Home Net Typology & Patch panel(s) - Which cables SHOULD route to the patch panel?

[swb9999]

When I built my home, the home network was an afterthought (e.g. I had bigger fish to fry, as the homeowner/GC of a troubled build). The day before drywall installation, I grabbed a laborer, spotted locations for the cable system entry, home network cabinet, entertainment sub-center, TV center, 7.1 ceiling speaker system, and appropriate drops to each bedroom, installed the enclosures, and ran conduit within half a day. I've used wireless since move-in about six years ago, uncertain whether I'd ever bother with pulling wire, since the quality of wireless technology has improved. Well, continuing issues with wireless lag has built to the point, where I'm biting the bullet, and pulling wire.

Which leads me to the question(s) I have.

1) I have assumed that there was some level of signal loss in connecting a router (8 ports) to a powered switch (8 ports). Is that, in fact, the case? In other words, I have my router installed inside the pantry, on a dedicated wire shelf near the ceiling. An RG6 cable feeds from the network wall enclosure up to the rack, which includes both cable modem and router, and CAT6 wires feed back from the router to the network wall enclosure. The router has 8 ports. How much signal (i.e. bandwidth) do I actually lose sending one CAT6 cable back, and hooking it to a 8 or 16 port switch inside the enclosure, for further distribution, versus, running eight CAT6 cables, installing into a patch panel, and using jumper cables to connect them to other, outbound ports in the patch panel?

2) In establishing patch panels in the network center enclosure (downstairs pantry wall), and upstairs sub-center (closet wall), I can terminate the CAT6 feeds from patch panel to patch panel, and then routing .CAT6 out to the user-drops, i.e. bedroom TV centers, main room TV centers, network CAT6/RJ45 wall drop, etc.). Or, I could route ALL CAT6 cables coming into the upstairs, closet sub-center, i.e. those from the drop points, and those from the pantry network center, and use jumpers to cross connect them. Is there a "proper" typology for routing network cabling via patch panels, inside network enclosures, i.e. which cables are terminated in a patch panel, versus which cables connect TO a patch panel via RJ45 connector, e.g. distribution vs. supply? My description is confusing, but basically, with every CAT6 cable entering a the pantry network enclosure, I have a choice of attaching a RJ45 connector, and plugging it into a patch panel, or terminating it INTO a patch panel, connecting it to a device, or providing service, via cross-connected, patch panel jumper cables.

3) FYI, I'm running a limited amount of actual live CAT6 network service cables, perhaps only 8 CAT6 cable, live connections throughout the house connected to the router, with the rest being unterminated "spares". However, I do intend to terminate all cables from network center (pantry) to sub-center (upstairs closet), as future end user/devices for each spare cable will be able to easily connect between network enclosures via RJ45 to existing patch panels. For example, for each bedroom TV center drop, I originally planned on providing 1 RJ45 internet cable/plug, 1 RG6 COAX plug, 1 HDMI plug, and one unterminated "spare" CAT6 wire for future use (new technology, maybe a USB, a bluetooth device, etc.). After researching current HDMI over CAT6 extender technology (which is how I wired HDMI to TV centers in my previous home), I realized that it's changed. The available connectors were previously powered and required two CAT5/6 cables at either end, but now unpowered connectors are available requiring a single CAT6 (i.e. albeit for shorter runs, fine for this installation). Since we do not intend to install TV's into the bedroom in the near term, and in view of changing technology, I've decided to skip the HDMI connectors for the present, and just include 1 RG6/COAX plug, 1 live CAT6/RJ45 network plug, and two spare, unterminated CAT6 cables to each bedroom drop. I'll have other "spare" cables pulled throughout the house, for future expansion. (Of course, someone can come along in the future and repurpose the conduits for other technology, but from what I've seen over the years, CAT5/6 cables are relatively standard, can support a host of purposes, and with spares in the tubes, will eliminate pulling wire for many future upgrades or additions.)

Thanks for wading through these verbose issue descriptions, and your help!

 

[ddaenen1]

Honestly, i have read your post now 3 times and i am still unsure what you are looking for.

Firstly, in order to have any loss of significance, your UTP cables need to be way longer than i would assume they would be in a regular home environment. Secondly, wifi can never replace a wired connection and in places where you would need a stable reliable connection such as TV for streaming services or a NAS or a wifi access point, i would always foresee an RJ45 wallsocket.

Last but not least, the desired topology to me, at least for home networking, router->switch->RJ45 wall sockets -> any wired devices (TV, STB's, NAS, Wifi access points).

My topology looks like below. Every full line is hardwired, all directly from my main switch. Where i needed more hardwired connections, i added an additional small switch. Does this make sense?

 

[degrub]

When I built my home, the home network was an afterthought (e.g. I had bigger fish to fry, as the homeowner/GC of a troubled build). The day before drywall installation, I grabbed a laborer, spotted locations for the cable system entry, home network cabinet, entertainment sub-center, TV center, 7.1 ceiling speaker system, and appropriate drops to each bedroom, installed the enclosures, and ran conduit within half a day. I've used wireless since move-in about six years ago, uncertain whether I'd ever bother with pulling wire, since the quality of wireless technology has improved. Well, continuing issues with wireless lag has built to the point, where I'm biting the bullet, and pulling wire.

Which leads me to the question(s) I have.

1) I have assumed that there was some level of signal loss in connecting a router (8 ports) to a powered switch (8 ports). Is that, in fact, the case? In other words, I have my router installed inside the pantry, on a dedicated wire shelf near the ceiling. An RG6 cable feeds from the network wall enclosure up to the rack, which includes both cable modem and router, and CAT6 wires feed back from the router to the network wall enclosure. The router has 8 ports. How much signal (i.e. bandwidth) do I actually lose sending one CAT6 cable back, and hooking it to a 8 or 16 port switch inside the enclosure, for further distribution, versus, running eight CAT6 cables, installing into a patch panel, and using jumper cables to connect them to other, outbound ports in the patch panel?

negligible unless you have poorly done terminations or abused the cables during pulling.

2) In establishing patch panels in the network center enclosure (downstairs pantry wall), and upstairs sub-center (closet wall), I can terminate the CAT6 feeds from patch panel to patch panel, and then routing .CAT6 out to the user-drops, i.e. bedroom TV centers, main room TV centers, network CAT6/RJ45 wall drop, etc.). Or, I could route ALL CAT6 cables coming into the upstairs, closet sub-center, i.e. those from the drop points, and those from the pantry network center, and use jumpers to cross connect them. Is there a "proper" typology for routing network cabling via patch panels, inside network enclosures, i.e. which cables are terminated in a patch panel, versus which cables connect TO a patch panel via RJ45 connector, e.g. distribution vs. supply? My description is confusing, but basically, with every CAT6 cable entering a the pantry network enclosure, I have a choice of attaching a RJ45 connector, and plugging it into a patch panel, or terminating it INTO a patch panel, connecting it to a device, or providing service, via cross-connected, patch panel jumper cables.

if the rack or the patch panel will never move, terminating works. if you think you may have to reposition or move connections around, use the connector. Either works, properly done.

3) FYI, I'm running a limited amount of actual live CAT6 network service cables, perhaps only 8 CAT6 cable, live connections throughout the house connected to the router, with the rest being unterminated "spares". However, I do intend to terminate all cables from network center (pantry) to sub-center (upstairs closet), as future end user/devices for each spare cable will be able to easily connect between network enclosures via RJ45 to existing patch panels. For example, for each bedroom TV center drop, I originally planned on providing 1 RJ45 internet cable/plug, 1 RG6 COAX plug, 1 HDMI plug, and one unterminated "spare" CAT6 wire for future use (new technology, maybe a USB, a bluetooth device, etc.). After researching current HDMI over CAT6 extender technology (which is how I wired HDMI to TV centers in my previous home), I realized that it's changed. The available connectors were previously powered and required two CAT5/6 cables at either end, but now unpowered connectors are available requiring a single CAT6 (i.e. albeit for shorter runs, fine for this installation). Since we do not intend to install TV's into the bedroom in the near term, and in view of changing technology, I've decided to skip the HDMI connectors for the present, and just include 1 RG6/COAX plug, 1 live CAT6/RJ45 network plug, and two spare, unterminated CAT6 cables to each bedroom drop. I'll have other "spare" cables pulled throughout the house, for future expansion. (Of course, someone can come along in the future and repurpose the conduits for other technology, but from what I've seen over the years, CAT5/6 cables are relatively standard, can support a host of purposes, and with spares in the tubes, will eliminate pulling wire for many future upgrades or additions.)

what diameter conduit did you run for the 4 cable pull ?
i hope they did a good job removing burrs if this is metal conduit.
Did you use pulling boxes for the turns or long radius ells ?
How many ells per run ?
You may need plenty of non-conductive elephant snot to lubricate the pull

Thanks for wading through these verbose issue descriptions, and your help!

 

[Samir]

1. As previously posted--none if everything is done right. And pretty much none even if it's done only halfway right.

2. Usually you patch panel both sides since those cables are typically rigid and not meant to move (solid core wire). Then you use patch cables to patch whatever and however you want. You can put ends on a run, but I have seen them break over time and then you have to reterminate after wasting a tremendous amount of time diagnosing to find what most likely will be an intermittent issue. Just patch panel it all and be done with it.

3. We ran many spare ethernet runs to each room at our parents home, and we termianted all of them. This was back in 1995. Over the years, the greatest use has been when you need more than one ethernet port because you have more than one wired device in a room--really great to be able to just plug into a second port (or third or fourth) without having to worry about putting yet another 5-port switch in some room (which adds to network complexity).

Some very good points about pulling the wire too as in our experience less than 1/2 of conduits were actually usable unless they were 2"+. The 1" ones were simply too tight to ever be of use except for the thinnest of wires and only after something else was jammed through. The good thing is that in even the worse case, you have a path from boxes to your demarc so if you need to fish through and wire without the conduit, you probably can somehow.