Office Renovation Questions

chevy4x4trucks · January 10, 2003

I work for an R&D company and currently we have a 7th floor suite in downtown Milwaukee, but in the next month or so we are beginning to renovate a two story house in the suburbs as our new office. Basically we'll have about 10-12 offices and I need to find out some information since I'll be doing most of the construction work (kinda sucks when you're the youngest and strongest person in the office).

Where would I find a phone system? We'll be taking our existing phone system, but we want to buy another used one that will give us a few more phones, but also the capability to hook up our own voice mail because ameritech's voicemail sucks. I was told I could find them online, but I haven't a clue where to start looking.

Basically we are running network cables, phone lines, a type of empty tube and possible fiber optics (maybe) to every room.

Do they sell cables were they are all intertwined so you just run the one cable?

Also, how far off is fiber optics technology? We will be using this office for the next 15 years or so and we want to anticipate what new computer technology there will be to prevent us from ripping apart walls in the future.

And I guess the final question would be... Does anyone have any other tips or suggestions on what to do?

I just want to make the best informed decision and I'm figuring a few people on here do some sort of remodeling and can shed some light on this, not to mention all of the computer techs who are a bit more in the know than I am.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, especially some links if you've go them. I'm poking around on google right now to see what i can find.

LarryE · January 10, 2003

run PLENTY of cat 5 cable that will save you for the next few years, then you can always go wireless in the future... with 802.11G coming into full stream there will be plenty of high speed components coming out.

a computer based phone system will be your best bet, that way you can play the cool little elevator music while you put someone on hold.

if you can use a drop down ceiling system and run your cables that way instead of the walls, that way you can always change with necessary.

Z71GUY · January 10, 2003

I'm in the computer field myself. I agree with Larry.....run as much Cat5e cable as you can. Cat5e can be used for voice & data...good cable to have everywhere. As for the Fiber Optic that will be an overkill unless you need some serious, and I mean serious bandwidth going to one PC. Like Larry said, wireless is going to be the next step, so Cat5e should keep you current until wireless goes big.

Eric

MarkD · January 10, 2003

I agree with the cat5e (or cat6 for a premium). Gigabit ethernet is here and 10GB is on its way(over copper). You won't really beat that with fiber to the desktop.

Frontier makes a good voicemail system. Audix is better though.

BlueRado · January 10, 2003

Agree fully w/ MarkD - go the 5e minimum, and 6 if you can. There is a difference between 5 and 5e in terms of quality and bandwidth capabilities. Also, if you might need coaxial, go w/ RG-6, NOT RG-59 - much better and not that much more expensive. There are some manufacturers (don't have names of any off hand), that produce a single bundled combo or Q2 Cat5e or Cat6 and Q2 RG-6.

That's my 2 cents! Good luck.

PS - you might be able to hire a communications firm (consulting fee) to give you some advice on what you might need, too.

99silveradoz71 · January 11, 2003

Meridian seems to be a common phone manufacturer for the businesses nowadays. We had them at the Browns when I was there and at the Cavs too, and our dept/city have them as well.

chevy4x4trucks · January 11, 2003

Thanks for the input, so just run some cat. 5 cable to every room and that should be sufficient? When you guys say plenty what do you mean? I was just going to run one to every room and one phone line to every room. I guess my thought was if they wanted more than one computer in a room we could always put another hub in there.

When we finished our basement we ran some smurf tube to a few outlets in every room so we may have to go with that just in case something new comes along in the future.

varmint2506 · January 13, 2003

I work for an A/E (Arch./Engineer) firm. We can design pretty much any type of buildings. We also design network and security systems.

I would recommend running a cat 6 and (2) cat 5's to every place you want to put a PC, printer or fax machine. The cat 6 would be your primary data feed and the two cat 5's would serve as a secondary data and voice. If you plan to use a digital phone system one pair can be split out of the voice cat 5 for an analog line. Voice, digital or analog only uses one pair of the (4) so, you could actually run (4) voice thru (1) cat 5.

Fiber runs are generally used for very long runs plus the cost would floor you.

If you have an electronic floor plan and furnature plan available, I can take a look at it If you like. :thumb:

chevy4x4trucks · January 14, 2003

If you have an electronic floor plan and furnature plan available, I can take a look at it If you like. :thumb:

Nothing available yet, I actually haven't even been in the house yet. Sometime before the end of the week I'll be down there to check it out and see how much of a PITA it is going to be to snake all of these wires up from the basement to the different rooms. I'd almost just go w/ a wireless network, but that's kind of useless since we still need to run phone lines to every room anyways.

So, in everyone's expert opnion I shouldn't bother with F.O. and just run two, maybe even three cat 5 lines to each room?

Our phone system is an older one, no fancy computer controls and the boss isn't looking to upgrade it for the new place. Actually he's looking for a used system that is the same as our old so we will have a dozen phones.

Every room will only have one computer more than likely and I'm going to have a 20 port switch in the basement and a router hooking up to that as well (cable modem more than likely).

varmint2506 · January 14, 2003

To run fiber over copper you are looking at 3 to 4 time the cost per drop. I don't know if you have looked at the prices for optical switches, routers, hubs or PC cards, they aren't cheep. You can pick up a standard Ethernet card for $20.00 bucks. A optical card will cost up to $250.00.

If you already have a network (switch, router, hup, nic;s cards) in place I would just re-use what you could.

I have a friend that works for Amerilink (network contractors) They have an office near Milwaukee. I will send you a email.

chevy4x4trucks · January 14, 2003

I hadn't done any looking into fiber optics yet, the boss just suggested it to me, but looking at the prices and the fact that it's virtually useless to us I say forget it.

Right now we've got a wireless network between two computers here that they had some company set up before I started, so it won't work at the new place. Since we've got to run phone lines to each room we'll just run some network cable and I should be able to find a pretty decent hub/switch online and routers aren't all that expensive either. Right now there are only four people including me and two of us actually use the computers for more than checking our email (or stock quotes).

Thanks a bunch for the info and I'll be looking for the email :thumb:

MarkD · January 14, 2003

So, in everyone's expert opnion I shouldn't bother with F.O. and just run two, maybe even three cat 5 lines to each room?

Yes. Cat 5e is about $0.10/foot so I would run at least 2 to each station. Infrastructure is a pain to set up after the fact. Pull one lead line and then pull 2-3 runs of cable at the same time.

I would also standardize on NIC's as well. We use 3COM 905C-TX-M's here at $30 each.

Z71GUY · January 14, 2003

I agree with Mark D....2 to each room should be enough for data. Cat 5e is pretty cheap and if run correctly can handle alot of traffic. Keep in mind that voice can run over Cat 5 wire....I would run (3) Cat 5e drops to each room. 1 for voice & 2 for data.

One word of advice while running cable...be VERY organized and label EVERYTHING. :thumb: It really helps if you take your time and think everything out in an organized manner...You dont want to be left with 20 cables sitting in the basement and your wondering where half of them go...

varmint2506 · January 14, 2003

You dont want to be left with 20 cables sitting in the basement and your wondering where half of them go...

Worth it's weight in gold! :thumb:

Z71GUY · January 14, 2003

Yep, we have one of those at work...but in the long run, you save alot of time just labeling the wires as you run them.

I HAD to use that before....I was working with a guy and we just ran a crap load of Cat 5e wire...well, the idiot decided to cut the wires from the box before he labeled them....needless to say that "wire finder" (as we like to call it) saved me alot of headaches...