Chapter List

Color Codes, Types and Kinds of Wire and Catagories

The best strategy for buying a communications system is to decide first on a phone system or comms server. Next, decide how and whose services you re going to use to access the outside public network(s), and then pick your equipment vendor. The last part of the buying process is to create a wiring plan in collaboration with a certified installer. If you are thinking about buying a new phone system, you should probably rewire your office.

Your existing wiring might be re-usable if it is new and/or certified. The wiriing should be clearly marked to indicate what service(s) it carries, and also should have appropriate safety labels. If the existing wiring is not marked properly you ll pay more, on average, for your phone equipment to be installed. Unmarked or illegibly marked cabling means that the equipment vendor s techs have to identify the wire by toning it out. To tone out a cable means that a tone generator is plugged into the jack or clipped onto a wire in the cable. The tone generator typically puts a 2 kHz audio tone on the cable under test, and the inductive amplifier of the tone testing system detects the tone and plays it through a built-in speaker. The tone generator is commonly called a toner and the inductive amp is called a banana or wand ...