Network wiring terminations

[bandit385]

I'm installing a new home network that was "pre-wired" with cat 5e cable to a Open House structured wiring panel. There's a total of (15) cate 5e cables that run throughout the house back to the wiring panel. Six (6) of the rooms have 2 RJ45 jacks. The jacks (RJ45) and termination hub (Open house H628) (8-port) were not installed. To finish the installation, I'll need to install the jacks, install the termination hub, and add (buy) another (8-port) termination hub and network switch(es) (8-port or 16-port). (Note: I'm also considering adding a IP camera network and may add a separate POE switch or NVR with POE for the cameras.)

1) The existing Open House H628 termination hub I have meets the TIA-568A standard. But from what I've read, the 568B is preferred. Can/Should I use the H628 panel and wire it and the jacks to the 568A standard. Or - Is there an alternate hub that fits the Open house panel mounts that is 568B compliant. (I need to purchase a 2nd one any way).

2) If I wire the jacks and terminate cables to the network hub(s) using the 568A standard with the H628 termination hub, will the the devices - router, network switches, printers, wireless devices, etc - that plug into the jacks work properly? (ie. Looking at one of the male jacks to the router, it appears to have the 568B color code. But I don't know if that matters as long as the main wiring and jacks are consistent)

3) Since I need to buy another termination hub, is the Open House H628 model a good choice? On-Q has a similar 8-port hub (363486-01), but I don't know if it fits the Open house panel (it appears to). The On_Q also meets the T568A termination standard. Or are there other cat 5e termination hub options? Such as: T568B wiring, 6 ports, etc? that will fit the panel.

4) Any suggestions on a network switch? Manufacturer/Model? 8 port or 16 port? Other combination? Since 6 of the rooms have 2 RJ45 jacks, should these be put on separate switches, or is a single switch recommended? ( Layout: Main floor - 5 rooms have 2 RJ45 jacks, 1 room has 1 RJ45 jack; Room over garage - 1 room has 2 RJ45 jacks)

5) For the wiring panel, do any exist that are rated for gigabit speed? I don't know if the Open House and On-Q are gigabit rated, but I plan on a gigabit switch and network.

 

[bill001g]

The first thing to remember is the signals can't see the color of the wires and there really is no difference in the wire pairs themselves other than the color of the plastic.

What is critical is that both ends match.....and of course that you do not separate the pairs. So if pin 1 is a orange wire on one end it will be a orange wire on the other.

Now lets say you had a 2 cables one with both ends 568a and the other with both ends 568b. You use a normal straight though coupler and have now connected a orange wire to a green wire. So if you only looked at the 2 unconnected ends you would think you had a cross over cable because one has orange in pin 1 and the other has green in pin1. But in reality you still have pin 1 connected to pin 1 all the way though no matter what the color is. It will work fine but is extremely confusing if you were troubleshooting problems.

What is key here signal that goes into pin 1 on one end comes out on pin 1 on the far end.

Mostly you want pick a standard and stick with it just to avoid confusion.

You can likely use any patch panel you like. Most have both color pattern indicator to assist with punching them down but again just because someone put green paint on the patch panel connection does not mean you can not put a orange wire on it if you really want to.

The key here is you want to match your wall jack or you will have to go back and change them.

Now what is strange I suppose is that GIG ethernet is smart enough to detect either straight or cross cables on run on either so it will run perfectly fine with one end 568a and the other 568b. The concept of cross cable is not really valid for gig anyway since it transmits and receives on all 4 pair from both ends at the same time.

Unless you know why you need a fancy switch you likely don't. Mostly if you need PoE or Vlans would you look at higher end switches.

Now I have never really though about when you have 2 ports from a room in a house connecting it to a different switch. We actually do that in some enterprise installs in case a switch would fail, the user could just move their equipment to the second port. It is over kill in even most corporate installs we do it to keep some very vocal engineers quite. It does not help them when the building loses power and nobody wanted to buy a large generator.

I would just buy a switch that has a few more ports than your patch panel. You may end up needed to put a server or router in the closet and extra ports are needed.

 

[bandit385]

Another Question -

Can a Cat6 termination hub / patch panel such as Channel Vision CAT6 Data Patch Panel C-0538 (or other manufacturer/model) be used for gigabit performance?

It appears to be Compliant with 1000BASE-T specifications and compatible with Category 5, 5e, and 6 wiring.

 

[bill001g]

Cat6 buys you no advantage. If you were going to run 10g you could use cat6 cable at short distance but only cat6a cable/connectors is certified for 10g. But if you can get it cheaper or for the same price it will not hurt anything to use it for 1g.