3B-IT Blog

3B-IT have now linked our phones to our live chat system on our website meaning that even when we're out of the office you will still be able to chat to one of our team whenever you like! We like things to be quick, easy and pleasant so that's why we do everything possible in order to give you the best online experience possible.

People from all around the world come to our website and we understand the frustration that can arise when you can't speak to someone on the other end due to them being out of office because of the different time zones.

Double the Transfer Rate with HD Mini-SAS Cables

The latest generation of SAS cable assemblies are designed to transfer data at 2x the rate of standard SAS cables commonly used today.

Manufactured with the highest quality cable from Leoni, Madison or Amphenol, the HD Mini-SAS is more reliable and increases board density.

Doubling the per port maximum bandwidth, each assembly has the capacity to transfer 12Gbps of data per channel allowing customers to move seamlessly from SAS 2.1 to SAS 3.0. The HD Mini SAS connector has been engineered to be more durable for decreased insertion loss and minimal cross talk. Take a look at our new HD mini-SAS cables ------------------ www.3B-IT.co.uk - Network Cables and Rack Mount Solutions

We're rolling out huge savings and free delivery this August on network cables and server rack mounts. 407339-B21 2 Metre External Mini-SAS Cable Only £48 £32!

Buy a 2 metre external mini sas cable (407339-B21) for only £32 today! 3B-IT stock a vast amount of cables and rack mount kits at incredibly discounted prices. Take a look at some of our most popular products below:

Throughout July 3B-IT will be offering free delivery on all orders over £200. All you need to do is quote 'FREEDJULY' on purchase orders and you will be entitled to this exclusive offer. Browse through our data storage cables and rack solutions today! 

3B-IT have undergone a huge redevelopment, specifically with our online profile. When designing the new websites (http://www.3b-it.co.uk and http://www.technoshack.co.uk) we were aware of the fact that we had to keep our branding and design consistent.

With consistency in mind we started to redesign our email signatures.

3B-IT has become one of the leading suppliers of multi-vendor IT hardware, supplying compatible cabling, racking, and shelving units. Our channel is used to ...

3B-IT have created a YouTube channel. We aim to use this channel as a way of promoting our products, news, and latest information. This will allow us to expand even further on the web.

We will be publishing videos about our website, to give you a brief insight into how you can receive huge discounts at just a click of a button! 3B-IT will also be publishing videos about the different compatible cabling products and part numbers that we supply.

3B-IT will soon be redeveloping our Technoshack website. This is an alternate section of the 3B-IT business, where we sell mainly computer peripherals such as keyboards, mice, webcams, speakers, and accessories to end users.

We believe the Technoshack website deserves a fresh update, in order to give you a truly rich experience when you browse through our products.

Currently, 3B-IT are debating which type of eCommerce software to build the website around, with Magento currently being at the top of the list.

3B-IT Limited was first established over eight years ago in 2005. Throughout the years we have built a reputation for delivering the best prices on compatible cabling such as; Fibre Optics, SATA, SAS / Mini SAS, SCSI, HD Mini SAS, Fibre Channel, PCIe, CX4, InfiniBand, QSFP+, SFP+ and much more... Since we succeeded so well and continued to grow as a business we have continued to expand our range of products. As of recently we now supply racking and shelving units, ranging from HP compatible rails to compatible sliding shelf solutions.

There are two sides to 3B-IT LTD. We have the compatible cabling, racking & shelving units section of the business that is all advertised on http://www.3b-it.co.uk.

The other half of 3B-IT can be found under our trading name Technoshack, typically supplying end users with computer peripherals such as keyboards and mice.

Given that Technoshack is in a whole separate market to 3B-IT and that we aim to advertise to a different audience we found it best to create a separate online store, which can be found at http://www.technoshack.co.uk.

http://www.3b-it.co.uk/products.php

After a complete website redesign we have finally completed our products system. By focusing on ease of navigation, user friendliness and consistency we created a products navigation system that harnesses powerful new CSS techniques and advanced navigation menus whilst still being compatible for old browsers and inexperienced web users.

In order to create this product system a lot of work went into building an easy to follow hierarchy. Starting with drawing up drafts and then moving on to using database tools within Access we managed to come up with this system as you can see below.

As you can see from the above illustration, all of the products within the cables category link to one product page. This idea was brought to my attention when I first began to use php within the 3B-IT website. In order to grasp the concept behind this you must first understand the basics behind MYSQL databases and PHP.

Firstly, all of the cabling and racking products are stored into a MYSQL database and are listed within columns such as 'product_name' and 'price' and all other information regarding that product. They also have a unique identifier column that distinguishes each product from the rest. (This is what we use in order to create a unique page for each product.)

So with that in mind the next step is to create the template page for each product by including the headers, footers and default CSS sheets that are used already throughout the website.

Now, this is where the PHP comes in. In order to populate this page full of information about a product we must first ensure that the page obtains the unique identifier from the product. We do this by storing the unique identifier within a link, so when this link is clicked on, the product page obtains the unique identifier and knows which product we want to display. This is where all we need to do is echo out the details that we want to be displayed and then the only thing that's left for us to do is to style the page.

Here you can see a few examples of this:

http://www.3b-it.co.uk/cable.php?product=LC-to-LC-Multi-mode-OM3-50-125-Fiber-Optic-Cable-1.8mm-CAB8383-M

http://www.3b-it.co.uk/cable.php?product=Active-QSFP-QSFP-Active-40GB-QDR-DDR-SDR-CAB8686-M-A

http://www.3b-it.co.uk/cable.php?product=QSFP-SFP-x-4-30-AWG-Fanout-Cable-CAB8688X4-M

The unique identifier is placed within the HTTP URL making it easy for the product page to find the product using PHP such as this:

<?php if(isset($_GET['product'])){$product_name=($_GET['product']);?>