Do I need a patch panel?

[Jwoolington]

I am installing an Ethernet wall jack in my living room. What I was wanting to do is run an Ethernet cable from my router to the wall jack and from there a patch cable to my firewall and then switch.

Should I do that or should I run Ethernet from router to firewall, from firewall to switch, from switch to patch panel, from patch panel to wall jack

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[InvalidError]

The patch panel is mostly a convenience thing if you want to do managed wiring: terminate every RJ45 jack on a patch panel and then use patch cables to re-route signals whichever way you want.

 

[Jwoolington]

The patch panel is mostly a convenience thing if you want to do managed wiring: terminate every RJ45 jack on a patch panel and then use patch cables to re-route signals whichever way you want.

So I can just terminate from the router straight into the wall jack and redirect from that outlet no patch panel needed? I'm only installed one wall jack and then running from there to firewall, switches, etc. Reason being I have cable and the only cable outlet is in the bedroom and I don't want to drill through walls or run cable on walls or floor. Make sense?

 

[jsmithepa]

Make sense?

Nope.

I hear wall, then this equipment, that equipment but I have not idea where the equipment are, in the same room, different room. Draw a pic and post.

 

[InvalidError]

You have an existing coax outlet, the only one you have, and an RJ45 jack with an existing cat5/6 run from that jack to wherever the rest of your equipment is, and you want to install the cable modem at that coax outlet to use the RJ45 to connect to the rest of your equipment elsewhere.

The question you asked is whether the other end of that cat5/6 run needs to be terminated to a patch panel before connecting to your router/firewall/whatever. No you don't. You can simply crimp an appropriate RJ45 connector for the wire type you are using and it will work perfectly fine as long as both ends are wired correctly.

As I said earlier, patch panels are mainly for larger installation to help keep things tidy and easily reconfigurable. It would be pointless overkill if you have only one in-wall cat5/6 run in your whole home/apartment.

At my mother's home, I wired her up with two to three cat5e runs per room when she had to have her basement redone after a sewer overflow and those terminate on a 24 positions patch panel so each cable run can be patched to whatever I need it for, the default configuration being connected to a 100Mbps 16 ports LAN switch with a few runs left unused.