Cable Colors

Tue Jun 17 00:09:42 UTC 2008

JoeSox wrote:
> Hello Newbie here (hopefully I have the correct list),
>
> I was just wondering if anyone knows of a website with recommended
> colors for cables for a new datacenter?
> I have written some things down but I don't want to get stuck saying
> 'darn, I wish I would have bought this color for this type, now I am
> stuck'.
> What standard color to use if voice and data on same interface etc. Thanks.
>   

As you can see, by and large, people assign colors to functions. What 
color to what function varies like the wind. Unlike a previous employer 
whose colo-manager person insisted on using colors to represent cable 
lengths (Doh!), color -> function mapping seems pretty universal.

About 7% of the male population in the US has red-green colorblindness, 
so keep that in mind. Simpler schemes trump more complex ones (as do 
most things in networking) and makes cable-purchasing/stocking less of 
an issue.

--Peter