Install enough cable for future needs. It is almost always more expensive to incrementally add cable within existing walls, ceilings, or floors.
	Use an experienced and reputable cabling contractor. Some municipalities may require union labor.
	Perform certification testing of the cabling plant to ensure it meets performance criteria.
	Follow local building codes and be aware of state and federal guidelines. NEC specifies many aspects of fire safety for cable installation.
	Use plenum-grade cable, a type of cable that has a fire resistant jacket and does not produce toxic smoke, for cable runs through environmental air-space. These air spaces include the area above suspended ceilings and in air-return cavities used for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
	Label all cables and maintain a wiring plan that identifies all cables and connectors.
	Do not unwrap more of a cable jacket than necessary to make the connection. This can result in excessive crosstalk.
	Do not untwist the end of twisted pair cable more than absolutely necessary when making connections. This can also result in excessive crosstalk.
	Do not use untwisted cables for twisted pair installations, such as the cable called "silver satin," that is commonly used for telephone installations.
	Run data cables perpendicular to power lines whenever possible.
	Do not run copper cable parallel with AC power lines at a distance of less than 6 to 8 inches. Keep data cables several feet away from high power lines.
	Use cable hangers to support the weight of cables in ceiling areas.
	Keep patch cables as short as possible so that they do not pick up noise.
	Ensure every system is properly grounded, has voltage surge and lightning protection, and has an uninterrupted power supply.

Using Existing (Old) UTP Cable

One of the potential benefits of using UTP for LAN cable is the possibility of using extra pairs of previously installed telephone cables to carry LAN data. In some cases, this has been acceptable for 4-Mbps Token Ring and 10-Mbps Ethernet; however, there are some serious difficulties with this approach.

	Telephone cable may not be data-grade (Category 3 or above) and therefore not suitable for LAN traffic.
	Telephone cable is almost never suitable for high-speed data (16 Mbps or higher).
	Telephone and data pairs should never share the same cable because of crosstalk. This limits the real availability of existing telephone cable.

In all cases, existing cabling should be tested to verify that it can support data traffic.

   Activities

See the Activities and Extended Activities section in Unit 2 Lesson 6 in your textbook Introduction to Networking to test what you have learned so far.

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