Which P-Touch should I have?

Fri Feb 17 05:20:37 UTC 2012

I don't suppose anyone follows the TIA-606-B Administration Standard for the
Telecommunications Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings when labeling
things like cables.

-----Original Message-----
From: Owen DeLong [mailto:owen at delong.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 10:42 PM
To: William Herrin
Cc: NANOG
Subject: Re: Which P-Touch should I have?

> 
> For cable labeling I've had good results with 3M Scotch Super88 color 
> electrical tape. Pick unique color bands for each cable. Band it 
> identically at both ends. You don't have to squint to see how it's 
> labeled. And the label isn't invalidated merely because you unplugged 
> it from one place and plugged it in somewhere else.
> 

I usually use labels printed on all sides in about a 14 point font that have
a unique number followed by a - and a length. So, for example, 10294-4.5 is
a 4.5' long cable number 10294.

You might need to squint a bit to read it, but, 14 points is usually pretty
legible and being printed 4 times on the label (3 of which remain visible on
the average cat5/cat6 cable) means you usually don't have to futz with
twirling the cable to find the label.

I usually have the labels installed ~2" from the plug at each end.

In a crowded deployment, I think the color bands would be like trying to
read resistor color codes in a box of ~1,000 mixed resistors. You're going
to end up squinting anyway.  With my tactic, you have the additional
advantage that you get a defined search radius within which the other end
can be located.

Using serial-number labels instead of equipment-specific labels means that
mine aren't invalidated either.

Owen