Examples of network patching or ideas

schizophonic · 14-07-2009, 6:11 PM

I'm moving into a 2 storey town house. The computer room will be up on the 2nd floor.

To accomodate all of my PCs / music streamers / Media PC and etc. I'm going to add an 8 port Gigaport router. This will be located up on the 2nd floor among other PC kit. I just want to know how have you guys ran the CAT5 cables into the wall and out the other side.

If you can provide pics or samples this will help me with the planning.

Thanks

TorchMT360 · 14-07-2009, 7:46 PM

not done yet, but in the middle of building a new wall to extend my living room and have set the studs to suit my new 50" plasma, but ive also laid it out so that i can route a couple of cat6 cables (cat6 coz i have it lying around).
the tricky part about feeding down through an existing interior wall will be the noggins.
i plan on having mine feed out through a brushed wall plate
you could feed one cable down from the router to a switch? and then branch off from there

Jamiepw · 14-07-2009, 7:58 PM

I am not sure if you know but...

Cat 5 and Cat 5e UTP cables can support 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet. Although Cat 5 cable may support to some degree in Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps), it performs below standard during high-data transfer scenarios, so I do not recommend you to use Cat 5 cable in Gigabit Ethernet, use Cat 5e instead (of course Cat 6 is the best).

Cat 6 UTP cable is manufactured targeting on Gigabit Ethernet and backward compatible with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. It performs better then Cat 5 cable with higher transmission rate and lower transmission error. If you plan to have Gigabit network, look for Cat 5e or Cat 6 UTP cables.

Just to help you decide what cable you use, so basically go for a minimum of Cat5e and if you can afford the extra cost then go for Cat6.

Be aware that you need to run your cables in a way that they do not run parralel to mains cables as this can sometimes interere and cause problems.

You can run the cables in a variety of ways there are as follows:

1, You can run them surface down the walls in Mini trunking, this will be the quickest and less time consuming, on the bad side it can look bad if you have not done it before. But if you want to add more cables and you have room then it is very easy to do.

2, You can chase the cables into the wall and enclose them inside a conduit, this is time consuming and can be messy, also you will need to fill in over the conduit and plaster in and get a smooth finish. If you have not plastered before then I would reccommend finding someone who can as this could leave your wall in quite a state.

However when this is installed correctly then it will look good and no one will notice the cable run, but you can be limited for adding more at a later date.

3, Cavity Drop, you would need to have done this before or get an electrician to help you as this is quite hard to do, but can save a lot of time and hassle.

I did this to feed my projector as I had quite a large room and the room above had been carpeted and I did not fancy pulling up the carpet and running it under the floor, so I took the cables into my loft via two cavity drops and and bridged them that way. I drilled four holes in total and that was the extent of the work that was needed.

Lastly my advice is that this job is quite intense and time consuming, so I would go for the better of the cables as you will only be doing this the once, so try and be as future proof as possible.

Jamie

M.D. Klapwijk · 14-07-2009, 8:14 PM

Busch-Jaeger has really nice RJ45 wall sockets:

schizophonic · 14-07-2009, 9:06 PM

thanks for the advise all. I will consider CAT5e or get some Cat6 from work

I really want to see how you guys patched the cables from the router / switch. I have an idea how it will go into each room and i'm not afraid to test a method in a room. It will be a new house and i'm planning to take things slowly and read up as much as i can.

From the computer room i said in my OP, as the router will have 5+ cables feeding into the wall. How will this look or what is the best way to patch the cables ino the wall? Is there some kind of facial that are avaliable?

rorton · 14-07-2009, 9:27 PM

best way is to have a small patch panel where your hub/router/switch will be.

Terminate all your cat5 cables from each room/location onto this panel.

Then simply take a small cat5 patch lead from one socket on your hub/switch/router and connect to relevant port on patch panel.

rorton · 14-07-2009, 9:29 PM

if you only have 5 or so cat5s, then instead of a panel, you could use these 'modular' face plates, which are a 2 gang empty faceplate, where you can pop in 4 cat5 (or coax etc) modules.

a couple of these could form your patch panel, and be the termination point for your cat 5s from the other rooms, then take a cable from your switch to the face plate

**inzaman** · 15-07-2009, 8:16 AM

Moved to networking

McKettle · 15-07-2009, 4:50 PM

I recently moved into a flat and as I work in IT as a network administrator and the fact that I am a geek I decided to install structured cabling in the flat.
First thing I did was survey the area and choose where I wanted the central point for the system, IE where the switch, patch panel Smoothwall server and NAS
Will be.
After picking the location I measured up the flat and drew a Visio Diagram to work out where the cables will lie.

I know I have gone over the top but my main goal was to have multiple network and coax points around the lounge so that I could
Move the furniture around if I wanted to and not have to relay any cabling.
Next step was to look into how I was going to get the cables from the points to the central point. After looking around I went for Office line 2 skirting
board from CMS. It has plenty of room to run the cabling and the network ports fir straight into it.
Bought enough to go round the lounge and some single and double gangs to place the network ports in. I used Cat5 because it’s a lot cheaper for the cable
and the patch panel's/network ports and it doesn’t mind bending compared to cat6 which once bent doesn’t like being bent back again.
Next I bought a patch panel for the cupboard, a spindle of 305M network cable. A crone tool to punch down into the patch panel and the network ports and
A Cat5 Crimper.
Drilled some holes, fitted the skirting and some trunking and ran it all into the cupboard where I punched it into the back of the patch panel.
Patch panel was then placed in a small coms cupboard which sat on an anti vibration pad to stop the unit vibrating the rest of the flat.

Patching wise just mounted an old Cisco in the cupboard and ran smaller self made network cables from the patch panel into the switch. I can take a picture
of it all wired up and post it tonight if you wish to see it.

If you do end up making your own cables it’s a good idea to keep the following picture to hand. I used the B standard which is the picture on the right.

A plus side with going with the patch panel is that in port 23 and 24 of my patch panel I punched down my telephone line. Now using a Master PABX Modtap
I can potentially plug my phone into any network port in the flat so very good for moving the phone around or having multiple phones.

As you could tell I went a little bit silly with what I did mainly because I had never done most of it before and wanted to try it out. You could of course do a much simpler version of it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Remember. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

schizophonic · 15-07-2009, 5:23 PM

Just want to say your post has been very informative. I will study your layout and see what avaliable options i have. Using your existing skirting boards is a very good idea as it stop chiselling into walls. As it says in your post if you need moving about you can do this freely.

Once i get my cabling in, i just have one concern. Am i expected to pull of this stuff out when I move out? If leaving the wiring there will it help with selling the house as an extra feature?

Quote:

Patching wise just mounted an old Cisco in the cupboard and ran smaller self made network cables from the patch panel into the switch. I can take a picture
of it all wired up and post it tonight if you wish to see it.

Please. Can you show me a picture how you have put the cables from your switch and into the wall?

btw, where are you based?

mickevh · 15-07-2009, 7:25 PM

I would "lead in" all the cables from one side of the patch panel. Some patch panels have a binding post, or at least something you can use as one, to strap the cables onto with a cable tie.

This gives a few advantages:
- The individual cable runs aren't "pulling" on the back of the punch block knives.
- There's an element of strain relief.
- If you ever need to remove the panel to "get round the back" of it in future, you can pull it forward, or rotate it 90 degrees about the lead-in end without having to move everything you're plonked on top of the cabinet in the mean time.

I would also leave a metre or so of slack on the cables to make it easier pulling out the patch panel in future.

Can you show me a picture how you have put the cables from your switch and into the wall?

The patchbay is the termination of the cable from the wall. You then "patch" with little RJ45-RJ45 cables between the patchbay sockets and the switch (directly above it in subsequent pictures.)

Don't forget to label each end of each cable run. It's surprising how quickly you forget what goes where.

A spare cable or two to each location is a good idea, cable is cheap and it's as easy to put in two as one, much more hassle to add one at a later date. Standing orders to my sparkies is to "always pull two cables."

I wouldn't think you'd be expected to remove it all when moving out, nor would I expect to pay a premium because you have installed it, though ultimately it's up to whatever deal you and the buyer make.

McKettle · 15-07-2009, 7:38 PM

No problem. I went through it all recently and spent a lot of time researching it so I hope my input is helpful.

I did not use existing skirting. I replaced it all with special skirting designed to hold the cables, but that was only in the lounge because it was running so many cables, the rest of the cables just run in trunking. You can get some nice trunking that just fits ontop of the skirting so you may want to look into that if you don't want to replace it. I replaced it because I was getting new flooring put down so I needed new Skirting anyway. Most places i spoke to would send out an example of their skirting so you can look at all the options.

No you dont have to take the cables out, they dont add to the value but help making the place saleable to the right person.

Now I am at home I can host the pictures my self so this is the patch leads in the cabinet.

Please note my Virgin Media Modem is at the top, thats sitting on the 24 Port Switch, next there is a 1u cable management bar, then the patch panel. As stated leave a lot of slack when punching into the back. I have enougth so I can take the whole cabinet out of the cupboard to work on it if required.

Here is the trunking running up the lounge wall upto a hole.

that hole connects to the hall way which has trunking on the ceiling. Please note I opened it all up so you can see the cables, its not normally this messy.

this cables then run into the top of the cupboard that run down to the switch.

Things to remember. As stated label your cables so you know what is what and buy velcro straps over cable ties to keep it tidy as they can be removed and reapplied very easily.

I am based on the Hertfordshire/London borders.

McKettle · 15-07-2009, 7:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickevh

I would "lead in" all the cables from one side of the patch panel. Some patch panels have a binding post, or at least something you can use as one, to strap the cables onto with a cable tie.

He is correct, if I were to do it again it would be a lot neater but as this was my first punch down attempt I was very happy with the outcome. If I had the time or inclination I would redo it, but that is not going to happen.

schizophonic · 15-07-2009, 7:52 PM

Once again, thanks again McKettle. I will look through your plans as a starting point. I know when i come about to do it - it wont be as clean and neat. But we make one of two mistakes but its a starting point.

However I will think and plan my layout very carefully.

Thanks for showing.