on UTP and can handle up to 100Mbps over a range
of 330 feet (100m). Cat 5 cable is typically used for Ethernet
networks running at 10Mbps or 100Mbps. Key LAN
applications include 100BASE-TX, ATM, CDDI, and 1000BASE-T.
It is no longer supported, having been replaced by Cat 5e.
• Category 5e—Cat 5e (enhanced) operates over a bandwidth of
100MHz on UTP, with a range of 330 feet (100 m). The key LAN
application is 1000BASE-T. The Cat 5e standard is largely the
same as Category 5, except that it is made to somewhat more
stringent standards. Category 5e is recommended for all new
installations and was designed for transmission speeds of up
to 1Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet). Although Cat 5e can support
Gigabit Ethernet, it is not currently certified to do so.
• Category 6—Cat 6, specified under ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1,
operates over a bandwidth of up to 400MHz and supports
up to 1Gbps over a range of 330 feet (100 m). It is a cable
standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols
that is backward compatible with the Cat 5/5e and Cat 3
cable standards. Cat 6 features more stringent specifications
for crosstalk and system noise. Cat 6 is suitable for 10BASE-
T/100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet)
connections.
• Category 7—Cat 7 is specified in the frequency range of
1MHz to 600MHz. ISO/IEC11801:2002 Category 7/Class F is
a cable standard for Ultra-Fast Ethernet and other
interconnect technologies that can be made backward
compatible with traditional Cat 5 and Cat 6 Ethernet cable.
Cat 7, which is based on four twisted copper pairs, features
even more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system
noise than Cat 6. To achieve this, shielding has been added
for individual wire pairs and the cable as a whole.
• The predominant cable categories in use today are
Cat 3 (due to widespread deployment in support of
10Mbps Ethernet—although it is no longer being
deployed) and Cat 5e. Cat 4 and Cat 5 are largely
defunct.
 Coaxial Cable
• Coaxial cables have two wires of copper. The core
wire lies in center and is made of solid conductor.
Core is enclosed in an insulating sheath. Over the
sheath the second wire is wrapped around and that
too in turn encased by insulator sheath. This all is
covered by plastic cover.
• Because of its structure coax cables are capable of
carrying high frequency signals than that of twisted
pair cables. The wrapped structure provides it a
good shield against noise and cross talk. Coaxial
cables provide high bandwidth rates of up to 450
mbps.
Coaxial Cable
• There are three categories of Coax cables namely,
• RG-59 (Cable TV),
• RG-58 (Thin Ethernet) and
• RG-11 (Thick Ethernet. RG stands for Radio Government.
• Cables are connected using BNC connector and
BNC-T. BNC terminator is used to terminate the
wire at the far ends.
 Advantages of Coaxial Cable
• Broadband system—Coax has a sufficient frequency range
to support multiple channels, which allows for much greater
throughput.
• Greater channel capacity—Each of the multiple channels
offers substantial capacity. The capacity depends on where
you are in the world. In the North American system, each
channel in the cable TV system is 6MHz wide, according to
the National Television Systems Committee (NTSC)
standard. In Europe, with the Phase Alternate Line (PAL)
standard, the channels are 8MHz wide. Within one of these
channels, you can provision high-speed Internet access—
that's how cable modems operate. But that one channel is
now being shared by everyone using that coax from that
neighborhood node, which can range from 200 to 2,000
homes.
• Greater bandwidth—Compared to twisted-pair, coax
provides greater bandwidth system wide, and it also
offers greater bandwidth for each channel. Because it has
greater bandwidth per channel, it supports a mixed range
of services. Voice, data, and even video and multimedia
can benefit from the enhanced capacity.
• Lower error rates—Because the inner conductor is in a
Faraday shield, noise immunity is improved, and coax has
lower error rates and therefore slightly better
performance than twisted-pair. The error rate is generally
10–9 (i.e., 1 in 1 billion) bps.
• Greater spacing between amplifiers—Coax's cable
shielding reduces noise and crosstalk, which means
amplifiers can be spaced farther apart than with twisted-
pair
 Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable
• Problems with the deployment architecture—The
bus topology in which coax is deployed is
susceptible to congestion, noise, and security risks.

• Bidirectional upgrade required—In countries that

have a history of cable TV, the cable systems were
designed for broadcasting, not for interactive
communications. Before they can offer to the
subscriber any form of two-way services, those
networks have to be upgraded to bidirectional
systems.
• Great noise—The return path has some noise
problems, and the end equipment requires added
intelligence to take care of error control.

• High installation costs—Installation costs in the

local environment are high.

• Susceptible to damage from lightning strikes—

Coax may be damaged by lightning strikes. People
who live in an area with a lot of lightning strikes
must be wary because if that lightning is conducted
by a coax, it could very well fry the equipment at
the end of it.
 Power Lines
• Power Line communication is Layer-1 (Physical
Layer) technology which uses power cables to
transmit data signals. Send in PLC modulates data
and sent over the cables. The receiver on the other
end de-modulates the data and interprets.
• Because power lines are widely deployed, PLC can
make all powered devices controlled and
monitored. PLC works in half-duplex.
Two types of PLC exists:
• Narrow band PLC
• Broad band PLC

• Narrow band PLC provides lower data rates up to

100s of kbps, as they work at lower frequencies (3-
5000 kHz). But can be spread over several
kilometers.
• Broadband PLC provides higher data rates up to
100s of Mbps and works at higher frequencies (1.8
– 250 MHz). But cannot be much extended as
Narrowband PLC.
 Fiber Optics
• Fiber Optic works on the properties of light. When
light ray hits at critical angle it tends to refracts at
90 degree. This property has been used in fiber
optic. The core of fiber optic cable is made of high
quality glass or plastic. From one end of it light is
emitted, it travels through it and at the other end
light detector detects light stream and converts it
to electric data form.
• Fiber Optic provides the highest mode of speed. It
comes in two modes; one is single mode fiber and
second is multimode fiber. Single mode fiber can
carries single ray of light whereas Multimode fiber
is capable of carrying multiple beams of light.
Fiber Optic also comes in unidirectional and bidirectional
capabilities. To connect and access Fiber Optic special type
of connectors are used. These can be SC (Subscriber
Channel), ST (Straight Tip) or MT-RJ.
 Advantages of Fiber Optics
• Extremely high bandwidth—Fiber offers far more
bandwidth than any other cable-based medium.

• Elastic traffic-carrying capacity—Without having to

change the fiber, assuming that it's the correct
generation of fiber, you can add equipment that
provides additional capacity over the original fiber
alone. This, along with DWDM's capability to turn
various wavelengths on and off at will, enables
dynamic network bandwidth provisioning to
accommodate fluctuations in traffic.
• Not susceptible to electromagnetic impairments or
interference—Because fiber is not susceptible to
electromagnetic impairments or interference, it has a
very low bit error rate, 10–13, which means fiber-optic
transmissions are virtually noise free.

• Secure transmission and early detection—By

constantly monitoring an optical network and
measuring the time of light reflection, you can detect
splices in the cable.

• Low in weight and mass—Because fiber is low in

weight and mass, much less human installation power
is needed than with traditional copper cable or coax
bundles.
 Disadvantages of Fiber Optics
• High installation costs, but dropping—Fiber installation is
still relatively costly, although the cost has been dropping by
about 60% per year, depending on the components. As the
cost keeps dropping and the performance increases, fiber is
finally moving out of its major application in the carrier
backbone realm and into the local loop, supporting
subscriber broadband access via techniques such as FTTx
and PONs.
• Special test equipment required—When you start putting
in fiber, you have to acquire specialized test equipment
because none of the test equipment you use on an electrical
network will work with fiber. You need an OTDR, and when
you get into more sophisticated optical networks, you need
highly specialized optical probes that can be quite costly—
and you need one at each location.
• Vulnerability to physical damage
—Fiber is a small medium, so it can very easily be cut
or otherwise damaged during construction activities.
Similarly, because many railroad companies sell
rights-of-way for fiber installation, railroad car
derailments pose a threat, potentially affecting large
numbers of service providers and users. When you
choose fiber as the primary medium, you have to
address backup, restoration, and survivability from
the start because the likelihood of damage is great.
• Vulnerability to damage caused by wildlife
—A number of flora and fauna cause damage to
fiber. Some birds really like the Kevlar reinforcing
material and think it makes lovely nests for their
babies, so they peck away at fiber-optic cables to get
at that Kevlar material. Rodents such as beavers like
to sharpen their teeth on exposed cable. Several
different types of ants seem to enjoy the plastic
shielding in their diet, so they nibble at the
underground fibers. Sharks have been known to
chomp on cable near the repeating points. A plant
called the Christmas tree plant thinks that fiber-optic
cable is a tree root and wraps itself around it very
tightly and chokes it off.
TWISTED PAIR CABLE COAXIAL CABLE FIBER-OPTIC CABLE
REFERENCES
CompTIA® IT Fundamentals™
Understanding Computer System Fundamentals, its Architecture,
Installation, and Basic Servicing Module
Data Communication Local Area Network
End of the Lesson
Thank you!