Patch Panel or not...

Just had a meeting with the low-voltage contractor on the new house I'm building.

After laying out all of the Cat6 drops in the house, I started to talk patch panel, but this guy really didn't want to hear it. He insisted I would be better off crimping the home end of each run with an RJ45 and leaving them in the can, plugging them into what I need.

That sounds like a more 'limiting' solution than a patch panel to me, so by the meeting's end we decided that he would leave a lot of service loop in the enclosure, and I could terminate as I pleased.

My questions for the 'real' experts on the forum:

1. Is he right? Should I just crimp them to RJ45s?

2. Can *I* (never done it before), punch these all down to a patch panel? (YouTube makes it look pretty easy, I'm just wondering if it's not so simple in real life, etc...)

3. If I do decide to do it myself, I worry about cable management a bit. Cutting these things to the perfect length sounds unlikely, and in the videos I've seen they're always doing this on a table. Doing it with wires hanging out of the wall will likely be a bit different. Can you usually just terminate these things at the lengths that are hanging there, and stuff the slack back out of the can into the wall?

4. Anyone have any recommendations on a good Cat6 Patch Panel for inside of an enclosure?

Thanks!

I would always recommend a patch panel for reliability, neatness, and troubleshooting.

If you are a reasonably "handy" person there is no reason you can't do it yourself, just get a good quality punchdown tool.

Go to Home Depot today at lunch, and throw down $3-6 for a cat5 or cat5e cheapo connector. Buy a few feet of cat5 cable while you're there (if they sell by the foot, look elsewhere for scraps).

The Leviton cat5/5e connectors are very similar to the cat6, cheaper.

I think it comes with a plastic punch down 'tool' - works fine for a few connectors, buy a punch down tool if you're going to do the whole thing yourself. But the plastic tool will work fine to try it out.

Sit down tonight and play with it, see how difficult/easy it is, for you.

While at HD, look for a Leviton keystone 12 port (blank) vertical patch panel, and Leviton 89D bracket (to hold the patch panel). This bracket should mount in your enclosure, but the enclosure may not be deep enough. Prob fine - they're made for enclosures, but I don't know what type of enclosure you'll be using.

The keystone cat6 connectors are inserted into the blank patch panel, after you punch the conductors down into the connectors. The 12 port vertical patch panel (non-keystone) is cheaper, where you punch the conductors down into the back of the patch panel. I think I've seen cat6 vertical patch panels (non-keystone) for ~$30 online. The keystone cat6 connectors are relatively pricey, especially at HD - price them online. The keystone blank 12 port Leviton vertical patch panel is $20 at HD, the D89 bracket is $4. I bought these yesterday, at HD.

I will be using 4-8 of these 12 port vertical patch panels in my enclosure. I'm debating whether to use a rack-mount patch panel for half of my patches. Right now, I'm leaning toward all patches in the enclosure, to allow some mobility of the rack enclosure - it's in the way of the furnace, and must be moved to replace the furnace, or to provide room for anything beyond routine maintenance of the furnace. I'll have to replace some of my ethernet cables if I want to patch them all in the rack. I think half in the rack and half in the enclosure would be messy.

My enclosure is extra-deep. The ethernet cables will require a relatively sharp bend, using these 12 port vertical patch panels, in a shallow enclosure.

I found this pic of a vertical patch panel, in use, online. It's actually mounted horizontally, toward the bottom of the enclosure. You can see how the patch cables extend out of the enclosure - I'd be concerned the door/cover may cause a sharp bend in the patch cable. I've seen these 12 port vertical patch panels with the ports angled, to avoid this.


Edit - I'm one to overthink everything, so take this concern with a grain of salt. I bought a 2" depth extension ring for my Channel Vision enclosure, and this won't be a problem for me. Some Levition enclosures, I've seen, also can be made deeper with a depth extension ring, if this is an issue for you.

Edit #2 - Here is a 12 port patch panel that has angled ports, though I don't know how this is mounted in an enclosure (says it can be mounted to a wall, so it seems easy).

http://cableorganizer.com/leviton/vertigo-...atch-panel.html

Edit #3 - You can avoid problems with patching, and save $, by terminating the home-run ethernet cables with male connectors, and skipping a patch panel.

I would use a patch panel. Gives you more versatility later, keeps things cleaner. You may use a given drop for ethernet now, but need to convert it for use with telephone, or a video balun later. The net switch may be in a different location from the video source, for instance. With a patch panel, you just grab a different length patch cable from Monoprice for a few cents, plug it in to the patch panel and the new source, and off you go.

Plus, I personally think it is easier (and more reliable, at least for me) to punch down to 110-block style connectors than to crimp rj45's.

I got a Fluke D914 impact tool and it is excellent. Recommended to me by a networking friend. ($50-$60 if you shop carefully).

How many terminations are we talking about?

Punching down to a patch panel is always going to be quicker and easier than crimping on a RJ-45 IMHO.

I'm no expert but when I finished my basement I put in a rack mount system with panels for cat6 and coax. I used blank panels with keystones for both coax and cat6. It has been wonderful and not too spendy. I have double cat6 and double coax to many rooms. I intend to use the cat 6 for more than internet access (cameras, hdmi over cat6 etc) so it was really nice having a clean set up to be able to easily patch what goes where.

Got all of my parts from monoprice.com except the rack mount rails, those I got from cheapstudioracks.com Fabed up a simple box to mount the rails on that holds, cat6 panels, 16 port switch, coax with splitters and amplifiers, sprinkler timer, and low voltage lighting etc.

If I had to do it all over I don't know that I'd change a thing.


Bart

I see it both ways. In a new home where you are just putting a bunch of wire to each room and you're not sure of exactly what will be what and you are sure to change things as you go, then I would definitely go with a patch panel. In a case like mine, an older retrofit where I am running very specific cables to specific locations, I am not bothering with a patch panel and instead dressing the cables out to directly where they need to go. This is not as flexible but at the 'destination' end its not just a plate in the room with a jack, its a specific location which will take a specific device, so there won't be any changing unless the whole cable is physically moved anyway.

But in general I would use a patch panel with Quickports for the most flexibility.

FWIW, Leviton's name for keystone is Quickport, Panduit is NetKey. I've been told that they're interchangable, but I haven't tried it.

Seems to me that keystones cost twice as much as punching down directly into the rear of an ethernet patch panel.

Steve, how are the terminal blocks working out for you? Would you use different terminal blocks if you had to do it all over? I'm pretty sure that I'll be patching my speaker cables in the enclosure, now that I've bought a server rack cabinet (that will be located 4 feet from the enclosure).

Neurorad said:

FWIW, Leviton's name for keystone is Quickport, Panduit is NetKey. I've been told that they're interchangable, but I haven't tried it.

Seems to me that keystones cost twice as much as punching down directly into the rear of an ethernet patch panel.

Click to expand...

True but...

For me there wasn't much of a difference butt there was a slight savings. However I bought blank plates and then just the amount of keystones I needed now and will add more when required. This was a cost savings over buying a loaded patch panel. All of this assumes you find a decent deal on the keystones (or equivalent). The prices on those can go from less than $1 to well over $3 and unfortunately you don't always get what you pay for. I threw away a couple of more expensive keystones that I bought locally because the quality was poor.

Also going the keystone route gives me flexibility to use the cat 6 for other stuff.

Also I have interchanged keystones with "quickport" without issue.

Your LV Contractor is just wanting the easy way out. Having said that, expect him to charge you a premium for installing a patch panel.

I would ALWAYS use patch panels to terminiate my network drops. Not only does it give you a much cleaner installation, but it is much more reliable.

BartonWalken said:

Also going the keystone route gives me flexibility to use the cat 6 for other stuff.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify - a patch panel offers the same flexibility.

Punchdown is way faster in my mind and therefore should be cheaper. I hate attaching the RJ45 crimps. You need to strip back the covering make all the strands the same length and get them in the right order and then slide them into the crimp. With a punchdown block you just strip the covering and bang out all the punches.

Punch down blocks are really cleap, see monoprice.
You can get 1', 2', 3' cables from monoprice for under $1.00 to complete the last connection.

So to me punchdown is faster/cheaper.

More clarifying - 'punching down' is done into a patch panel directly, or into a female keystone connector.

Male ethernet/RJ45 connectors are crimped.

Sorry if I'm misinterpreting, Swancoat, but is the LV guy offering to add the crimped male RJ45 connectors for you, as part of the deal?

If your LV contractor is not playing along i would suggest just having him label and leave the whole thing unterminated. Chances are you're paying quite dearly for the termination and may not even use all of the runs initially.

I went the 'keystone patchpanel' way where i have a 48 port keystone panel which I can mix and match different keystones (Cat5/6, COAX, Component)...and I am verry happy with it. Check out my showcase thread for pics and details. I really only terminated what i think i need now and in the near future. The rest if just unterminated (but labelled) at the patch panel and in the walls behind the mud rings. Saves a lot of money on keystones that way (cat6 keystones are not cheap at all).

Also in the rooms (i call this the 'field') i use Leviton keystone planes (2/3/4/6 keystones per 1 gang) and mix and match keystones and blanks as needed.

The only tricky thing is that if he does not terminate how can you tell if the cable run is good? You could explain the situation and then see if he will give a guarantee that if you find a bad run in the first year he will come fix it, but if that does happen he is still going to need to open up the walls most likely.

I haven't actually terminated on a real patch panel yet, but putting the Cat5/6 keystones on is pretty easy if you're not color blind. Get a cheap LAN cable tester ($30 or so) and check each run you terminate. You can be so carefull and diligent, but you will still mess one up every once in a while so you want to catch that before you short out any gear.

With this method you have ultimate flexibility, if you want to you can even put a different keystone (e.g. IR or RCA) on the same cat5/6 cable if needed. For this same reason i am totally against using particular color cables for functions, it is guaranteed to change at some point. Within one year I have already use some cat5 for USB extender, some for telephone and some for IR extension..there is no way you can plan for all this...better to make yourself a flexibile solution.

+1 on having the contractor label the runs and you do the terminating yourself. The female RJ45 jacks are color coded on the jack for the individual wires, a good punch down tool is relatively inexpensive, you will be happier with the result.

The best situation is that you terminate into a patch panel. That termination is physical and unchanging (at both ends!), this is a good thing. If you terminate your runs with RJ45s you have a potential troubleshooting nightmare any time you move something also typically Cat5e / Cat6 is not all that flexible and you could inadvertently crimp and damage the cable which could cause reliability issues . Patch panel to patch cable to device (switch, etc) cleanest most reliable solution.

If you decide to go this route make sure your contractor leaves you a service loop of several spare feet of cable to work with. This gives you the flexibility to work on the terminations on a flat surface, allows for mistakes, and allows some flexibility to move the patch panel around within the can. The spare wire can be gently pushed back up into the wall cavity. I would also recommend a basic Ethernet test tool to validate your wiring. It also is handy to have when something suddenly stops working allowing you to confirm or eliminate the wiring quickly.
-Ben