EZ 110 Punch Down Tool + RJ45 Crimper (HT-110EZ)

Applications, services and even hardware-based tech such as storage and servers, continue to move out of the datacenter and into the cloud. Still, many organizations have IT staff managing equipment in the datacenter and doing tasks like cabling for telephony and data. These folks are typically networking and/or telecom specialists and they lay the groundwork for smooth-running networks.

To successfully create Ethernet jacks that computers connect to and for terminating Ethernet cables in a way that does not impair the data signal, IT workers need the right tools. Crimpers are used to terminate RJ45 heads?the little plastic plugs that allow an Ethernet cable to fit either into an RJ45 wall jack or the Ethernet port on a computer. I've had numerous experiences with crimpers that did not have the right amount of pressure to make a good crimp as well as the sometimes-flimsy punch down tool that comes with RJ45 jacks?making wiring time-consuming and frustrating.

That's why anyone doing network wiring will appreciate a combo tool such as L-com's EZ 110 Punch Down Tool + RJ45 crimper. It's not only a crimper for terminating Cat 5, 5e or 6 cables, but it also will punch down a 110 IDC RJ45 jack. It's a quality piece of equipment.

The HT-110EZ has a weighty feel; it's solid and easy to tell it's well made. Yet, it's still light enough to throw into a telecom bag and travel with it if you do wiring at multiple sites.

A blue handle serves as the crimping tool. The tool has a latch that you use to secure the handle into the punch-down part of the tool, making it more compact and easy to fit inside a cluttered workbag.

The crimping tool is made for unshielded modular RJ45 plugs. I found it real easy to terminate a network cable. I remember using some crimpers where it took all my hand strength to squeeze and get the cable crimped. Those subpar crimpers are more like hand crampers? especially if you are dealing with lots of cables!

The punch down part of the tool is effective as well. I did a pin-out on a modular 110 RJ45 jack. The blade easily cut through the twisted pair wires. The HT-110EZ provides consistent, quick RJ45 jack wiring?so important for good data communications.

There seems to be a lot less pressure on the jack doing a punch down using the HT-110EZ over an impact tool. One consideration though, with an impact tool you can maneuver a little more with punching down a jack and can check how your wires are positioned before punching down. Since you insert the TJ45 plug into the HT-110EZ's groove for the keystone jack, you have to make sure the cables are all set correctly before inserting the jack into the tool and punching down.

The HT-110EZ lists for $45. That's a bargain if you consider you are getting two common network cabling tools in one: a crimper and a punch down tool. A decent crimper alone can run about $40-$30 dollars, and if you use a regular impact punch down tool (again, a well-made one) that can cost about another $20. So you are getting a good deal with L-com's equipment.

There are a few caveats: If you have a mixed infrastructure, for example, you may have 110 blocks, a 66 block and maybe even a Krone panel, this tool is limited for you, as it is only for 110 blocks. L-com does offer impact tools which have blades you can switch out for different blocks.

Also, once the 2,000 cycle blade use limit is reached, the company won't replace the blade or anything like that. It recommends getting a new HT-110EZ. If you do a lot of cabling work, you may go through the blade in a short time.

Still, this is a tool I would have loved back in the days when I had to wire hundreds of jacks under deadline and regularly made custom network cables. Datacenter wiring remains an integral part of IT network/telecom duties. You need the right tool for the job and L-com's HT-110EZ is the right tool at the right price and earns a 4.5 out of 5 star Editors' Choice for networking tools.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8wF7KxJahn4/0,2817,2417761,00.asp

guinea bissau google stock google stock china gdp dont trust the b in apartment 23 johnny damon kirk cameron

Obama's domestic agenda on the line this week

FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's second term is on the line, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill this week and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget proposal. His victories or defeats will help define his legacy and determine how much political capital he has for the rest of his term. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's second term is on the line, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill this week and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget proposal. His victories or defeats will help define his legacy and determine how much political capital he has for the rest of his term. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Copies of President Barack Obama's proposed federal budget plan for fiscal year 2014 are prepared for delivery at the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Barack Obama hugs Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, accompanied by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., left, after Obama arrived at Bradley Air Force Base, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama is traveling to the Hartford, Conn., to speak at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws with the Sandy Hook families standing behind him. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama, followed by, from second from left, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., walks down the steps of Air Force One at Bradley Air Force Base, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama traveled to the Hartford, Conn., to speak at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws with the Sandy Hook families standing behind him. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's second-term agenda will be robustly tested this week, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget blueprint. In a taste of what lies ahead, Democratic gun legislation arrived on the Senate floor Monday ? facing an aggressive Republican effort to block it.

In an era of deep partisanship and divided government, Obama knows he won't get everything he wants on the three big issues as he seeks to capitalize on the national support that brought him re-election. But the scope of his victories or defeats on these issues will at least in part define his legacy and determine how much political capital he retains for his final four years in office.

"This is his best chance to set up the next 3? years where he's the pace car," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who served as political director for President George W. Bush.

But much of what happens during this pivotal period is out of the president's direct control. Members of Congress will largely determine whether his proposals to deal with gun ownership, revamp broken immigration laws and reduce the federal budget deficit gain traction.

Lawmakers, back in Washington after a two-week recess, are expected to take significant steps on some of the issues this week. A bipartisan group of senators could unveil highly anticipated immigration legislation by the end of the week. And Democrats brought a gun-control bill to the Senate floor Monday afternoon amid a threat from conservative Republicans to use delaying tactics to prevent formal debate from even beginning.

Obama himself flew to Connecticut for a new gun-control speech, and he was bringing relatives of Newtown shooting victims back to Washington on Air Force One to lobby members of Congress.

In the midst of all that, Obama will release his 2014 budget, which already is drawing opposition from both parties ahead of its Wednesday publication. Republicans oppose Obama's calls for new tax hikes, and many of the president's fellow Democrats balk at his proposals for smaller annual increases in Social Security and other federal benefit programs.

The White House tried to play down the significance of the week's overlapping events to the president's broader objectives, with Obama spokesman Jay Carney saying the administration is always trying to move forward on "the business of the American people."

Said Carney: "Every one of these weeks is full of the possibility for progress on a range of fronts."

But Obama's advisers know the window for broad legislative victories is narrower for a second-term president. Political posturing is already underway for the 2014 midterm elections, which will consume Congress next year. And once those votes for a new Congress are cast, Washington's attention turns to the race to succeed Obama.

Patrick Griffin, who served as White House legislative director under President Bill Clinton, said Obama's legislative efforts this year are likely to be the "sum and substance" of his second-term agenda.

"I think it would be very tough to put another item on the agenda on his own terms," said Griffin, adding that unexpected events could force other issues to the fore.

On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the outcome of the debate over gun measures is perhaps the most uncertain. The White House and Congress had little appetite for tackling the emotional issue during Obama's first term, but December's horrific elementary school massacre in Connecticut thrust gun control to the forefront of the president's second-term agenda.

If a bill does reach Obama's desk this year, it will be far weaker than what he first proposed. An assault weapons ban appears all but dead, and a prohibition on ammunition magazines carrying over 10 rounds, also supported by the president, seems unlikely to survive.

The White House is largely pinning its hopes on a significant expansion of background checks for gun buyers, but the prospects for such a measure are far from certain, despite widespread public support. The best chance at a deal appears to rest on eleventh-hour talks between Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Obama focused his efforts Monday on building public support for the legislation and tapping into the emotions of the Newtown shooting during an evening event in Hartford.

The White House is far more confident about the prospects for a sweeping immigration deal that could provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who now are in the country, tighten border security and crack down on businesses that employ people illegally. But the president is treading carefully on the sensitive issues, wary of disrupting a bipartisan Senate working group that has been laboriously crafting a bill.

The group of four Republicans and four Democrats could unveil that legislation as early as this week, a pivotal development that would open months of debate. While the growing political power of Hispanics may have softened the ground for passage, significant hurdles remain.

Looming over Obama's entire domestic agenda is the economy, including the deficit deal that has long eluded him. The budget Obama will release Wednesday proposes spending cuts and revenue increases that would project $1.8 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years.

That would replace $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are poised to take effect over the next 10 years if Congress and the president don't come up with an alternative.

Seeking to soften bipartisan opposition to his budget proposals, Obama will dine Wednesday night with a dozen Republican senators, part of the broader charm offensive he launched in recent weeks.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-08-Obama's%20Agenda/id-0fbc1fb041024d3f89c285ccab3aa8e3

Olympics 2012 Olympic Schedule 2012 NBC Olympics NBC Olympics schedule 2012 Olympics Chad Everett London Olympics

US general: Taliban likely to be long-term threat

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) ? The United States accepts that a diminished but resilient Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after U.S. troops complete their combat mission next year, the top U.S. military officer says.

In an Associated Press interview at this air field north of Kabul, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday he is cautiously optimistic that the Afghan army will hold its own against the insurgency as Western troops pull back and Afghans assume the lead combat role. He said that by May or June, the Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country.

Asked whether some parts of the country will remain contested by the Taliban, he replied, "Yes, of course there will be."

"And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas," he said.

He and other U.S. commanders have said that ultimately the Afghans must reach some sort of political accommodation with the insurgents, and that a reconciliation process needs to be led by Afghans, not Americans. Thus the No. 1 priority for the U.S. military in its final months of combat in Afghanistan is to do all that is possible to boost the strength and confidence of Afghan forces.

Shortly after Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Taliban demonstrated its ability to strike.

It claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed five Americans ? three soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer and the first American diplomat killed overseas since the terrorist attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

A fierce battle between U.S.-backed Afghan forces and Taliban militants in a remote corner of eastern Afghanistan left nearly 20 people dead, including 11 Afghan children killed in an airstrike, Afghan officials said Sunday.

There are now about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That number is to drop to about 32,000 by February 2014, and the combat mission is to end in December 2014. Whether some number ? perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 ? remain into 2015 as military trainers and counterinsurgents is yet to be decided.

Dempsey spent two days talking to senior Afghan officials, including his counterpart, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, as well as top U.S. and allied commanders.

He also visited a U.S. base in the volatile eastern province of Paktika for an update on how U.S. troops are balancing the twin missions of advising Afghan forces and withdrawing tons of U.S. equipment as the war effort winds down.

Paktika is an example of a sector of Afghanistan that is likely to face Taliban resistance for years to come.

Bordering areas of Pakistan that provide haven for the Taliban and its affiliated Haqqani network, Paktika has been among the more important insurgent avenues into the Afghan interior.

While the province has a functioning government, Taliban influence remains significant in less populated areas, as it has since U.S. forces first invaded the country more than 11 years ago.

"There will be contested areas, and it will be the Afghans' choice whether to allow those contested areas to persist, or, when necessary, take action to exert themselves into those contested area," he said.

Dempsey said he is encouraged by the recent development of coordination centers, including one in Paktika, where a wide range of Afghan government agencies work together on security issues. He called it a "quilt" of government structures that links Kabul, the capital, to ordinary Afghans in distant villages.

In some parts of the country, Afghan villagers have shown their dissatisfaction with Taliban influence by taking up arms against the insurgents, even without being pushed by the U.S. or by Kabul. This has happened in recent weeks in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban. The Andar district of Ghazni province has seen a similar uprising.

"We should encourage it, but we shouldn't be seen as hijacking" these local movements, he said.

Dempsey said he discussed the uprisings with Karimi, the army chief, and the Afghan defense minister, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi. They told him they "appreciated that they should allow this to occur (and) they should probably nurture it. They don't necessarily feel at this point as if they should tangibly support it."

The Afghan government's concern, Dempsey said, is that influential warlords could embrace these local movements and eventually leverage them to threaten the armed forces of the central government.

In a separate interview Sunday with al-Hurra, the Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. government, Dempsey was asked whether he worries that Syria, in the midst of a civil war, could become another Afghanistan.

"I do. I have grave concerns that Syria could become an extended conflict" that drags on for many years, he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-general-taliban-likely-long-term-threat-174457696--politics.html

ncaa final game reba mcentire acm awards the killing global payments eli young band wrestlemania

Russian journalist who became symbol after beating dies

James Hill for The New York Time

Mikhail Beketov, an editor, was beaten severely in 2008.

By Ellen Barry, NewYorkTimes.com

MOSCOW ? The Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov, who became a symbol of Russia?s culture of impunity after he was brutally beaten in 2008, died of heart failure on Monday, his lawyer announced.?

After Mr. Beketov had called for the resignation of the municipal government in the city of Khimki, where he lived, his car was blown up. He later wrote about that in his newspaper, as well, and then was beaten so severely that he spent the rest of his life using a wheelchair, unable to form sentences. Three of his fingers and one of his legs had to be amputated.

The police barely investigated the crime, ignoring witnesses who came forward offering information and surveillance videos that could have identified Mr. Beketov?s assailants. By then, Mr. Beketov had become a hero to many, and the recipient of several journalism prizes, including one bestowed by the state.?

Yevgenia Chirikova, an environmental activist from Khimki, said Mr. Beketov never recovered from the attack.

?In essence, they killed him back then,? she said in a telephone interview. ?He was just dying all these years. That?s all.?

Yelena Kostuchenko, a journalist and friend, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Mr. Beketov choked on a piece of food at lunch on Monday, which she linked to deep tracheal scarring that he sustained after the attack.

Mr. Beketov used his own money to finance the publication of a newspaper, Khimkinskaya Pravda, which had a circulation of about 10,000. He wrote scathingly about plans to build a major highway through the Khimki Forest, and of a decision to move a monument to servicemen killed in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. In May 2007, someone beat his dog to death and set his car on fire.

Mr. Beketov told journalists he suspected the mayor, Vladimir Strelchenko, but the case was closed shortly thereafter for lack of evidence. Months later, Mr. Beketov was still writing: ?Last spring, I called for the resignation of the city?s leadership. A few days later, my automobile was blown up. What is next for me??

Before he was attacked, Mr. Beketov had warned Ms. Chirikova that something might happen to him, and told her the police should ?look in the Khimki administration.? But investigators eventually suspended the investigation for a lack of evidence.

?The fact that the mastermind of this crime has never been punished, that means that they simply don?t want to look for him,? she said. ?They know exactly who did it.?

Mr. Strelchenko, who said he played no role in the attack, won a slander case against Mr. Beketov in 2010, when the journalist was unable to speak or walk. He remained mayor of Khimki for four years, stepping down for what authorities said were unrelated reasons. Ms. Chirikova said she was never sure whether Mr. Beketov understood that the mayor had left office. ?He was so badly disfigured from that moment, he always smiled, it was hard to know whether he was made happy or sad by this news,? she said.

Municipal authorities in Khimki announced on Monday that they would assist in arranging his burial. In comments to the Interfax news service, Lyudmila M. Alekseyeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, hailed the ?tenacity and heroism with which he defended the dignity and rights of citizens, despite his grave physical condition.??

This article, ?Russian Journalist Who Became Symbol After Beating Dies,? first appeared in The New York Times.?

Related:

Russian Journalists, Fighting Graft, Pay in Blood (May 18, 2010)?

More stories from The New York Times:

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a7bf4e3/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A80C176596320Erussian0Ejournalist0Ewho0Ebecame0Esymbol0Eafter0Ebeating0Edies0Dlite/story01.htm

bruce springsteen grammy nominations lil boosie bobbi kristina brown new edition austerity rihanna and chris brown back together

US arms control advocates must show they like guns (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/297390037?client_source=feed&format=rss

baltimore ravens ravens Ravens vs Patriots 49ers Vs Falcons Mama Movie flyers epo