There are many kinds of Velcro fastener tape that we may use from time to time. There are two main uses: 1) to tie cables together, such as for cable management in a rack, or 2) to secure equipment to a shelf or wall.

It's a good practice to do some cleaning of any wiring you use. Obviously, anything you newly install should be clean, tidy, and beautiful. But even when you need to move a few wires across the snake pit of an equipment rack, you should still clean it up a bit.

Hook and loop strip has two components - one is rough and the other is soft. The most important rule when using Velcro to mount equipment is to always place the soft side on the bottom of the equipment. This can do several things for you.

First, if the soft side is on the bottom of the device, it won't scratch the shelf or furniture it's placed on. Customers may not like this, but they really won't like it if you scratch their furniture into a mess. While we typically keep routers, switches, and firewalls on tattered shelves in computer rooms, you never know where they might be moved in the future.

Sometimes, you need to stack some equipment. When you do this, you always want to put one side of the velcro tape fabric on top and the other on the bottom. Whichever side is on top, must always be on top. And no matter which side is at the bottom, it must always be at the bottom. This way, anything can be stacked on top of anything without you having to think about it.

Put them together: the same side must always be at the bottom. It's best to place the soft side on the bottom, so you always place the soft side on the bottom of your device.

Sometimes you need to mount the device on a wall, usually on plywood in a telephone room. It's a good idea to keep some drywall screws in your tool box. Sometimes you can drive screws directly into the plywood and install the device that way.

If you need to use Velcro hook and loop, it's obvious which side should be mounted on the wall, right? The device has a soft side on the bottom, so you will need to mount the scratched side to the wall.

Even self-adhesive Velcro may not stick to plywood for very long.

You need to use the same rule with wall-mounted equipment (always put the soft side on the bottom of the unit) because you don't know where it might be in the future.