Do i need a patch panel or a switch (confused DIY)

I don’t feel the need for a patch panel because it will change so infrequently.

Yours only looks like it has a couple of cables back from wall sockets though?

If you are going to straight from the cable to the switch then you need to get the right type of connector plugs. These will be CAT5e/6a as appropriate and either solid or stranded type as you can get both types, stranded are far more common. If you do then you can properly terminate them and have no issues.

However, I started off with a 12 port panel screwed the wall in my house. (I have a lot more now). Something like this



Not saying this particular vendor and might want to shop around but at £13.49 ....

 
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Yours only looks like it has a couple of cables back from wall sockets though?

If you are going to straight from the cable to the switch then you need to get the right type of connector plugs. These will be CAT5e/6a as appropriate and either solid or stranded type as you can get both types, stranded are far more common. If you do then you can properly terminate them and have no issues.

However, I started off with a 12 port panel screwed the wall in my house. (I have a lot more now). Something like this



Not saying this particular vendor and might want to shop around but at £13.49 ....



There is a modular socket with four Cat 6 sockets in the photo. I only have two connected at the moment, the other two go up to bedrooms that are not being used at the moment. The cabling in the walls behind this is solid core Cat 6. If I decided to use these I would need to add another switch or get an additional one because the one in the photo is fully populated.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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There is a modular socket with four Cat 6 sockets in the photo. I only have two connected at the moment, the other two go up to bedrooms that are not being used at the moment. The cabling in the walls behind this is solid core Cat 6. If I decided to use these I would need to add another switch or get an additional one because the one in the photo is fully populated.

Cheers,

Nigel

Yep sorry what I meant is you only appear to have four out of the eight that go to wall sockets so no point having a patch panel. The op has 10 though so a 12 port panel would probably be most cost effective option.

To the op are you going to have any more devices in the cupboard?
 
Yep sorry what I meant is you only appear to have four out of the eight that go to wall sockets so no point having a patch panel. The op has 10 though so a 12 port panel would probably be most cost effective option.

To the op are you going to have any more devices in the cupboard?

See what you mean. Yes six go to devices in the same room.

PC x2
NAS
HomePlug
Printer
Router

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I wouldn't worry about speed. It depends on what you are talking from - from where to where.

If you are talking a computer to the internet then the network is most likely faster than your internet connection. Imagine the weakest link in the chain - you overall speed is only as fast as the slowest element and in most case that will be either the internet or what you are connecting to at the other end. Look at this picture

View attachment 1279442
In this example your PC can talk to the switch at 100Mbps
The switch can talk to the router at 100Mbps

So in theory you could get 100Mbps bandwidth

I've taken worse case here, you can have 1000Mbps networking but there is still plenty of 100Mbps around

But your broadband speed is only 40Mbps so that is the best you can do now.

The company you are connecting to has a 2000Mbps connection so you may think you'll get your full 40Mbps.

But inside the companies network, the computers are having to talk to lots of other customers and they can only spare you 30Mbps.

So the best speed you can get on that connection is 30Mbps.

So you see the network components are rarely the limiting factor, especially if they are 1000Mbs (also called Gigabit) devices. So don't worry that adding switches will slow you connection down.

Cheers,

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, that really has helped.
 
To the op are you going to have any more devices in the cupboard?
Not sure yet, maybe will set up a poe camera at some point, also might get an FM aerial booster (which is only for one room and still need to fit an aerial on the roof).

Been looking at a 10" SOHO cabinet, that might fit my needs, then again the wall mounted panel will be cheaper; 😏
 
Not sure yet, maybe will set up a poe camera at some point, also might get an FM aerial booster (which is only for one room and still need to fit an aerial on the roof).

Been looking at a 10" SOHO cabinet, that might fit my needs, then again the wall mounted panel will be cheaper; 😏

i have a small rack, it looks as if there is alot there, but not much more than you are planning I think?
if you look at the pics, the bottom unit is the power supply, next up is an NVR for POE cameras, then a space, then patch panel, then switch. On top is the modem/router, NAS and home hub.
you can just make out on one of the pics there is a coax distribution (white box) separate to the rack - I think that you can also get these as a rack mountable solution as well but not sure.

This is all in my understairs cupboard - can get fairly warm!
Hope that helps you plan?
 

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Just to add, I looked at different widths of rack but went for a standard width as not everything fits in a smaller one, mine is, however, shallower than most.
i can try to dig out details of what I actually got if needed.
 
Thanks for the in depth response there Mick, its a bit over my head but I get the gist of it.

No worries - there's a lot going on this thread to absorb all at once, just keep coming back to the topics and suck up a bit at a time and eventually it'll all make sense.

Just to clear this up am i right in thinking;: If three ports on my router fed three separate pc's, and i decided to change it so that , one port of the router fed a switch (with the other router ports now empty) and I connected my pc's to the switch; would I lose any speed because im now relying on one router port ??

There's the rub: With multiple devices connected to both your router (all the Wi-Fi ones for example even if you don't connect any PC's) and the switch, you've potentially got traffic from multiple devices transitting the router-switch interlink. The "black art" of designing networks, it deciding how much "capacity" it needs to have, (it's really more about "capacity" that "speed," though link speed is a factor of capacity.)

Data flows in LAN's are "bursty" (believe it or not, that's real industry/standard term!) - meaning it sits idle most of the time, then there's a "burst" of traffic. Small SOHO networks even more so as they have very few devices in them. An exception to that would be things like streaming media where you need sustained ongoing throughput whilst you're watching/listening. Even then it depends on just what media you want to stream, particularly the throughput requirement of the media and the number of streams you want to sustain concurrently.

If your interlink was "only" 100mbps - it'd be fine for a 2-3 "typical" BD streams, a dozen or more "typical" SD stream, and hundreds of audio streams. 4K might struggle to maintain more than one. However, these are only very rough guidelines as what really matters is the throughput requirements of the streams and that is highly variable, not whether they are SD/HD/4K etc. For example, I've got plenty of "HD" titles that have lower throughput requirements that most of my DVD rips.

If your interlink is 1000mbps (gigabit) then you can more or less multiply all those numbers by 10 and thusly I don't think you'll have any capacity issues for a long time for home use.

Technically each extra "hop" in the pathway adds a bit of extra latency (lag) - but it's so short you'll be hard pressed to even measure it, let alone "notice" it in normal use.
 
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Im drawing up a list of whats needed, choosing materials ect, and decided to go for cat5e. Im not sure if i need shielded or non-shielded, can anyone advise please ? Install will be in a terraced domestic house, but the cabling route for the cat5 will likely run parallel and at right angles to existing twin & earth cabling in places, also the proposed data outlets will be next to the existing sockets. Thanks all this forum is most helpful !
 
Unshielded is easier to work with - it's mechanically a bit less stiff and and shielded cable has the added complexity that all the shielding needs to be earthed work properly.

To give you some confidence, I've had literally hundreds of unshielded cables run through things like plant rooms and other electrically noisey environments without any problems, so domestic residence should be a doddle by comparison.

Choose "cat5e" over "cat5" - it's certified to higher frequencies at greater length and and cost difference is negligible (you not even be able to buy cat5 any more.) Some people advocate cat6/cat6a, though ethernet doesn't work any "better" (or worse) because you give it higher cat cables. Whatever cat you buy, ensure the sockets/plugs etc. are the same cat - some of the cats have different wire gauges which might make termination difficulties if you mis-match. If you buy the same cat sockets (patch panels, etc.) as your cable, you should be fine.

When routing your cables, be sure to "curve" them rather than bend them. IIRC the min. curve radius is 4x the cable diameter - so no "hammering" it into 90 degree (or whatever) bends. Also try not to crush, kink, nick or knot the cable - so doing may not instantly "break" it, but it all eats into the electrical performance.

Beware of any cable that looks "too cheap." The "cat" standards mandate the use of pure copper conductors. There's an alternate type called Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA) which instantly fails being "cat" anything, ('cos Ali isn't allowed,) but there are some unscrupulous sellers punting it on surrounded by hyperbole such as "catX equivalent" "catX tested" "catX certified" and other BS, or it's sold under made up cats such as cat5a (no such thing) cat6e (no thing) etc.

The rules about not running UTP and power parallel with each other is more to do with preventing the mains inducing current in the UTP presenting a shock hazzard rather than an "interference" problem stopping the data. I forget the exact rules, but from memory keep them at least 30cm part where possible and if not, minimise the amount of parallel running.

You'll need an IDC "punch down" tool as well - sometimes these are called "Krone" tools as that was one of mfgrs of them years ago, in the same way many us call any vaccuum cleaner a "Hoover." Punch down tools are only a fiver or so, possibly less if you can find one second hand. It wouldn't be the worst idea to have a few practice goes terminating the cables before committing to the real version. The most common mistakes I've seen are not holding the tool square enough and not punching hard enough meaning the wires don't hit the bottom of the blocks: The IDC block (sockets) have "V" shaped knives in them which slice through the insulation and into the wire cores as you punch.

Another mistake is using the tool the wrong way round. They (usually) have a pair of scissors built in that trims the wires to length as you punch. Use it the "wrong" way round and you cut the wires off rather than trim them to length. Not that I've ever been so dumb as to do that - oh no not me.

If you really want to push the boat out, a cheap continuity tester (GBP 10 or thereabouts) might be worth it - though cheap ones do little more than a loopback test - you could do the same with a light bulb and a battery. More expensive testers look for things like split and crossed pairs and the uber expensive one do the full suite of tests to actually certify that you actually passed catX performance standards - but they cost thousands and really aren't worth even hiring one for a one off DIY job of relatively few cables.

And finally, label the ends of each cable. Many patch panels have numbers above each socket (or a window to accommodate labels) - simply give the other end of each lobe the same number on the room sockets. Have a look back at Rortons pics - you can see he's done this.
 
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Unshielded is easier to work with - it's mechanically a bit less stiff and and shielded cable has the added complexity that all the shielding needs to be earthed work properly.

To give you some confidence, I've had literally hundreds of unshielded cables run through things like plant rooms and other electrically noisey environments without any problems, so domestic residence should be a doodle by comparison.

Choose "cat5e" over "cat5" - it's certified to higher frequencies at greater length and and cost difference is negligible (you not even be able to buy cat5 any more.) Some people advocate cat6/cat6a, though ethernet doesn't work any "better" (or worse) because you give it higher cat cables. Whatever cat you buy, ensure the sockets/plugs etc. and the same cat - some of the cats have different wire gauges differ which might make termination difficulties is you mis-match. If you buy the same cat sockets (patch panels, etc.) as your cable, you should be fine.

When routing your cables, be sure to "curve" them rather than bend them. IIRC the min. curve radius is 4x the cable diameter - so no "hammering" it into 90 degree (or whatever) bends. Also try not to crush, kink, nick or knot the cable - so doing may not instantly "break" it, but it all eats into the electrical performance.

Beware of any cable that looks "too cheap." The "cat" standards mandate the use of pure copper conductors. There's an alternate type called Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA) which instantly fails being "cat" anything, (but Ali isn't allowed,) but there are some unscrupulous sellers punting it on surrounded by hyperbole such as "catX equivalent" "catX tested" "catX certified" and other BS, or it's sold under made up cats such as cat5a (no such thing) cat6e (no thing) etc.

The rules about not running UTP and power parallel with each other is more to do with preventing the mains inducing current in the UTP presenting a shock hazzard rather than an "interference" problem stopping the data. I forget the exact rules, but from memory keep them at least 30cm part where possible and if not, minimise the amount of parallel running.

Thanks for the quick reply, yep i will get some decent cable from a reputable place, and make sure all the other equipment is compatible. I was assuming the unshielded would be adequate, but no harm in a second opinion :)
 
Okay thanks guys. Im a bit confused now, another forum i posted on last night is recommending that I use a patch panel and a switch, and says its often difficult to connect rj45 connectors to cat 6 directly into a switch. Also, the hard wiring to the socket(s) in each room, should this be solid core or stranded ? Whats the differences.

I cant get my head around why I should wire my cables into a patch panel, and from the panel to a switch ! Why not just wire direct into a switch ? How many ports from a switch can be wired into patch panel (I thought patch panel ports were all connected to each other) Thanks all im confused about this !!

For normal home installations there's no need to. It's not like in a business where you may want to be connecting certain devices which are on different "sub-networks" on the network directly to others where having a patch panel allows you to do that without having to start doing new cable runs.
 
I saw this thread during my research. It seems most of you guys prefer patch panel + swtich setup. But
is patch panel a overkill setup if I just have 8 ethernet cables to deal with and do not plan to change or expand network in the future? thanks!
 
Using a patch panel is more to do with correctly terminating the cable runs than the ability to repatch what is connected to what - though of course it facilitates that too. Even in businesses, once built, most infrastructure does not change often, though probably more so than in a home. For example, in business premises, we often put in way more cabling that is required and some of it won't be used initially. But then one day somebody will move office, or change the furniture round or acquire an extra device (phone, printer, often,) or repurpose the usage of a room which then effects which ports need to be "live" and we'll go the the comms cabinet and repatch as required.

However the main reason is to correctly terminate the cables and it's easier (and quicker) to terminate onto the IDC blocks in the back of a PP than onto plugs. (Plugs are more fiddly to do.) Also, PP's are designed to mount into standard 19 inch rack frames which also accommodate our switches, cable management, routers, UPS's, etc. etc. If you Google some pictures of enterprise class switches, you'll notice they are almost all physically designed for rack mounting or have rack mounting options.

The termination in most PP's (the IDC blocks) is exactly the same as in the faceplates, if you only had a few to do you could forego a PP and use some faceplates both ends, it's just that for the "central nexus" room type faceplates take up more space so eventually if you have enough cables, a PP becomes more space efficient. Or skip them altogether a patch straight into the equipment. But you need to ensure you use plugs that are suitable to solid core cable if that's what you have used.

Finally (from me) a PP is much, much easier to label than "raw" cables. PP's often have a little window into which you can insert a label or a scribble strip. Cables, by definition, have nothing, so you have to label them by wrapping something around them if you want to stand a chance or remembering what goes where. There are "proper" cable wrap labels you can buy, or do something a bit more DIY such as use dymo labels or write on some strips of paper and wrap them with sellotape (though they don't tend to last too long.) I've seen people use colour coding whereby they wrapped the ends in different colour boots (on the plugs,) cable ties or tape and kept a record of what each colour meant.

In big comms cabinets with PP's, which can get spaghettified very quickly, we still sometime label the ends of the patch-chord - or maybe a few of the "important" ones. And we maintain a "patching schedule" which records what is patched to what, though life gets "fun" when people neglect to keep the records up to date.
 
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With 8 cables I would fit two double gang back boxes and fit euro module faceplates with 4xRJ45 modules in each plate. This keeps thing neat and tidy, allows the cabling to be easily terminated on punch-down krone terminals, and the modules can be easily labelled for identification. Effectively it replicates a small patch panel using stand faceplates.
 
With 8 cables I would fit two double gang back boxes and fit euro module faceplates with 4xRJ45 modules in each plate. This keeps thing neat and tidy, allows the cabling to be easily terminated on punch-down krone terminals, and the modules can be easily labelled for identification. Effectively it replicates a small patch panel using stand faceplates.
This and the other chap who suggested the same earlier in the thread is entirely sensible.
Only posting to amplify the point that if you don't have lots of cables this is an equally sound solution, and imho more pragmatic.
 

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