CablesAndKits Blog

We’re just popping in today to say, Happy National Popcorn Day! This time-honored snack can be sweet or savory, caramelized, buttered or plain, molded into a candied ball, or tossed with nuts and chocolate. What’s your favorite version to enjoy?

In This Issue: Meet Shiara! | OM4 40G 50/125 Multimode Duplex Fiber Patch Cable | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Meet Shiara!

Good morning and Happy Wednesday to each of you!

I wanted to take the time to introduce you to a new team member of our Customer Solutions Team, Shiara! She brings over 7 years of customer service experience from a number of well-known companies that you and I might have dealt with in the past.

Some pretty cool things I’ve gotten to know about Shiara is that she speaks multiple languages, and she has a love of creating process documents, which y’all know warm my heart. In my opinion, process documents make the work world go around!

As you might have read a few months ago, I am on the mission to ensure the solutions team is able to assist every single person who contacts us, so having Shiara on the team is a step towards us getting to our goal.

If you happen to talk to Shiara, be sure to give her a welcome!

Shanyce

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Product Spotlights & Updates

OM4 patch cables take all the benefits of OM3 fiber and increase the transmission bandwidth up to 40gbs, and in some cases 100gbs. OM4, like, OM3, is laser-optimized to give optimum performance and reliability. Unlike other old fiber types, OM4 has a higher attenuation that helps create lower losses over greater distances.

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Learning Center Article – What is the difference between LSZH and OFNR?

With the many types of fiber cables and then the components that make each of them up, it can be very confusing to know what fiber cable is the best overall for your business. One of the biggest questions we get is “What is the difference between OFNR fiber cables and LSZH fiber cables?”

While they seem like the same thing, they are really two very different. Read more about the difference here.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Free COVID test kits are now available to order via USPS.
• In 2016, YouTube made a big push into producing original content, but after more than six years and several major setbacks, “YouTube Originals” is being shut down in favor of pursuing different investment opportunities.
• Major international airlines are modifying or canceling flights to the United States amid uncertainty about potential interference between new 5G cell phone services and critical airplane technologies.
• The Biden administration will make 400 million highly protective N95 masks available to Americans for free.

Happy Tuesday! What a week it has been with lots of snow all around. Do you spend time playing in the snow – sledding, building a snowman, shoveling lots of snow? We’d love to see some photos!

In This Issue: The Training Continues | HP ML350 Generation 8 | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – The Training Continues

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! Last week I mentioned that I was going to be running a marathon on Sunday, but you know what they say about the best laid plans! Unfortunately, I got sick on Tuesday and my friend who was supposed to run with me got sick mid-week as well! We were fairly certain we’d have to bag the race, but the decision was ultimately made for us as the marathon ended up getting canceled due to weather. Needless to say, it was more than a little defeating to realize that we put in months of work for a race that wasn’t going to happen.

That said, there’s no sense in dwelling on the negative or throwing a pity party so we pretty quickly turned our attention to trying to find a backup race! Finding one that worked for both of our schedules proved to be a challenge, but I think we have found a solution. So while we may have to extend the misery of training for a few more weeks, with any luck we’ll both have some sweet medals in the near future! I hope you are all having a great week and staying well!

Rebecca

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The ML350 G8 server is an up-gradable, performance-based, dual processor tower that delivers superior performance and expand-ability. The sixth iteration of the ML350 now has more memory capacity and hard drive compatibility than previous generations. The ML350 G6 has: (2) Intel Xeon E5-2609 (2.40GHz/4-Core/10MB/80W) processors, (9) expansion slots, and (24) DIMM slots. The ML350 G8 sever has a maximum memory of 768GB of ram.

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Learning Center Article – How to Choose the Right Fiber Connector: PC vs UPC vs APC

When joining fiber optic cables, connectors are everything. These highly sensitive networks live or die by how cleanly and efficiently the cables join inside of the connector. Because of that, there are many different connector designs, each catering to different uses and design philosophies.

If you are trying to determine which is best for your system, here is a quick comparison can help with your selection.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Ralph Lauren brand is chasing money-making opportunities in the metaverse.
• Microsoft will buy video game giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion all-cash deal.
• Google recently released a feature that allows users to quickly send data, like photos or documents, to a nearby person with a Chromebook or Android device.
• You can watch live as a humongous asteroid flies safely past our planet today.

Happy MLK Day! Today we honor activist and Civil Rights Movement leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Today, we will leave you with this quote, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

In This Issue: Change of Scenery | Cisco 8841 Five line Color Display IP Phone | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Change of Scenery

Happy Monday! And Happy MLK Day! This weekend we experienced a once in a year event in the part of Georgia where I live… snow! We had a pretty nice couple of inches of powdery snowfall in our neck of the woods. My family was very fortunate that we didn’t lose power or have any downed trees nearby, which is always something of concern during these rare events. My children had fun building snowmen, throwing snowballs, and eating snow. We also did a lot of bird watching out of our living room window. Our feeder had lots of different visitors from chickadees, bluebirds, cardinals, and even a woodpecker (A Yellow-bellied sapsucker).

I am grateful for the change of scenery and grateful for time spent together with my family. If you had snow over the weekend, I hope you enjoyed it, especially if you are in the South where snow isn’t too common. I’m sure our Northern readers who’ve had snow all winter are probably over it by now haha! Anyways, I hope you have a great day and a great week!

Cris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Cisco 8841 IP desk phone was designed to meet the needs of small and large businesses alike. This business-class phone is an attractive, ergonomic, and highly functional phone. It uses wideband audio which means you hear voice communication with clarity. It also includes a 5-inch high-resolution widescreen VGA backlit color display, 5 programmable line keys, and it supports a built-in Gigabit Ethernet switch for PC connections.

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Learning Center Article – What does 5G mean for business networks?

There is a lot of technology generating excitement for more applications than we could hope to name. One central theme to virtually all of that technology is an increased demand for data and a need of higher bandwidth for connectivity. More devices than ever are actively communicating, and they are placing massive burdens on existing infrastructure.

Copper networks and 4G wireless have a shelf life. Within the next couple of years, they will no longer be able to service standard demands — much less cutting-edge applications. Ultimately, we all need a network that is built for the new age of connectivity. That network will run on 5G.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• You can watch an NBA game courtside – in the metaverse!
• An underwater volcano near Tonga has erupted for the third time in four days, threatening the ability of surveillance flights to assess the damage to the Pacific island nation.
• You’ve probably heard this playground legend: Daddy longlegs are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs are too short to bite you. Is this really true?
• Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of NFTs.

Happy Friday! We hope you had a wonderful week and are looking forward to the weekend. Do you have any weekend plans? For some of us, we’re grabbing the salt and sled, and crossing our fingers we actually get some snow!!

In This Issue: Snow ❄️ | Cisco 3850 Series PoE+ 48 Port Switch | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Snow ❄️

It’s Friday! I hope that each of you had a fantastic week! Here in Northeast Georgia, we’re preparing for the possibility of some winter weather. I’m generally not a fan of cold weather except when it snows. This typically happens no more than once each winter, which I’m ok with. We take the opportunity to make memories of playing in the snow. Now, after the snow melts, I’m ready for the warm weather and longer days of daylight to return!

How do you enjoy the snow? Sledding? Or building a snowman?

Chris

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Cisco 3850 Series of switches is an industry-leading, enterprise-class series of access switches that offers superior performance, scalability, and reliability. The Catalyst 3850 Series is the first to feature a built-in wireless controller with up to 40 Gbps of capacity on 48-port models. Further, it supports up to 100 access points and 2,000 wireless clients per switching entity (or stack). These switches are stackable up to 9 members and come equipped with Cisco’s popular StackPower technology.

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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 in this Learning Center article are 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:

• The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies.
• “Baby Shark” has become the first YouTube video to surpass 10 billion views.
• More than 350,000 people will get small payouts and 66,000 people will have their student loan debt canceled as part of a settlement between student loan company Navient.
• A forgotten well oil in West Texas has birthed a 100-Foot geyser.

Happy National Sticker Day! Here at CK, we love stickers. Do you have a collection of CK stickers? We’d love to see them!

In This Issue: New Smoker Recipes | Yealink MP56-TEAMS Teams Edition Phone | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – New Smoker Recipes

Happy Thursday!

Man, this week has flown by! I keep losing track of my days. Maybe that is a first-of-the-year thing, a getting older thing, or a combo of both. Haha!

Last weekend I had some friends come into town from out of state and it was a great time of catching up, doing some home improvement projects, building stuff, and eating A LOT! Of course, eating is always one of the best things. We always try and grill out or smoke something in the smoker that we never have before when we all get together. This time we grilled some amazing pork chops, but the second item stole the show for the whole weekend. We did a smoked meatloaf on the Green Egg. Now, I am not a big meatloaf fan, never have been. I have never even cooked a normal meatloaf in my life, but I figured I would give it a try. Let me say, it was one of the most amazing things I have eaten. I was pleasantly surprised. We had so much of it that I had it again on Sunday and then used the rest of it in a homemade spaghetti sauce on Monday.

I have done the normal stuff in the Green Egg and a few different items like deep-dish pizza, wings, etc. This got me thinking, what else am I missing out on trying to cook in the Green Egg that would not be normal. I want to try Smoked Mac & Cheese, and I would really like to try a Smoked Shepard’s Pie in it.

Great…now I am hungry! If you have any great Green Egg/Smoker recipes or unusual things that might be good to try, send them my way! I am up for trying them out.

Have a great Thursday and rest of your week!

Jason

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The MP56 Teams Edition phone is based on an Android 9 OS and features a bright and beautiful 7″ capacitative touch screen with a Teams-tailored user interface for a rich visual presentation and an easy-to-navigate menu. It also features Yealink Optima HD voice, a dedicated Teams button, and Bluetooth connectivity.

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Learning Center Article – What is Switch Stacking & Why is it Important?

There are countless ways to design a network and meet the criteria it needs to follow. Not all of these methods will be as efficient or affordable as others. That’s why network administrators are constantly learning new concepts.

Switch stacking is commonly used in high-end networking, but many small and medium businesses are missing out on the technique. Take a minute to learn more about a better way to run your network that saves time and money while improving network functionality.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Microsoft has stopped manufacturing all Xbox One consoles.
• Real estate in virtual worlds is going for millions of dollars in some cases. The most expensive spots are near where lots of users congregate — for instance, someone recently paid $450,000 to be Snoop Dogg’s neighbor in a virtual world called the Sandbox.
• Ubiquitous Energy is aiming to turn skyscrapers into vertical solar farms by early 2024.
• European carriers are flying thousands of near-empty planes this winter just to keep their airport slots.

Happy Wednesday! We are halfway through the week – anyone else think it’s been a long one?! What helps you get through a long week?

In This Issue: Balance in Life and Work | AC Power Cord | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Balance in Life and Work

Happy Wednesday!

Things are rocking and rolling over here on the Customer Solutions and Customer Experience side. As I mentioned in the past, I have a new baby on the way, so I’ve been in high gear to ensure my team is ready for my absence.

As I review all our process documents, I am reminded of the importance of having a standard of service and consistently reviewing these documents to ensure we are providing the best service possible to each of you. It’s my belief having these process documents keeps the crew running like a well-oiled machine.

In life, I believe you should always take time to reevaluate important things/tasks in your life to ensure you are truly living your best life. Taking an audit over the things that are important to you keeps you aware, balanced, and conscious of everything going on around you in your space. Let’s remember to keep negativity away and that ability to protect your peace is key!

What are some activities that you do to maintain balance, certainty, and peace in your life and work-life? I would love to learn from you.

Shanyce

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Product Spotlights & Updates

AC power cords are commonly used to connect a piece of equipment to a power distribution unit but also have many other uses. Whether the cords are used in a basic or dense installation, these heavy-duty power cords save time and money. It really doesn’t get much better than that!

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Learning Center Article – Top 5 Reasons Why Your Network Needs A Firewall

It takes a lot to truly secure a business network. If your business is notably successful, then this is doubly true. Nefarious people will want to infiltrate your tech in order to steal money or just wreak havoc. Stopping them isn’t easy, but the first step is to set up a firewall. In fact, there are five specific ways a firewall can help your business. Read more here.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• MLB and Apple are in talks to stream live regular-season games during the week. Should Apple land the deal, it would be the company’s first foray into airing live sports.
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land launches March 25th! Who’s excited?!
• The Biden administration announced new initiatives to provide an additional 10 million Covid-19 tests per month to schools and students in an effort to keep classrooms open.
• An asteroid estimated to be 3,451 feet wide will fly by Earth on Jan. 18th. It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour.