Wireless Access

Has anyone found a short, flat, flexible, 6-inch male-to-male Ethernet jumper?

(The male-to-female jumpers that Aruba provides with the AP-220-MNT-W2 would be perfect, if you can get them male-to-male. Aruba: These would be a great addition to the AP-205H package.)

Background:

We are planning to use AP-205H APs to add wifi in older buildings where it is difficult to pull new cable for ceiling mount APs. There are existing single-gang data plates, that have one or two keystone RJ-45 Ethernet jacks. So, I need short flexible male-to-male patch cords to connect the AP to one jack, and (when a second is available) to connect the second jack to the pass-thru port.

Then, everything has to stuff neatly into the junction box. 

Attached is a photo of the short extension (f-to-m) that comes free with the wall mount. I wish they put a m-to-m versions in with the AP-205H

That cable comes with the 205H RAP desk kit.

Thanks! Is that a flexible cable, or is it formed as a U to bridge those two ports? (It looks rigid in the picture.) If it is flexible, can I buy them without the desk kit? I need two per AP when I mount them on a wall box, because I want to connect the data and the pass-through to different wall jacks.

(The fact that I get two free flat cable extensions with each wall mount suggests that they are not too expensive, so why not throw a couple in with each of the 205H APs? All the data junction boxes I've ever seen have female jacks, so we need a short jumper to connect the AP.)

They are flexible but they are not orderable through us, you would need to source them from a 3rd party and I would not have any idea who would be the best place for them. As they don't conform to EIA specs. The google may have good pointers for a 2-3in ethernet jumper.

I've used these before for this situation. The 0.5ft length.

http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10232&cs_id=1023205&p_id=13509&seq=1&format=2

Thanks JHoward.

Since you work for Aruba, can you comment on why we get little jumpers included with the AP-220-MNT-W2 (AP-220 Series Mount Kit Secure), but nothing with the AP-205H?

We have mostly drop ceiling mounts, so I've only used maybe 40 of the MNT-W2, but I've never yet hit an instance when I had to use those little jumpers -- we just feed the cable into the enclosure and plug it directly into the AP.

OTOH, I've needed tiny jumpers for every single one of AP-205H units that I've installed.

If you can include mostly-wasted jumpers in a $50 mount, why not include the almost-always-needed jumpers in a multi-hundred $$ AP?

So the jumper in the W2 and W3 are for when that mount kit is used to surface mount an AP, but there's no port or cable behind the mount and the cable has to come in from the side. You use the jumper and the snap-in coupleler and knock out one of the knockouts for the coupler to snap in to. 

For the 205H, that jumper would ONLY be needed when you are blocking access to the back of the AP and want to redirect the back port to the passthrough into the bottom (like when you use the deskmount kit which blocks all access to the back of the AP). So if you buy the deskmount kit, you will get the small jumper. The umper in the mount is designed only to bridge the two connectors on the back for the passthrough port. 

I'm curious why you need the jumper on the 205H without the deskmount kit? if you are wall mounting the 205H, the port in the back is already accessible. So in your OP, it sounds like you are dealing with tight tolerance to connect the keystone ports in your 1gang box to the 205H, but that is not every customer install as most will pull the terminated RJ45 into the box, or will use a biscuit in the plenum and jumper a longer cable from the biscuit box into the 1gang box the AP mounts to. So while you need it, it's not likely all our other customers will, and as you know, they go with the minimum. 

So for the deskmount, because the mount itself physically blocks access to the back port, that jumper cable is included. For the W2/W3, there is a F-to-M jumper to cover when the W2/W3 is solid wall mounted and the ethernet cannot come from behind the mout (ala thorugh a ceiling) and the cable has to come from/down the wall outside the mount. For all other installs, say to a 1gang/2gang electrical box, it's assumed that there is an RJ45 connector in the box (as that is the vast majority of installs), not a blank/empty keystone jack that would require a MtoM jumper. And outside of that, 6in jumpers are easily acquired. Finding smaller ones are a bit tougher yes. 

I'm wall mounting the 205H in place of an existing double keystone wall plate. I am not jumpering the ports together as shown for the desk mount; I am connecting each port to an existing network jack.

So, you are correct that the ports are accessible from the back, but I have to connect them to a female jack with a jumper, and these jumpers have to fit into the existing junction box in the wall when I mount the AP. One jack powers the AP, and the second is available via the pass-through port on the bottom of the AP.

I believe that replacing a wall plate is a somewhat typical use for this AP. Do most people re-wire so that they have male ends in their wall boxes? That would be a slower install.

I suppose if we ever plan on these as the primary design for a new building, we can have the wall boxes wired with male ends. But so far, we have used ceiling mount APs for new construction, and have only used the 205H as retrofits in spots where we can't easily wire the ceiling. Thus, I'm always connecting to a box with female jacks.

As I stated, most of the installs we see have the customers pull the cable into the box with a male RJ45 terminated that would plug directly into the AP. If keystone jacks are being terminated into the AP's box, that's totally fine but it's on the installer to provide the jumpers to accomodate that interconnect. Just as with all other indoor APs that connect to a box in the ceiling or elsewhere, we don't provide jumper cables for those either, nor does our other competitors include shot male jumpers for their Hospitality products (at least not Ruckus or Cisco when I last looked at their install guides). The jumpers ARE included in the mount because the mount makes it impossible to use any other jumper outside of one custom cut/built for that application (same for the W2/W3 mounts). 

Edit a word.

Sure, makes sense that you don't provide jumpers with standard AP mounts.