CablesAndKits Blog

Happy Monday! We hope you had a wonderful weekend! Wishing you a productive week as you gear up for the holiday season. If we can be praying for you, please let us know!

In This Issue: CK Giving Day 6 | Meraki Access Point | 5 Tips to Stretch Your IT Budget | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – CK Giving Day 6, Habitat for Humanity and The Carter Center

We’ve invited each member of our team to advance our giving efforts and provide us with an organization they are passionate about to donate $500 to. Enjoy Joi Harris’ story below on the organization they selected.

Homelessness drastically affects the city of Atlanta. As the weather begins to change for the winter, many homeless people have nowhere to turn. Habitat for Humanity is working to provide better and more affordable housing for families in need. I remember sleeping in my care for extra credit in college to raise awareness for the homeless students on campus. It opened my eyes to the struggles of some of my peers. But even more, made me think about how many homeless people do not have cars. We barely made it through the night, trying to do homework in the car, and to think, we experienced only a fraction of what many homeless people actually go through on a daily basis. This experience affected my views on homelessness. I am grateful for Habitat for Humanity working to make a change for the homeless community.

If you’re interested in donating to Habitat for Humanity and The Carter Center you can do so here!

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Product Spotlights & Updates

The Meraki MR46-HW raises the bar to new heights when it comes to wireless performance and efficiency. This cloud-managed access point features 4×4:4 MU-MIMO and 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 making it perfect for next-generation deployments in everything from offices and schools to shops and hotels. It offers the best of all worlds with high throughput, enterprise-grade security, and simple management through the Meraki dashboard.

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Learning Center Article – 5 Tips to Stretch Your IT Budget

One of the great challenges facing every IT department and provider in the business is the limited budget. IT experts can spend all of your money in a flash. There is always something newer, faster, and better to pursue. But, IT investments don’t come with guaranteed returns.

In this article, you’ll find five specific tips that help you get more while spending less. Implement these ideas, and you’ll have an easier time staying within your budget while still finding ways to improve your IT resources and assets along the way.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• “Kidults” have a great fondness for cartoons, Star Wars and Lego. In recent years, toy makers such as Mattel have created lines just for these consumers. These kids at heart are responsible for one-fourth of all toy sales annually.
• Mesa Airlines’ CEO said that the regional carrier will wind down its flying for American Airlines and that it is close to an agreement to fly those jets for United Airlines.
• James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” snared $134 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend.
• Twitter said it will no longer allow users to promote other social media accounts on its platform.

Happy Monday & Happy Answer the Phone like Buddy the Elf Day! What better day than a Monday to add some elf behavior to your calls?!

In This Issue: On the 6th Day of Bundlemas… | Do I need the latest server? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – On the 6th Day of Bundlemas…

We will unveil a new bundle for you to take advantage of each day. We hope you enjoy!🎄 If you don’t see a bundle you’re looking for, reach out! We’re happy to build one for you.

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On the 6th day of Bundlemas, CK gave to me…a 4 pack of Cisco 7945G Two line Color Display IP Phones.

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Learning Center Article – Do I need the latest server?

Data centers aren’t cheap. Just the cost of power requirements for keeping your equipment running can be staggering. Adding the cost of new servers can often feel like too much. If you have high demands and a tight budget, you need a way to get more power and performance for every dollar spent. For most applications, the easiest way to do this is to look at refurbished servers and parts.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Southwest Airlines reached a settlement with the Department of Transportation for a $140 million fine over last year’s holiday meltdown. The airline separately paid some $600 million to reimburse and refund stranded travelers.
• GM plans to lay off about 1,300 workers in Michigan starting early next year due to vehicles they produce ending production. The largest of the layoffs were expected. They include 945 workers at Orion Assembly who build Chevrolet Bolt models, which are ending production after this year.
• Adobe and Figma, the cloud-based design tool, will terminate their planned $20 billion merger in light of regulatory hurdles.
• A leading poultry producer in Arkansas has issued a recall of around 26,550 pounds of TGI Fridays-branded boneless chicken bites over concerns they “may be contaminated with extraneous material,” the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reported.

Happy National Talk In an Elevator, Chicken Wing, and Lasagna day! Looks like the perfect day to enjoy a conversation in the elevator on your way to snag your favorite chicken wings and lasagna. 😋

In This Issue: Same Day Shipping | MPO Cable, 12-Strand, OM4 | Autonomous vs Lightweight Access Points | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – Same Day Shipping

Are you in a bind and working late? While many of our competitors close their doors to shipping new orders at 5 pm, our shipping department is in full swing picking and packing orders. As long as what you need is in stock and you place your order before 8 pm eastern time, we’ll guarantee it will ship out the same day. That means less worry and stress about that last-minute project addition or that critical piece of gear that you need immediately. Plus, you get the benefit of enjoying FREE shipping on orders over $250 and $8.99 flat-rate shipping!

Pretty sweet, right?!

Also, we’re going to continue the same cadence next week that we did this week for the CK Daily. We’re going to give our team one more week off from contributing – but fear not! They’ll be back refreshed and ready to go!

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Our MPO Essentials line of fiber cables features high-quality, precision-built connectors that ensure secure connections for stable transmission with minimal optical loss. This female-to-female cable features 12 strands of laser-optimized cable that allows you to drastically increase your network bandwidth. Additionally, this cable is made with a durable, Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH) jacket. As with all of our products, these cables come with a Lifetime Advanced Replacement Warranty meaning that you can purchase risk-free knowing your satisfaction is guaranteed!

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Learning Center Article – Autonomous vs Lightweight Access Points

When you design a wireless network, you need to have all of your options available from the beginning. When you know what choices exist, you can select from them and make the best network possible.

In that spirit, it can help to understand the primary difference in types of access points. For the most part, a wireless access point can be autonomous or lightweight. This article will go over the main distinctions between these access points and how they can be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on your network’s design and purpose.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• The Mega Millions jackpot is up to $1.1 billion and the drawing is tonight! The cash payout on that grand prize would be $648.2 million.
• NASA announced that it had made major changes to its plan for returning samples from the surface of Mars in the early 2030s. Currently being collected by the Perseverance rover, the samples are set to be moved to Earth by a relay of rovers and rockets.
• Spirit Airlines has agreed to sell itself to JetBlue Airways for $3.8 billion. JetBlue now needs approval from the Justice Department to complete the deal.
• The House has passed a bill that will boost the US semiconductor manufacturing capacity to provide billions in funding for scientific research.

Happy Wednesday! Today is National Take a Walk in the Park Day and Manatee Appreciation Day! Seems like the perfect day to take a walk in the park and maybe even search for a manatee? If you’re near water you may have better luck, but the rest of us can at least look for manatee-shaped clouds!

In This Issue: CK Giving – Right to Play | Cisco Compatible DB9 to RJ45 Console Cable | Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which do you need? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – CK Giving – Right to Play

Today we’d like to highlight Sterling’s CK Giving organization. Sterling chose Right to Play and shared, “I wanted to give to this organization as sports is one of those things that shaped me and helped me become who I am today. This organization helps children across the globe who face hardship and challenges. For me, sports always taught me how to break boundaries and instill positive values in my life and taught me many important life lessons. One quote as reigned true to me throughout playing soccer, “I learned all about life with a ball at my feet” and I hope more people can experience something similar to as I did.”

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Simply put, our 6 foot, Cisco compatible Blue RJ45 to DB9 Rollover Console Cables (or management cables) are null-modem cables that allow users the ability to communicate and configure a networking device. These particular null modem cables are “rolled over” meaning that on connector A pin 1 connects to pin 8 on connector B, pin 2 to pin 7 respectively, and so on. The wiring is exactly the opposite on one connector as it is on the other. This wiring allows users to configure various network devices by attaching the DB9 female portion of the cord to the serial port on your computer, and the RJ45 plug into the device (router, firewall, switch, etc.). Why make the switch? This type of one-piece cable replaces older “kits” that contained multiple cables and adapters.

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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:

• Google issued the warning on its official Chrome blog, revealing that Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux is vulnerable to a new ‘zero-day’ hack. Zero-day is the most dangerous form of attack because it means the vulnerability is known to hackers before Google could issue a fix.
• More than 3,000 bp retail locations will become available on the Uber Eats platform over the next three years to support the growing demand for the fast delivery of ​​food, groceries and everyday essentials.
• Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening robot-powered micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S. to fill customers’ prescriptions as the role of stores and pharmacists change.
• The popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, which lets users earn money as they play, is connected to what could be the largest decentralized finance, or DeFi, hack in history. Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network said it lost around $615 million in USDC (a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin) and Ethereum, surpassing the $611 million hack of the DeFi protocol Poly Network in August 2021.

Happy Thursday! The weekend is just around the corner, do you have any plans?! It’ll be a long weekend for most, so we hope you get some extra time to relax.

Note: CablesAndKits will be closed on Monday, September 2nd. We will be back in the office on Tuesday, September 3rd ready to get your orders out the door!

In This Issue: A Moment for the Floppy Disk | DB9 Male to Male Slim Serial Coupler | How Do Fiber Patch Cables Enhance Network Performance? | News to Start Your Day

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The CK Daily – A Moment for the Floppy Disk

Happy Thursday!

Remember the days when storage space was measured in kilobytes and carrying a stack of floppy disks was the norm? Back in the late 1970s and 80s, floppy disks were revolutionary. With their flexible design and capacity to store up to 1.44MB (quite a lot at the time!), they became the go-to medium for transferring files, sharing software, and even playing games. While we’ve moved on to cloud storage and terabyte drives, there’s no denying that the floppy disk played a crucial role in shaping the early days of computing.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate this piece of tech history that paved the way for the devices we rely on today. What’s your favorite throwback tech memory?

The CK Team

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Product Spotlights & Updates

Need to stretch your limits? Don’t buy all new cables; instead invest in some cable extenders. Our DB9 Male to Male Slim Serial Coupler allows allows the female connectors of two cables to be connected to extend your cable length. These small frame extenders are the perfect solution to saving money and saving your network.

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Learning Center Article – How Do Fiber Patch Cables Enhance Network Performance?

Ever wondered why your network might be lagging despite high-end routers and switches? Fiber patch cables might be the missing link. Fiber patch cables transmit data at lightning speeds over great distances without loss.

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Today’s News to Start Your Day:

• Something Wicked this way comes from Betty Crocker!
  The household pantry staple brand teamed up with the musical/fantasy movie on two new Halloween-ready products that we fear every kid and magic-loving adult will want to get their hands on.
• Fall season doesn’t have to be all pumpkin spice lattes and apple cider doughnuts. Dairy Queen can also help you get cozy with some frozen treats from its newly launched fall menu—and there are now seven new Blizzards to choose from! Read more here.
• SpaceX launches are on hold after a booster rocket toppled over in flames while landing Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and ordered an investigation following the predawn accident off the Florida coast.
• Calling all chocolate and peanut butter lovers, Reese’s new Chocolate Lava Big Cup is here. This new launch from Reeses is available starting this month nationwide and will come in two sizes: standard and king size.