Wiring 4 vs 8 1

[IdahoTech]

Hello Everyone,

I am not the wiring guru that some may be here so I have a question...

What is better for networking, using only 4 of the wires or using all 8?

I found a site a long time ago that stated using all 8 is the best because two of the wires beyond the 4 are used for something else.

Don't mean this to be a hard question but it does bother me because in one of our schools we have this in place and about half of the wires in that school are running though a phone punchdown block?!

This was done well before I came here. I have been dying to replace them and make straight runs to the switch. However this was all done by my boss many years ago and he feels it is ok, and we all know when we do something it is hearbreaking in some ways to have someone new come in and tell you it is wrong and there is a better way. You know it is but just are reluctant because of all the work you put into it.

So I need to find a way to say this would be better without stepping on toes. Ya know?

We have HP switches and are trying to run everything at 100mb but I believe that these are just slowing us down and that we need to update the wires to accomidate the data throughput that we are using. Some of the applications we are using are:

SASIXP
Success Maker
Accelerated Reader
DEX Phone Directory
Type to Learn ( and other network based typing programs)
IGPro (Part of SASI)

And there are other processes I would like to put on the network to help us out here in the IT department of 3 people ( that includes the boss who is also the maintinence Administrator as well) and about 1000 computers.

So if anyone has a site or info on wiring and the differnces between 4 and 8. Please let me know. This is one project I would like to do this summer.

Thanks for any replies....

IdahoTech
'Only two things are infinite - the Universe and human Stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the Universe' Albert Einstein

http://www.sd60.k12.id.us

 

[edfair]

With that much equipment you could justify test equipment that will tell you the quality of the connections.
Only 4 wires are used but that is 1 twisted pair and 1 each out of 2 other twisted pairs. So, in effect, you are using 6 wires.
If things are working now there is no urgent need for upgrade, but as you can replace them it might be good in preparation for the future.
And yes, if you have some problems, that will slow you down as things get re-transmitted because they didn't go across correctly the first time.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[bcastner]

4 conductors from two pairs, not three.

 

[jimbopalmer]

for 10 meg and 100 meg UTP ethernet only 2 pairs are used for signal, altough the other 2 pairs may be used for power over ethernet. For gig all 4 pair are used for signal.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.