In network design, one of the most important decisions you’re going to make is finding and installing the right cable for your network. You can hire a professional data cabling contractor, but you should still know what they’re doing and what to look for so you know its being installed right the first time.
After choosing the right cable for you, make sure its consistently running through out your organization in order to guarantee optimal performance. If you don’t follow a few rules, it could lead to you paying for an installation that doesn’t even work.
Your cable should never run more than 100 meters in length, including patch cables. The horizontal run shouldn’t be longer than 90 meters.
Another thing you need to watch out for is interference. You should never run your cables near cooling/heating units, copiers, printers, electrical wire, video equipment, or anything else that produces an electromagnetic field. Keeping the cable about 3 feet away from any EMF (electromagnetic field) generating machines should help optimize performance. Fluorescent lights also have a negative effect on UTP cables, causing interference, so keeping them away form the cables is vital.