Hey everyone,

I wanted to poll the community and pick up tips on DIY cable labeling and management.

At work, we label both ends of Ethernet cabels using a Brady Label maker. They are awesome but run about $200 USD.

I don’t need such an expensive device to create (one-time) 40ish labels.

I was hoping for DIY suggestions that balances durability and ease of installation. Was thinking tape, sharpies, or even thick zip ties etc. Some forums even suggested bread ties (but I’m concerned they will fall off in hard to reach places). And sharpies are great but can wear on some materials (like those plastic sticky tabs for books and notes)

What are some pros and cons of approaches you guys have tried?

EDIT:

I was pointed to this video which suggests you:

  1. Grid up a piece of paper so each rectangle’s height is the size of a circumference of a cable. It will later be wrapped around the cable.
  2. Then hand write the labels.
  3. Cut out each label/rectangle.
  4. Then use clear masking tape slightly larger than the label to secure it to the cable by wrapping it around the circumference of the cable.

The finished product looks like those shrinking labels where the label is flush against the cable and text is behind a clear film and can’t be smudged.

For those that suggested borrow the label maker from work or print them at work: that has occured to every one of our engineers on staff and now our printers are locked away and are signed out bc we would always find them either low on ink/toner or more frequently out of lable paper. Yes, ordering those supplies is negligibly cheap for a budget at work but the issue lied in whenever you picked up the label maker at work, you immediately had to either change the roll or ink. sigh this is why we can’t have nice things :)

  • TrainguyromEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    At a previous job the Sysadmin who had largely built most the infrastructure heavily used colored zip ties to label cables. 2 blue zip ties goes to this while 4 blue zip ties goes to that, 3 red zip ties goes to this other thing, etc. In hindsight i wonder if part of it was to be intentionally vague to anyone else on the team and force them to come to him for help identifying, since he seemed to love that kind of thing, but I digress.

    It’s a very affordable system to use at home. Maybe one color per VLAN and on cables where it’s important to know one from another do different counts of zip ties. I suppose the same result could also be achieved with colored electrical tape too.

    Sorry to Necro a nearly month-old thread but figured its worth sharing