[net.lan] Wiring Office Buildings for Cheapernet

tony@brueer.UUCP (Tony Begg) (05/06/86)

Has anybody out there wired up an office building for Cheapernet? I have
a building of about 200 single occupancy offices to wire. It has built
in trunking between offices. Initially most of the offices will not have
Cheapernet equipment.

I know about multiport repeaters. I know the restrictions of Cheapernet
vis-a-vis segment length and nodes per segment.

I just *cannot* seem to find any ready-made wallplate that will give me a
simple bypass arrangement (like a barrel connector) when there is nothing 
in the office and then let me replace it with cables to the equipment when
this is installed.

DEC have a scheme but this seems to assume that each segment runs around
and terminates inside a big open plan office which is not what I have got.

I have looked at "LAN Data Outlets" intended for twin BNC sockets but none 
of those I have seen accommodate crimped BNC connectors (I think solder tag
connections would cause impedance changes and hence reflections with 
Cheapernet) either because the holes are too small or because they require
too sharp a bend in the cable behind the wallplate. And they all require a BNC 
cable to bypass the "empty" office rather than just a barrel connector (are
there any BNC U-Bends?).

Sorry to bother these newsgroups with such a mundane matter, but I have been 
hung up on this for months.

Please e-mail me if you have done this or know of a firm that sells what I
am after.

Thanks
Tony Begg  (tony%ee.brunel.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa)