Planning my panel and wiring...

[rpiatt]

I am looking to by the cabling from Monoprice.com, and the Cat5e to Cat6 price works out to about a $0.025 (two and one half cents) premium per foot. The Keystones are about $0.30 to $0.45 more per unit. I am not sweating the cost (also because it is a small place and I don't have much to do.

That being said, is Cat6 any more hard to work with? Someone mentioned bending angles and such above, but thinking through where I believe the cables will run, I don't think it will have any bend angle issues...

What else makes Cat6 any harder to work with?

(As a side note, we bought a new digital camera last night, so I will have pictures when the time comes...)

 

[tmbrown97]

bend angles shouldn't be as much of a concern when working with 2-3 wires at a time... it's more of a PITA to sit there an unwind and straighten out the little wires, but again - for only a handful, you'll get over it. It's definitely best to use keystones and RJ45 ends meant for Cat6 just because of the larger gauge. For all 110-style termination it won't be as bad - it's making cables and trying to get the ends perfect that it's a little more irritating than Cat5 (may be worse for someone less experienced) - but all in all, you'll get through it.

it's a little tougher to work with, but not enough for that to be the one thing that sways your decision - your fingers will just be a little more sore afterwards.

 

[rpiatt]

I have been reading quite a few posts about patch panels. Some people are for them, some aren't. I am thinking that using patch panels will allow me to be flexible in what I "send" to the endpoints. I could more easily swap out cable/OTA HD feeds, network feeds, and phone lines as required, right?

Has anyone tried this and later opted against it? (Most of the posts I find are more simply about "where" to find patch panels) Or have you not done it and later wished you had?

 

[wuench]

I have been reading quite a few posts about patch panels. Some people are for them, some aren't. I am thinking that using patch panels will allow me to be flexible in what I "send" to the endpoints. I could more easily swap out cable/OTA HD feeds, network feeds, and phone lines as required, right?

Has anyone tried this and later opted against it? (Most of the posts I find are more simply about "where" to find patch panels) Or have you not done it and later wished you had?

I have a Futuresmart panel, which is basically an overpriced residential patch panel. I can say I definitely would NOT recommend that. Mostly because it has a hinged door, and the pricing. It would have been better to go for a regular patch panel and rack. I also have a Leviton Quickport patch panel in my rack. Again, I am not sure I would recommend it because those stupid quickports, no matter if in a wall plate or a patch panel, always pop out on you.

One caveat to patch panels is it is pretty much necessary to have access to the back of the panel for wiring the panel. So mounting one in the wall won't really work well. Yes, there are hinged ones, but you are back to the issues I have with the Futuresmart panel, which is you have to leave excess cable so you can open the door.

All that being said, I am considering ripping out my Futuresmart Superpro, and just throwing a rack up. But I am still thinking about it. I still like patch panels vs. the enclosure route for plain cabling. But then again I am a network guy...

BTW, you can see pics in the link in my sig...

 

[rpiatt]

Wow. That futuresmart panel is something else...

My issue is that my panel will be behind a flushmount door, and the wife does not want any cabling showing. So I was thinking about the flexibility I could have (mainly for cable and Network, not so much Telephone). But finding a patch panel for Cat6 that fits well in a 14" wide panel is a bit challenging. I do plan to have the netgear FS116 in there (16-port GigE swtich).

I also saw the RG6 patch panels people have made, and I am pretty confident I can make one that will work well in the closed panel.

I am curious though, once I punch down the cat6 to the back of the patch panel, assuming I clearly label the front as to where each port goes in the house, why do I need to get back there any more than infrequently?

 

[tmbrown97]

in 14" wide you're not going to get a normal rack-mount patch panel - those are normally 19". You could do a couple of these: http://shop1.frys.com/product/409894?site=...CH:MAIN_RSLT_PG - price sucks and they're not Cat6, but that's just to illustrate what I'm talking about.

Should you actually need to get to the back of it, it snaps out of the holder - but the only reason you should need that is if something doesn't test out correctly or something happens to a wire... normally you should never need it again.

 

[rpiatt]

I am pretty sure I found those for Cat6 and they were only around $20... I'll have to find the link...

Slight delay in my planning, but I am back into finishing up the mapping by room tomorrow.

 

[rpiatt]

$21.99 at Directron...

Cat6 Vertical Pach Panel (12-port)

 

[rpiatt]

Cat 6 for phone?

I have been searching like a mad man today to try and finish up my list of materials based on the drops I think I need.

The thought popped into my head about using all Cat6 wiring for both data and phone. but what i can't find anywhere is how to use Cat6 for Phone (RJ11 keystones and such). Can anyone recommend a resource? Plus, one cable of Cat6 should be able to provide two lines to a drop correct?

 

[AceCannon]

Cat 6 for phone?

I have been searching like a mad man today to try and finish up my list of materials based on the drops I think I need.

The thought popped into my head about using all Cat6 wiring for both data and phone. but what i can't find anywhere is how to use Cat6 for Phone (RJ11 keystones and such). Can anyone recommend a resource? Plus, one cable of Cat6 should be able to provide two lines to a drop correct?

One cat5e or cat6 run has 8 conductors. You need 2 for a phone line.

A standard rj45 jack will also accept a rj11 plug for the center 4 conductors. So it is very easy (and commonly done) to use catx cable for data and phone.

 

[felixrosbergen]

wow..i never knew a JR45 jack would accept a RJ11 plug, i had to go test myself and sure enough...

So that basically means you can just make 2 cat5/6 with RJ45 sockets to each room/location and then just path in the wiring closet without having to change anything on the field side...awesome...

Looks like a standard 1 line phone only uses 2 conductors in the middle, so using T568A wiring method (actually either one) that means the phone would use the BlueWhite/Blue pair of wires. Can somebody confirm if thats correct?

It seems that structured wiring telephone boards use RJ45 plugs anyway...that woudl make patching a real piece of cake overall except for the fact that to my knowledge you will plug up any ethernet device connected if you accidentally patch it to the phone system and put the 70V or so on it.. so better be carefull...

 

[jkarney]

Looks like a standard 1 line phone only uses 2 conductors in the middle, so using T568A wiring method (actually either one) that means the phone would use the BlueWhite/Blue pair of wires. Can somebody confirm if thats correct?

Using the TIA568A method is what I'm going to use and is recommended by Leviton for residential installs. As you can see below, pair one and pair two occupy pins 4,5, and 3,6 respectively.


Standard Jack Wiring

Standard 4-Pair Wiring Color codes

Pair 1 T White/Blue
R Blue/White
Pair 2 T White/Orange
R Orange/White
Pair 3 T White/Green
R Green/White
Pair 4 T White/Brown
R Brown/White

NOTE:For 6-wire jacks use pair 1, 2 and 3 color codes.
For 4-wire jacks use pair 1 and 2 color codes.

 

[rpiatt]

wow..i never knew a JR45 jack would accept a RJ11 plug, i had to go test myself and sure enough...

Glad to see I wasn't the only one. :blink:

I guess I am puzzled in only that I wonder if when I move out will it be confusing for the next homeowner if all they see is RJ45 jacks? (I mean, my undergrad is in computer science with a specialization in networking, and I didn't know it, but then again, I haven't done networking every day in 10 years).

This will sure make my purchasing easier, if not a little more expensive. Blue Cat6 for data, grey Cat6 for phone. Easy enough to understand.

I'll have to think on this some more, as I was planning to use a 110 punch down in my panel for phone and some 12-port vertical patch panels for data. I think that still applies.

 

[rpiatt]

Standard Jack Wiring

How does it differ when you get to 100 Base T and GigE? Cool diagram to have all in one place...

 

[felixrosbergen]

rpiatt:
I think those are all based on the T568A wiring method. Notice how the 10 Base T Ethernet actually uses pair 1 and 2 of the T568A scheme. I believe 100mbit also uses only 2 pair but not sure if it's pair and 2. GigE apparently uses all 4 pairs.

So essentially they're all the same, just not all pairs/pins get used for all.