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3Com's 10/100 Switching... Wallplate
An anonymous reader wrote in to say "Tom's hardware has an exclusive review of the new 3Com Network Jack. This is a 4-port 10/100 switch that fits in a standard-sized wallplate." Alright, thats a good idea (he says while accidentally kicking the switch hidden under his desk). Having run more then my share of ethernet drops in the past, I gotta say I dig this idea.
Will it protect it from the wierd guy in networking that once shorted out the phone system while rewiring his ethernet port because he decided it was too slow for his everquest games? Is it armored to protect it from the REALLY wierd guy from R & D that was running around the comms room with a broadsword?
(The really sad part is, I'm not kidding. I actually work with these people.)
*prepares new resume*
I am !amused.
...it included an 802.11b wireless bridge, we could do away with cabling altogether :)
Actually, 3com's talking about incorporating 802.11 and bluetooth into the thing shortly.
Gotta be fully buzzword-compliant, you know.
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
A hub built into a wall switch! That's amazing! At the rate things are going, someone is going to invent a network card that doesn't even NEED cables, and this thing will be obsolete! Maybe it could use RADIO WAVES!
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
but that is only good for 10/100.....1000baset uses all 8 wires.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
AS a person who just bought a new house (Ok old house, but new to me... I never lived there before) running 2-cat5e,cat3,2-RG6 cables to each outlet plate (I.E. 2 locations to each room) is not difficult by any means. Anyone can go to home-depot and buy all the parts and tools needed (Note: dont waste your money on RG6Quad shield, it offer's you nothing) to completely wire your home, in 1 weekend ALONE. no other perosn helping to pull cable. My 6 foot long drill-bit has a hole in the tip so I can drill down, wander downstairs, tie the wire on and pull it back.
The trick is to plan your needs. the entertainment wall needs more ethernet than the bathroom (Kidding! you use wireless in there) and your office location needs even more than that.
It's cheaper than buying several of these "switches" and gives you better lan-topology in your home.
If I was retrofiting an existing-wired-house and didnt want to ttake the time to do it right? Sure! but I love using my rotozip to cut holes in walls and pulling wires through rafters.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Have you ever been reading an article and for no reason what so ever the server grinds to a halt? Pictures don't come up, "page can not be found" errors, and then it hits you like a ton of bricks, I bet this just made Slashdot. You click the link at the top of the your browser ( you do have a Slashdot link? Don't you?) and BAM there it is? Well that just happened to me and now I can't finish the article so suck it!
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
Just a couple of points of information....
1) The list price is $140, not $399
2) It's not a hub. It's a switch. There's a difference.
Other than that, I somewhat agree with you. If you're working with a cabling architecture that you want to be flexible enough to be able to do other things than plain old ethernet, it's probably not a good choice for you.
But on the other hand, if you just need 4 network ports at a location, it could be very useful. It's one less box sitting around on or under your desk. And just because you have 4 devices that need network, doesn't mean they're computers. 1 computer, 1 networked printer, 1 wireless access point, and perhaps your cable modem/DSL/whatever. Yes, sure, there are other solutions to do this (like the Linksys cable/DSL router with a 4-port hub and a WAP that I have on my desk right now), but the point is that this is another option. And it might offer a certain kind of flexibility depending on the situation. I'd actually consider it to be more useful as a home device, rather than an office device. Though it would be nice if they had the ability to power it from behind the wall.
So it's no use to you. Doesn't mean that it's no use to everyone.
-Todd
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
It's actually a four-port switch. But in today's world, switches are rather ubiquitous, so it's no big deal.
There would be substantial cost savings when you have to pull cable. Rather than pulling four cables along, you pull just one. Also, at your floor drop, you only have one cable there and you will only be using one port. In your situation, your 4 Cat5 ports at the cubicle are using 4 Cat5 ports at your drop.
Call me crazy, but if you were going to be setting up a new area, this would be a pretty nifty item to have. You just pull one cable. Power over Ethernet (PoE) is not THAT expensive. You're talking in the ball park of $100 or so.
I see this product as something for new installations, not to replace what you've already got. If what's already there works, why change it? Going with these network jacks adds all kinds of room to grow. You get PoE and VoIP, as well as a four-port switch in every cubicle. That sounds pretty tasty, doesn't it?
I also don't know what you're talking about as far as using cable testing equipment and downtime. When's the last time you had a cable go bad? Or a switch? If all four of your devices go out - it's either the uplink from that jack (one cable) or the jack itself. Consider if you have four lines and one of those goes out. Is it the cable to the panel? Is it the cable from the panel to floor drop?
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
Heck, I thought just about everyone had switches in the wall jacks for a long time now.
The obvious solution is to run the power cable behind the wall -- so that you can install this device designed to avoid having to run cable behind the wall.
Actually, there are many places where it is somewhat useful. For example, I've been responsible for wiring the office building in which my company rents an office. A new tenant moved in, and wanted ethernet connectivity for 3 computers, but we had only run one drop to each office, and we weren't interested in running an additional 200' drop, especially with the 3" of workspace above the ceiling panels.
In order to set them up (and have them pay for only one connection), we had to run the live wire out of the wall, into one computer that's running NAT, then from a second NIC in that computer to a hub, then two cables from the hub back into the wall jack, then running over to the second jack (in an adjacent room of the same suite).
If we had had a hub/switch integrated into the walljack (and especially if it had NAT capability, *wink* *wink* 3com), this would have made the job one hell of a lot cleaner. I'd even consider replacing our current setup with this, if just to try the thing out.
Yes! That guy!
New Slashdot poll:
Paypal accidently dumped $400 into your account...
1) Four port wall mounted hub
2) ipod with all the hacked drivers
3) ten Oreilly books of your choice plus a free copy of Learning "Spelling" 2002
4) Limted edition Drivers License collection on CD-ROM or DVD
5) A night with Cowboy Neal
A lot of these replies talk about how this device is useless and they would rather just buy a regular 4-port switch. I see your point but I don't think 3Com cares if you buy this to wire your home. The article mentions working closely with cubicle manufacturers. If you work in a cube farm (and I do) you can immediately see how 3Com can make a lot of money from these.
Step1: 3Com gets cubicle companies to build these into cubes.
Step2: Cubicle companies build these switches into their cubes becuase they will have a nifty new feature to use in selling their cubes.
Step3: Large companies like mine buy new cubes for slightly higher price to get this nifty must have feature.
This seems clear to me....But my mind might be fuzzy from staring at this grey cube wall all day.
-- Find the Truth...
Some people here are saying things like "why not just do 2 or more runs in the first place?" To that I say that if you're wiring up 50 work areas and you have the premise wiring folks already on site, go for it; it's only slightly more expensive to have them run multiple cables.
But what happens when you have a single location that needs more Ethernet? That's the target market here. Instead of getting the premise wiring guys back on site to haul more cable, you just use this jack to fan-out more ports. Conventionally this is done using those little desktop mini-hubs, but putting it inside the wallbox instead of on the desk (or worse, on the floor beneath the desk) makes it neater and more difficult to break.
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If you would have read the article, its because this is easier to maintain than a stand alone switch. Running 4 lines isn't always the best idea because of cost of each line, as the article points out a lot of networking groups charge PER cable, not per pull.
This thing provides:
Little to no maintainence.
Reduces cost of cables pulled to office
Reduces clutter in ceiling
Relatively low cost for high quality manufacturer
My company, and every other company I've associated with over 25 employees don't have a lot of SMC or Netgear crap lying around. With experience as a network admin, I can say I'd much rather spend a few extra bucks on this than have one of those things sitting out where the user can fsck with it.
Companies will buy tons of these.
No... It is just fine. I have a number of runs where I use two connections, also ones where I have the ethernet and telephone using the same wire, and there is no significant difference in performance. This was the INTENDED purpose of using 8 wire configuration [one ethernet+one line POTS]. In fact, you'll notice that ethernet uses wires 1,2,3,6? If you wire up the center wires correctly, you should be able to plug a standard 6 conductor phone in the RJ45 [a 4 conductor connection will fit, but may jiggle], and the middle two wires [4,5] will work just fine. Plus if some moron plugs in a phone to the wrong jack it won't harm the ethernet.
Crosstalk in decent [Cat 5 and higher] cable is basically a non-issue. Since all the pairs are twisted, they have very good immunity to inductive interference [take a e-mag course]. Unless you do something stupid, like wrap it around your Tesla coil or something, it probably won't be a problem.
The only reasonable argument against using two connections over one wire is if one wire goes bad [a kink or break in the line], you can switch to another pair.