Confusion about Patch Panels?

[wjsulliv]

I'm a little confused about patch panels?

Basically what can they actually be used for?

Example. Can I use this as a for ethernet and/or telephone? Is this a cheap alternative to a hub?

 

[Mucman]

Patch panels are primary used for stuctured cabling purposes (look "structured cabling" in google). What this means is that you have the medium for all
sorts of different applications. Here's and example of where structured cabling can come in use :

In the bedroom there is a RJ-45 jack. Sort of like this. Behind the plate you have Cat5 cable going
to your network closet, where it gets terminated at a patchpanel like this.. Right now, I want
to use those connections for Internet access so I plug the corresponding ports on the patch panel into a switch.
Now let's say I bought a switch for my bedroom so I only really need one connection to my room for Internet access; What should I do with the other
connection? I could buy a couple baluns and have television going through that
wire that used to have Ethernet going over it!

Those pics are taken from my home network. You can see more at here. Warning, it's not a pretty site
Here's a pic of some patchpanels at my work. They are only used for Ethernet, but they make
it easier to manage the network. (Front pic).

Hope that clears it up a bit. Hopefully ScottMac will see this thread, because he is the guru around here about structured cabling.

 

[wjsulliv]

So basically if you were wiring your house (adding wall jacks to each room, etc.). You would run the cable from the wall jack (say in the bedroom) to the patch panel (in your wiring closet).

Then to get internet access to the room you would need to connect a switch/router/etc. to that port on the patch panel.


So a patch panel is like a 12/24/32 port wall jack for your wiring closet.

 

[skyking]

Exactly!
But wait... there's more.
You can also route your phone into the same closet, and patch those connections too.

 

[ScottMac]

But wait! There's EVEN MORE !!

You can run much more than just phone and Ethernet networking over (properly implemented and terminated) structured cabling (uh, you know, "Cat5 / 5e / 6" ...).

Broadband, RF video, baseband video (composite, S-vid, AND Component), whole-house audio links, serial connections, 3270 terminals (in-yo house??) 5250 terminal connections (in-yo house??), alarm circuits, Token-Ring, Ethernet, Arcnet, CDDI, ATM (155 Megabit!), Gigabit Ethernet, and much much more ...

So you should always install the fixed cabling (in the walls) as a straight-through, and use patch cables, adapters, and baluns to do the fancy work.

FWIW

Scott

 

[skyking]

and much much more ...

Security, etc..........