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5 Things to Consider When Purchasing Power Cords

When purchasing power cables, knowing what qualities to look out for will help you save time, money, and stress.

1. Plug & Form Factor

Identifying which power cords you need can be confusing. There are dozens of different NEMA & IEC jacks and plugs. The problem is even more compounded when you add-in international plugs. We have created this helpful chart to help you identify which power cord you need.

Another consideration beyond fit is the orientation of the plug. Space-saving right, left, up, or down angled plugs can help you minimize space, promote proper airflow, and prevent accidental disconnects.

2.

Ethernet Jacket Types 101

Ethernet cable jackets are made from various materials and carry different ratings assigned by the NEC. Let’s run through some commonly asked questions about these materials and NEC ratings to help answer some common questions about which material and jacket rating is used for most installations:

What is a PVC jacket?

Polyvinyl Chloride is the backbone material in most ethernet cable jackets. It is a high strength and flexible material, which makes it a go-to jacket for most ethernet cabling. PVC is the most common material found in the below jacket ratings. 

What is a PE jacket?
Polyethylene is most common with outdoor rated jackets. They are good at moisture and overall w

Data Line Surge Protection

You don’t need a string of statistics to understand lightning is powerful, unpredictable, and strikes often. Take my word for it. I’ve read the “fun” facts. There is an astounding number of opportunities for mother nature to completely fry your business and home networks from both direct and indirect lightning strikes. But you can’t blame lightning for damage to modems, motherboards, serial ports, and other LAN equipment. You can’t shake a fist at mother nature for network downtime leading to a loss of business, expensive repairs/replacements, and corrupted data. What you can, and should, do is think

1 Hour of Data and Bandwidth Usage

As offices and schools head home, competition for bandwidth is intensifying.  A usually smooth operating home network can be ground to a halt under new data demands. Running multiple video conference calls, streaming binge-worthy TV,  listening to music, and streaming a lecture can cause all parties to suffer extra loading times or lower quality.

To help you understand the most demanding activities, here is a list of the data usage rates for some of the most popular work from home activities.

Work Activities

Email <1 MB an hour.

Email is one of the lightest weight activities you can do.  While usage varies

Dealing with Impedance Mismatching

When selecting coax cable or certain types of coaxial connectors and adapters there are a variety of factors to consider such as jacket type, shielding, and loss.  Today we want to focus on impedance, specifically what to do if you encounter differing impedances.

In coax, there are two categories of impedance 50 Ohm and 75 Ohm.   Ohm is the measurement of electrical resistance.  The physical properties of the cable determine if it's impedance.  The hallmarks of 50 Ohm coax are high power handling and low attenuation and are used in RF applications.  75 Ohm coax is designed for low power, signal transmission efficiency, which is typically used in audio/video applications.

MPO Fiber Optics

As the need for bandwidth speed outpaces the capabilities for physical expansion, networks are evolving by offering higher density higher throughput solutions. This allows for increased data rate performance without having to invest in new physical locations. MPO cables provide high-density termination capabilities and are an ideal choice for delivering the fastest link and enabling high-speed interconnects.

Multi-fiber push-on connectors (MPO) are multi-fiber cables terminated in a single connector. They are typically available in 8, 12 or 24 fibers and are common for data center and LAN en- environments. They ease cable management and allow faster deployment in duplex 10 Gig fiber applications.

Work From Home Solutions

Navigating the new work environment, we are all experiencing is challenging enough; connecting your equipment shouldn’t be. But we have all experienced frustration as the ports on our laptop don’t mate with our monitor, or are cable isn’t long enough to reach, or are new “co-workers” ala our pets and children interrupt our conference call. We can’t help you with everything, but navigating connectivity issues is our specialty.

Our sales and support team are here to help you find the tools you’ll need to expand your workspace, connect your laptop, adapt old equipment to new equipment, remotely connect to your office network while powering everything from your peripherals to your PC. No e

The Importance of Cybersecurity

November 30th marks Computer Security Day, and in today’s world, technology plays a large role in most of what we do both professionally and personally. Much of our private information is shared electronically on various websites. It’s important to remember that the data stored on our computers and mobile devices must be kept secure and safe. However, taking steps to ensure our private materials doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly daunting. 

Here are four tips to ensure you’re up-to-date when it comes to protecting yourself online.

Always use strong passwords.

You’ve heard it before: it’s not wise to use password as a password. It’s also not in best practice to use words, dates, or phra

Networking takes shape in many different environments and not just in clean, dry server rooms. Many industries, including automation, robotics, and alternative energy must have access to networks but are out in the field quite often. The products used to build these networks must withstand harsh environmental factors for the long haul. Our new M12 cables manufactured by L-com provide secure connections for all of your industrial networking application needs.

What is an M12 cable?

M12 cables from ShowMeCables are category-rated ethernet cables with two connectors on either end. These circular

Bulk cable solutions from ShowMeCables enable technology and establish connections. Every building, wireless system, and communication network across the frequency spectrum requires wired infrastructure. Although, cabling might not be the focus of many tech projects, when cabling isn’t working the entire system grinds to a halt causing downtime and service disruption.

Understanding the thank-less yet critical role infrastructure cable plays, we prioritize performance, reliability, and availability with our bulk cabling solutions. Using carefully curated product offerings from trusted manufacturers and s