Some Networking Questions

[colonelsofcorn]

OK, here's the deal. Bought the first house that we actually own, so I'm looking to do some Ethernet wiring throughout the house. I have it pretty well planned out and need a bit of help.

There will be drops in the main rooms for streaming players, printers, and cameras, with some open ports in case I need to hardwire something in the future. All the drops will trace to my networking room in the basement. 

 

I know how a switch works, and have heard of patch panels, but which option is better to take all the drops and provide them with reliable internet? Do I need both, or is one sufficient?

(basically, I will have the patch panel or switch connect to the router, which connects to the DSL modem. ) 

 

Also, what's the difference between a switch and a patch panel? I cannot find this ANYWHERE online. 

 

It's hard for me to explain this, so please reply if you want clarification!

 

Also, for running wires: is it smartest to go outside, through walls, or through the attic? There are no false ceilings in the house, and I'd like to avoid fishing wires.  I realize this will depend on the building, but still

 

I think that's all! THANKS!

[Electronics Wizardy]

You want to put the wires through a patch panel, then a switch, then the router, then the modem.

 

 

 

Run it through the walls.

 

[tt2468]

6 minutes ago, colonelsofcorn said:

OK, here's the deal. Bought the first house that we actually own, so I'm looking to do some Ethernet wiring throughout the house. I have it pretty well planned out and need a bit of help.

There will be drops in the main rooms for streaming players, printers, and cameras, with some open ports in case I need to hardwire something in the future. All the drops will trace to my networking room in the basement. 

 

I know how a switch works, and have heard of patch panels, but which option is better to take all the drops and provide them with reliable internet? Do I need both, or is one sufficient?

(basically, I will have the patch panel or switch connect to the router, which connects to the DSL modem. ) 

 

Also, what's the difference between a switch and a patch panel? I cannot find this ANYWHERE online. 

 

It's hard for me to explain this, so please reply if you want clarification!

 

Also, for running wires: is it smartest to go outside, through walls, or through the attic? There are no false ceilings in the house, and I'd like to avoid fishing wires.  I realize this will depend on the building, but still

 

I think that's all! THANKS!

I would recommend hiring someone to professionally run ethernet. They will do it to code and can garuntee that everything is done properly.

A patch panel is just a central location where ethernet cables are terminated. There is no logic to a patch panel. It's literally just a metal plate with connectors in it.

This is the back of a patch panel. Each ethernet cable terminates here.

This is the front of a patch panel. Here is where the ethernet becomes accessible in a usable way. On each port that there is an ethernet cable terminated, it would then lead to a switch, which 'combines' the ethernet cables into one line.

The switch would connect then to the LAN port on your router. The WAN port of your router would then go to your dsl modem.

 

[LAwLz]

A switch and a patch panel serves very different purposes.

A patch panel is just a central place where lots of cables gets terminated (and allows to easily connect them to something).

 

Here is a crude drawing of what a setup with a patch panel might look like. The green squares are Ethernet jacks. The red things are wires that will be inside the wall.

 

This is what the actual patch panel would look like in real life. Each one of those cables would go to a different Ethernet jack somewhere in the house.

 

The patch panel just terminates the cables. It can not do any routing or switching at all. It basically just cuts the cables off, and allows you to plug in another cable into them. For example you might have port 1 on the patch panel connected to a port labeled port 1 which is in your living room. If you plug in your TV to port 1 in the living room, the other end of that cable will be port 1 on the patch panel. It's kind of like an extension cable.

 

So let's say you got 4 rooms like in my drawing. What you might want to do is install Ethernet jacks in all 4 of those rooms, then terminate all of them at a patch panel somewhere (again, like my drawing). Then you would plug port 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the patch panel into a switch. If you don't connect port 1, 2, 3 and 4 (on the patch panel) to a switch then it would be like having 4 loose cables lying on the floor, not connected to anything.

 

 

Switch = Gives you more ports to connect things to.

Patch panel = Takes cables from multiple locations and terminates them at a single location. It does not connect things together.

[colonelsofcorn]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

A switch and a patch panel serves very different purposes.

A patch panel is just a central place where lots of cables gets terminated (and allows to easily connect them to something).

 

Here is a crude drawing of what a setup with a patch panel might look like. The green squares are Ethernet jacks. The red things are wires that will be inside the wall.

 

This is what the actual patch panel would look like in real life. Each one of those cables would go to a different Ethernet jack somewhere in the house.

 

The patch panel just terminates the cables. It can not do any routing or switching at all. It basically just cuts the cables off, and allows you to plug in another cable into them. For example you might have port 1 on the patch panel connected to a port labeled port 1 which is in your living room. If you plug in your TV to port 1 in the living room, the other end of that cable will be port 1 on the patch panel. It's kind of like an extension cable.

 

So let's say you got 4 rooms like in my drawing. What you might want to do is install Ethernet jacks in all 4 of those rooms, then terminate all of them at a patch panel somewhere (again, like my drawing). Then you would plug port 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the patch panel into a switch. If you don't connect port 1, 2, 3 and 4 (on the patch panel) to a switch then it would be like having 4 loose cables lying on the floor, not connected to anything.

 

 

Switch = Gives you more ports to connect things to.

Patch panel = Takes cables from multiple locations and terminates them at a single location. It does not connect things together.

So if the patch panel terminates, and I'll need to run cable to the switch from each port, why use a patch panel at all? Thanks for the help thus far to everyone!

[colonelsofcorn]

2 hours ago, tt2468 said:

I would recommend hiring someone to professionally run ethernet. They will do it to code and can garuntee that everything is done properly.

A patch panel is just a central location where ethernet cables are terminated. There is no logic to a patch panel. It's literally just a metal plate with connectors in it.

This is the back of a patch panel. Each ethernet cable terminates here.

This is the front of a patch panel. Here is where the ethernet becomes accessible in a usable way. On each port that there is an ethernet cable terminated, it would then lead to a switch, which 'combines' the ethernet cables into one line.

The switch would connect then to the LAN port on your router. The WAN port of your router would then go to your dsl modem.

 

You say that a patch panel has no brains, if so, I'm curious what the difference is between different CAT versions of patch panels?

[leadeater]

25 minutes ago, colonelsofcorn said:

You say that a patch panel has no brains, if so, I'm curious what the difference is between different CAT versions of patch panels?

The CAT standard is a certification of how good a cable is at transmitting signals and how well it copes with noise and cross talk, put simply. CAT 5e is not rated for 10Gb speeds, CAT 6 is rated for 55m for 10Gb and CAT 6a is rated at the full 100m for 10Gb. Don't use anything below CAT 5e and you'll never have to worry about it, 10Gb at home is a long way off for the general masses.

 

The benefit of a patch panel is the ability to have more outlets than you intend to have connected at one time, you might get more devices later or move the room it is in. It allows you to go to a central location and plug between a port on the patch panel and a switch port. Also most cables get damaged when plug/unplugging them so using patch cables of 0.5m-3m means the impact of damaged is much less, without these you would have to essentially rip the walls apart to replace that one cable.

[colonelsofcorn]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

The CAT standard is a certification of how good a cable is at transmitting signals and how well it copes with noise and cross talk, put simply. CAT 5e is not rated for 10Gb speeds, CAT 6 is rated for 55m for 10Gb and CAT 6a is rated at the full 100m for 10Gb. Don't use anything below CAT 5e and you'll never have to worry about it, 10Gb at home is a long way off for the general masses.

 

The benefit of a patch panel is the ability to have more outlets than you intend to have connected at one time, you might get more devices later or move the room it is in. It allows you to go to a central location and plug between a port on the patch panel and a switch port. Also most cables get damaged when plug/unplugging them so using patch cables of 0.5m-3m means the impact of damaged is much less, without these you would have to essentially rip the walls apart to replace that one cable.

Ah, so essentially a patch panel saves the cables (and I'd imagine, the time it takes to crimp on ends as well), and offers more flexibility? How I interpret that is, I have some cable in a patch panel. If they were wired to a switch and I decided to change where they connected, I'd have to rip out the cable, whereas with a patch panel I just move one cord?

 

Probably made no sense. Sorry  

[brwainer]

1 hour ago, colonelsofcorn said:

Ah, so essentially a patch panel saves the cables (and I'd imagine, the time it takes to crimp on ends as well), and offers more flexibility? How I interpret that is, I have some cable in a patch panel. If they were wired to a switch and I decided to change where they connected, I'd have to rip out the cable, whereas with a patch panel I just move one cord?

 

Probably made no sense. Sorry  

When you put a wire in a wall, both ends have to have some type of connection at each end. You *could* have male connectors at each end, and the wire just dangling out of a hole in the wall, but that is really really janky. Aside from the potential for wires that get snagged from putting tension inside your walls, there's also an ugly hole in the wall. The solution everyone uses is to have wallplates in rooms with a small number of connections (6 or less) and a patch panel in any place with more than 6 connections (usually one central location). By using wallplates and patch panels, which are both female connectors, you have something reasonably solid to take the force of a snagged cable, and it looks clean. And if you care about the overall value of your house, I would say you should put in a patch panel as is proper. And they do make patch panels designed for homes and apartments that don't have a full 19" wide rackmount format, in case you have any issue with installing a rack.

[colonelsofcorn]

18 hours ago, brwainer said:

When you put a wire in a wall, both ends have to have some type of connection at each end. You *could* have male connectors at each end, and the wire just dangling out of a hole in the wall, but that is really really janky. Aside from the potential for wires that get snagged from putting tension inside your walls, there's also an ugly hole in the wall. The solution everyone uses is to have wallplates in rooms with a small number of connections (6 or less) and a patch panel in any place with more than 6 connections (usually one central location). By using wallplates and patch panels, which are both female connectors, you have something reasonably solid to take the force of a snagged cable, and it looks clean. And if you care about the overall value of your house, I would say you should put in a patch panel as is proper. And they do make patch panels designed for homes and apartments that don't have a full 19" wide rackmount format, in case you have any issue with installing a rack.

Understood, thanks