Archives for July 2022

Have you herd? Today is an udderly awry day – Cow Appreciation Day! It’s quite a moo-ving experience to witness several people gathering dressed as cows, but is tons of fun! Have you participated in Cow Day before?

In This Issue: Summer Cold | Kendall Howard 1U Snap-In Flat Spacer Blank | Single Mode vs Multimode Fiber Cables | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Summer Cold

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is off to a great start this week! I’m trying to bounce back after having a bit of a cold for the past week. I don’t think of Summer as a time when colds are going around, but I guess when you spend enough time around little kids every season is cold season! Thankfully this one wasn’t terrible, but I definitely feel like I’ve been cooped up inside and having to take it easy for way too long!

Looking forward to getting back to 100% and getting back to living an active life as soon as possible! I hope you all have a great week and stay well!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Covering all open slots on your equipment rack makes it more attractive and also improves airflow in racks that utilize fans to circulate air, making your networking equipment run cooler and last longer. These Kendall Howard 1U Snap-In Flat Spacer Blanks add strength to racking systems and improve air circulation in racks that utilize fans.

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Learning Center Article – Single Mode vs Multimode Fiber Cables

Fiber optics are essential for building the most capable networks, but when making design choices, there are plenty of options that serve fiber optics in general. One of the primary choices available to any network engineer exists between single-mode fiber and multimode fiber.

These are physically different approaches to fiber optics communication, and as such, they offer different strengths and weaknesses. To effectively choose the right design for your network, it helps to have a better understanding of what separates these types of cables.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Heinz Field is no more. Just over two decades after opening its doors alongside the Ohio River, the Steelers’ longtime home will be renamed Acrisure Stadium starting in 2022, the team announced Monday. Heinz, the famous Pittsburgh-headquartered ketchup company, opted out of extending its naming rights deal.
• Amazon Prime Day 2022 is officially here! There are tons of amazing Amazon Prime Day deals to shop today – check out a few solid deals here.
• India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2023.
• A Canadian runner unofficially broke a Guinness World Record for joggling — juggling while running — when he reached a distance of 6.2 miles in 34 minutes and 47 seconds.

Happy Monday! We hope you have a wonderful week this week and are feeling back to normal after the holiday season and shorter week. Let us know how we can be praying for you this week!

In This Issue: Prepping Tips | Cisco 3825 Router Fan 1 / Fan 2 Replacement | Cat7 Ethernet: Beginning & End | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Prepping Tips

Happy Monday!

We’ve been getting some pretty gnarly storms here in the northeast Georgia area and they reminded me to do my annual hurricane prep checkup. You read that right! Hurricane preparedness for someone who lives about 250 miles away from the nearest coastline. Well, I used to not worry so much about hurricanes until hurricane Irma decided to give Georgia a visit in September of 2017. This resulted in 1.5 million households without power and for my family, it resulted in an awful 4 days without power or water. Luckily we had enough food and water to last us, but it wasn’t very comfortable.

One huge lesson I learned from the whole experience is that you never have enough water. This is not only for drinking, but flushing toilets, showering, washing dishes, cleaning, and hand washing. Most official preparedness sites recommend a gallon per person per day, but I would treat that as a minimum and recommend doubling that if you can, and although it’s a bit extreme, I would recommend at least 5 days’ worth of supplies instead of the recommended 3 days. If you are new to disaster prepping and need a list, www.ready.gov/kit has a pretty good basic list of supplies if you want to start getting prepared. Tailor this list to your needs and situation. This kit can not only help you with a hurricane, but floods, storms, fires, and other disasters and emergencies.

Now is the best time to start and I recommend everyone have a kit and a plan. If you live in the southeast/mid-Atlantic area where hurricanes like to visit, the NOAA is predicting an above-average hurricane activity this year, so now when it’s quiet is the best time to take some action. Do you have any prepping tips that are a must? Would love to hear your strategies and thoughts!

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Keep your cool under pressure with help from CablesAndKits. We’ve got the Cisco 3825 Router Fan 1 / Fan 2 Replacement you need to keep your router cool. Increased airflow is essential to maintaining a healthy and efficient router. This single replacement fan will work for Fan 1 or Fan 2 in Cisco 3825 routers.

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Learning Center Article – Cat7 Ethernet: Beginning & End

Ethernet has been a staple in networking for decades. When copper cables can provide enough throughput, they tend to be much cheaper and easier to use than other connection types. Ethernet is the king of simplicity, and that’s a major part of why it is so popular.

Over the many years of Ethernet’s use, it has seen incremental improvements and upgrades. As internet access expanded in the 90s and 2000s, many home networks started off with Cat5 cabling. For faster networks, Cat6 was frequently chosen. Today, you will see that even in data centers Cat8 is a good choice. But, you won’t often see Cat7 cables anywhere. Why is that?

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• A fire in California’s Sierra Nevada continued to expand Sunday, with sprinklers deployed to protect the cherished giant sequoia trees of Mariposa Grove. The blaze in Yosemite National Park was measured at 2,044 acres by evening. It had no containment, and it was likely to continue to grow amid light winds and hot conditions.
• Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” scored big at the box office during its opening weekend, earning $143 million in North America, a franchise-best for the Thor film series.
• The second of two consecutive “supermoons” will be glowing brightly in the night sky this week, as the full “buck moon” of July 2022 rises and gives sky watchers a special summer treat. Learn more here.
• Elon Musk wants to end his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, according to a letter sent by a lawyer on his behalf to the company’s chief legal officer Friday. But Twitter’s board chair Bret Taylor said the company is still committed to closing the deal at the agreed-upon price and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.

Happy National Freezer Pop Day! Today is the perfect day to grab your favorite flavor and cool off. Which one is your go-to flavor?

In This Issue: A Week of Celebrations | Cisco 8821 Unified Color Wireless VOIP Phone | What is the difference between OS2, OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, and OM5? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – A Week of Celebrations

Happy Friday, folks! This week is exciting! Of course, we celebrated Independence Day on the 4th. But the other exciting event around our house is my oldest daughter turned 14 this week.

As I reflect on her birthdays, it’s fun to see how the birthday celebrations have changed over time. The first few were influenced by what we wanted (cake, anyone?). Now, we let her decide most, maybe even all, of the details. This year she has a few friends coming over and wants a very long water slide on the downhill portion of our yard. So we have purchased a roll of plastic sheeting and will put a blow-up pool at the bottom to slow them down (otherwise, they would slide into trees at the woodline!). Here is a video that shows what I’m talking about.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

This Cisco CP-8821-K9 wireless IP phone is ideal for both users in office environments as well as in rigorous workspaces. This phone is rugged and can stand up to shock, dust, and water.

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Learning Center Article – What is the difference between OS2, OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, and OM5?

When it comes to fiber-optic networks, there are a lot of options in how a network is designed. Ultimately, the demands of the network will determine which cable is best for any given job. Still, you need to have a clear understanding of the different fiber cables in order to make that decision.

While the complete list of design differences could fill several books, you can understand the critical variations in design in a few minutes. This quick guide will highlight the characteristics of OS2, OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, and OM5 fiber cables.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election.
• GameStop has fired its Chief Financial Officer, Mike Recupero, and is making staff cuts across departments as part of an aggressive turnaround plan.
• Walmart won’t be doing its own event to rival Amazon Prime Day this year. The big-box giant, like other retailers, has typically thrown its own overlapping sales event. Yet this year, much of its merchandise is already on sale. Bright yellow “Clearance” signs have become a fixture in many stores in recent weeks, and its website is touting thousands of Rollbacks, a signature term for the discounter’s 90-day price cuts, on bicycles, air fryers and more.
• Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to a drug-smuggling charge on Thursday after months of being held in Russian detention. During her appearance in court, Griner maintained that her “intent” was not to violate Russian law. She could face up to 10 years in prison.

Happy Thursday! We are getting closer and closer to the end of this short week. Who’s ready for the weekend? Do you have big plans?

In This Issue: Feeling the “lag” | Cisco 40GBase-SR4 QSFP+ Transceiver Module | Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which do you need? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Feeling the “lag”

Good Thursday morning!

Is anyone else still feeling “lag” from the holiday weekend? Who would have thought that just one day out of a normal routine could have such a huge effect on the mind and body…good and bad. You would think I would be used to it by now but nope…every holiday or long weekend. It was a great weekend, though. I ate way too much food and got a little too much sun, but it was an awesome weekend with friends and a lot of pool time. Yesterday was the first day that I really started getting back into my normal routine and at least trying to get back to my normal eating habits. The eating thing again has been the hard part. Haha! I went for a six-mile run yesterday and my legs felt like they had weights on them and by mile one I was ready to quit, but I pressed on and felt so much better afterward. I am hoping my run (and eating) today goes even better. I love having a break from routine but it is nice getting back to normal quickly.

We are halfway through Summer, and for some Summer break is almost over with school starting back up for kids, but what plans do you have left? More trips? Landscaping? Back to school shopping? I have one more trip planned in two weeks to Savannah. Looking forward to getting out of town for a few days and relaxing. Of course, I will probably be just getting back into my normal routine when I leave and then have to do it all over again. Haha!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend!

Jason

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Product Spotlights & Updates

These Cisco original 40G QSFP+ modules are some of the most popular on the market today and are in many ways comparable to their popular 10G counterpart, SFP-10G-SR. These 40GBase-SR4 modules are parallel optic transceivers that are ideal for short-range reaches. These transceivers utilize MPO/MTP connectors, operate on OM3 or OM4 multimode fiber (MMF), and use 850nm lasers. These modules utilize 8 of the 12 MPO/MTP fibers to transmit data over 4 duplex (4 sending and 4 receiving) parallel channels at a rate of 10Gbps/channel resulting in 40Gbps speeds.

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Learning Center Article – Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which do you need?

Switches are one of the core pieces of almost any major network. They manage traffic routing for Ethernet-connected devices. As such, they provide stable, fast means of communication for any device across the network.

If you run a business network, you’ll need some kind of switch, and when you look into it, you’ll find that there are two competing types of switches: managed and unmanaged.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• At 86 years old, American Airlines flight attendant Bette Nash is the oldest and longest-serving flight attendant in the world, according to Guinness World Records. Nash started flying back in 1957 and will celebrate 65 years in-flight this fall.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation. Johnson said he would stay until the Conservative party picks a new leader, despite multiple people, including his two latest cabinet appointments, calling on him to step down immediately amid ethics scandals.
• A rural Georgia monument that some conservative Christians have criticized as satanic and that others have dubbed “America’s Stonehenge” was bombed before dawn on Wednesday in an attack that turned one of its four granite panels into rubble. The Georgia Guidestones monument near Elberton was damaged by an explosive device, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said. The Elbert County Emergency Management Agency said the explosion was seen on video cameras shortly after 4 a.m.
• Alaska wildlife officials have killed four black bears in a campground recently reserved for people in Anchorage who are homeless after the city’s largest shelter was closed. Employees from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Tuesday killed a sow and her two cubs and another adult bear that was acting separately, stealing food from tents inside Centennial Park, which is managed by the city

Happy Hump Day and Happy National Fried Chicken Day! It’s the perfect day to enjoy some fried chicken at your favorite restaurant!

In This Issue: Adventures in the Keys! | ST-ST Multimode Simplex Fiber Optic Cable Adapter | What are SFP’s? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Adventures in the Keys!

Happy Wednesday!

I hope your weekend festivities were fun and safe! This week I’m spending time with family in the Florida Keys – such a beautiful place to be. We’ve been exploring some of the keys off of the main land and it’s been awesome! We visited Indian Key and Lignumvitae Key and they are both so full of history. It’s also neat to see how protected they are in hopes to preserve some of the natural greenery and aquatic life.

Have you visited any of the Keys?

Have a great week!

Ashley

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Product Spotlights & Updates

These Simplex Fiber Optic Cable Adapters can be used to provide a connection between ST fiber cables and are compliant with international standards, making them compatible with a wide range of fiber optic applications.

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Learning Center Article – What are SFP’s?

High-end networking demands high-end equipment. You have a plethora of options, but eventually, you have to make decisions on which technology covers each of your applications. When considering all of those options, an understanding of SFP transceivers is pivotal. It’s a core technology that serves as a primary workhorse in many networks. This guide is going to explain all about SFP and its primary uses.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• A fossilized skeleton of a T. rex relative that roamed the earth about 76 million years ago will be auctioned in New York this month.
• After it successfully detached from its orbit around Earth on Monday, NASA operators lost contact with the Capstone spacecraft, which is meant to be on a four-month journey to the moon. Bloomberg reported that a team is trying to figure out why they lost contact and re-establish connection with the unmanned, microwave-sized spacecraft.
• A Maryland man who won a $50,000 prize from a Pick 5 lottery drawing said his numbers came from an unusual source — his Uber driver’s license plate.
• An Idaho man broke a Guinness World Record by using his hands to snap 83 matches in 30 seconds. David Rush, who has broken nearly 250 Guinness World Records to promote STEM education, said he worked to refine his technique after setting the one-minute version of the same record at 91 matches in 2019.

Happy Tuesday! We hope you had a relaxing and safe 4th of July weekend with friends and family. We hope you have a short week ahead!

In This Issue: 4th of July Traditions | Yealink EHS40 Headset Adapter | Best Practices for Cable Management in Data Centers | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – 4th of July Traditions

Good Morning & Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

About every minute of mine was spent with the kids and/or the family. It was jam-packed with fun and festivities! We baked a birthday cake for America using blueberries for “stars” and strawberries for “stripes”. We went to see a fireworks show by the City of Athens on Saturday night, attended a fun little neighborhood golf cart parade Monday morning, and had a family cookout and shot off some of our own fireworks last night! It was a lot of fun and it’s such a joy passing down traditions and love of country to the little ones.

What are some fun 4th of July traditions that you have?

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Compatible with Yealink T58A / T57W / T54W / T53W / T53 / T48S / T46S / T42S / T41S IP Phones, the new advanced Yealink EHS40 Headset Adapter guarantees optimum efficiency in reception areas, call centers and offices. It is approved for using with wireless models made by major manufacturers, including Jabra, Plantronics, and Sennheiser. With its ‘plug-and-play’ feature, it enables you seamless and flexibility to answer and hang up calls remotely.

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Learning Center Article – Best Practices for Cable Management in Data Centers

Every network administrator in the world has a horror story about cable management. In data centers, those horror stories grow into genuine nightmares. If enough people work on a system for a long enough period of time, the cables will eventually turn into some type of Ethernet vine monster. Only strict adherence to cable management practices can prevent this disaster. The best practices listed in this article assume you already know some of the basics. Instead, they’re aimed to help you avoid subtler missteps that occur frequently in modern data centers.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Frankfurter-munching phenom Joey “Jaws” Chestnut gobbled his way to a 15th win Monday at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, powering down 63 hot dogs and buns at the annual exhibition of excess.
• Firefighters responded to a Walmart store in Tennessee to rescue a kitten heard mewing from inside a Pepsi vending machine. Read more here.
• Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” generated more than $108 million in ticket sales during its domestic opening weekend.
• Baxter, a joey at a Baton Rouge enclosure, escaped with the help of a parrot named Thor, who learned to open a door.