Cable tags/labels summary

[Mark Allen]

I was asked to summarize the responses to my cable label/tag inquiry,
so here they are:

-=-BEGIN-=-

One good place to start would be Hellerman Tyton
(http://www.hellermann.tyton.com/).  They have a wide variety of
labels and tags, and you can order sample packs from their web site.

-=-

Radio Shack has something like this.  They are yellow cable ties, with
a big white flat area to write on.

They are kind of expensive though. It would be great to find them in bulk.

-=-

Try Jameco in Belmont.  I purchased some of these exact items there about
a year ago.  I don't like 'em much though.  I've never seen a good system
for labeling cables, i.e., that is easy to read, easy to label, and
doesn't come off too easily.

-=- 

I finally found them at Micro Center, in the Mercado shopping center off
101/Bowers.  They're about $14 for 50 (IIRC). They even throw in a sharpie!

-=-

The only thing I ever saw that came close to being satifactory was due to 
none other than the legendary Arnold deLeon.  He found (or maybe created) a 
supplier of Cat-5 cables with _serial numbers_ on them, the same at both 
ends.  The numbers also encoded the length, IIRC.

The physical labels I don't recall clearly.  Might have been heat-shrink, 
or maybe akin to the 3M product consisting of a length of clear tape with a 
little white tab on the end: you write on the tab then wrap the clear tail 
over it.  I used those, but they're a bear to take back off.  Hence the 
permanent serial numbers.

-=-

[synopsis pre labeled cables]

At my last job, we used an IDPRO printer to print these labels -- and
you're right, they're not fun to take off.  The printer made this
remarkably easy (especially since it made serializing the labels pretty
easy).

-=-

[synopsis pre labeled cables]

They were the heat-shrink or clear tape kind, with the label under the
plastic.  You can do the same thing with a regular white label and some
scotch tape, but that tends to wear off over time once the tape loses
it's stickiness.  The labels we had at Synopsys were much more
permanent.

IIRC those cables were also jacketed, so you could pull them backwards
through a bunch of other cables without worrying about snagging the clip
and ripping it off.

-=-

Way off topic by now, but in case it helps someone:  I had occasion
recently to pull a bunch of cables that did not have the "boots" to thus
protect the ends.  A hack that can serve in a pinch is a handy roll of
adhesive tape:  just wrap once around the end to protect the tab.
Before sealing the end of the tape, fold it over a few mm. to make a
"tab" for the adhesive tape (so you can pull it off again).

-=-

Fry's sells cable ties with a little tag on one end where, as you said,
you can write with a Sharpie. I like them a lot because the little tag
has the same width of a CAT5 cable and it is about 1" long. You have 
enough space to write the server name or a serial number, as Jim pointed 
out, your choice. The Fry's part number is 1771633. They are manifactured by:

All-States Inc. 
1801 W. Foster Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640

I don't have a phone number, sorry. The manifacturer PLU is 1771633 (same
as Fry's)

-=-

I have a dymo (p-touch style, not medium-hard-plastic style) labeller
which I use to generate "tabs".

     |_ p-link 6 feet - HGS ____________ p-link 6 feet - HGS _|

then I wrap the middle around the cord and seal the tape to itself.
To distinguish items further I have multiple colors or can use diskette
labels the same way (which are fatter, and I can write on 'em)

[...]

I've found that the stickiness of the dymo tape is iffy if the tape is
too short, so I sometimes support it with a short strip of clear packing 
tape, which sticks to standard cat5, itself, and dymo-labels just fine.

[...]

-=- 

Tags suck.  Tags pull out other things when you pull a cable.  Shrink
wrap is good.  Don't label them things likes "sybase01" give it a
label that's a pointer to that:  115701 which is charted to "sybase01"
(in LDAP or DNS TXT records AND a wallchart in the cable room (with
an expire date)).

I'm a big fan of having a really lowly computer in the cable room
that nobody wants to steal.  3Com Audrys or Wyse50's with w3m
do beautifully for query terminals.

-=-

> Fry's sells cable ties with a little tag on one end where, as you said,
> you can write with a Sharpie.

I dislike those because they make the cables even harder to pull out of 
bundle.  And if you cinch them down quite hard you probably pinch the 
jacket and break the electrical spec -- not that anyone will notice, at 
these speeds.

-=-END-=-

Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction.

I will also add that I found a local distributor for Panduit cabling
products locally, and panduit markets a line of these tags (in many
different colors -- yay).  I asked for a quote on these, but haven't
heard anything back.  I will probably poke them with a stick pretty
soon.

Mark
-- 
Mark Allen -- mallen at byte-me.org -- http://www.byte-me.org/~mallen/
PGP: 0x5CDC2161 Mark Allen (Personal Key) <mallen at byte-me.org> 
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