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Small Voice/Data Network Setup

  • 04-01-2008 4:55pm
    #1
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I've just finished building a new house and have Cat5e cabling to all rooms. I am getting Wireless broadband installed soon and will have this connected to a wireless router in the comms room. What I need to do is terminate the Cat5e cables (I have the RJ45 plugs and Crimper tool) and then hook these all up so I can have network access in all rooms. There is also a live phone connection in the comms rooms that is currently supplying 2 feeds in a junction box. I need to be able to distribute this phone connection also so I can choose between data or voice for specific points in the house. What equipment/setup do I need to get this all working? If it was data only I know a large router/hub/switch would do the job but the voice part is where I need help. Thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    bushy...
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭bushy...


    I suppose you just need a switch , a patch panel and a small cabinet and you're away. You may as well go with gigabit stuff , files aren't going to get any smaller.
    Buy the patch leads instead of making them, its not worth making them.


  • #3
    FusionNet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 695 ✭✭✭FusionNet


    I agree with bushy, put down the crimp tool and back away, that is if you wanna have hair at the end of your job.!!

    You dont mention how many connections you have but lets say its between 10 and 15? Get a standard cabinet frame, this is way cheaper than a cabinet bout 30 quid, buy a patch panel bout 40 quid and start patching proper connections. Then get your eircom line, open up the box and connect a long strip of single paired cat5e onto the l1 and l2. Now this part is a little tricky if you dont have the bits but if you like i can send you some in the post. You get the end of you pair and using gel crimps (water proof telecom connectors) you crimp that pair to lets say three or four other pairs, then you crimp RJ11 plugs onto those and simply plug them into the patch panel in the rooms where you want them.

    Now option B, which is way cooler is you pick up a nice analogue panasonic pbx, connect your eircom line in and then just jack in the connections to whatever rooms you like. A little more expensive but so cool. a 308 panasonic system would cost you bout €450 incl vat but that gives you eight extensions!!

    Anyways I have loads of ways I connect lines in systems I install thats just two, if you want any more info or those gel crimps you know how to get me.


  • #4
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    Thanks for the info lads. None of the Cat5e cables are terminated in the Comms room so I guess I will have to crimp these anyway? How many phone connections can be run from the 1 junction box? There's really only 4 points in the house where I need a phone connection. 1 is the Eircom phone point in the hall, 1 is in the living room beside the Sky box and the other is in the comms room itself to plug into the alarm and the 2nd sky box (Sky multiroom). Would it be possible to bring all these from the 1 junction box? It would save me having to get a patch panel and I could just use a switch to provide data to the other rooms.


  • #5
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    LFCFan wrote: »
    Thanks for the info lads. None of the Cat5e cables are terminated in the Comms room so I guess I will have to crimp these anyway?

    If you're terminating these cables at a patch panel you won't be crimping them you'll need a punch tool to terminate them at the patch panel.


  • #6
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    rmacm wrote: »
    If you're terminating these cables at a patch panel you won't be crimping them you'll need a punch tool to terminate them at the patch panel.

    I thought I'd be plugging terminated cables into a patch panel so that they can be moved around as needed?


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  • #7
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    What I'd do is punch the cable runs from each room into the back of the patch panel. Then using patch cables connect the ports on the front of the patch panel to your switch. The patch panel is a tidy way of terminating the cable runs from each room in one place. Lets say you had 2 seperate networks in your house and you wanted to move one of the wall points in a room onto the other network all you'd have to do is plug the patch cable for that wall point out of the switch it's plugged into and plug it into the other switch.


  • #8
    bushy...
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭bushy...


    LFCFan wrote: »
    I thought I'd be plugging terminated cables into a patch panel so that they can be moved around as needed?

    The cables from all the rooms' sockets would go to the back of the sockets on the patch panel.
    Then you use short jumper cables to connect each socket on the patch panel to the switch/phone etc


  • #9
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    ah, get it now. So, how does this work for the phone connection? i.e. What would I be plugging the jumper cable into to give a phone connection?


  • #10
    axer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,517 ✭✭✭axer


    LFCFan wrote: »
    ah, get it now. So, how does this work for the phone connection? i.e. What would I be plugging the jumper cable into to give a phone connection?
    You will be punching all the cat5 cables into the back of the patch panel and you will also be punching the eircom phone cable into the back of the patch panel aswell - that is why you are muntiplying the eircom phone cable as FusionNet suggested earlier so that you can punch in more than one link to the eircom phone cable thus ending up with as many phone ports on the patch panel as is needed.

    You then connect a patch cable from one of these phone points on the patch panel to another port on the patch panel that is connected to the cat5 cable you want to have as a phone point - you are basically just bridging the connection between the both. Do this to as many phone points as you want. As long as there are good connections between everything then you should have no problem with having as many phone points as you want.


  • #11
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    Thanks for all the info lads. 1 more question. Is there a way to do all this without the need for a patch panel? After some more analysis of the points in the house, I only need 2 phone points in the house and 2 in the comms room. Is it possible to use a junction box or something similar to connect the 4 phone points into and then I can just use a router/switch for all the data. Would save me the hassle of getting a patch panel?? Just want to see what all my options are before shelling out for a patch panel and probably have to get a wall bracket for it too as a cabinet is overkill.


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  • #12
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    ok, managed to get my hands on a patch panel so I'm going to just mount it on a wooden shelf. Now to learn how to wire it up.


  • #13
    LFCFan
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭LFCFan


    I have a 48 port patch panel in 2 rows, all in groups of 8 ports. The top row says Katt-4 on the connections and the bottom row says MOD-TAP on the connections. How exactly do I go about using this for distributing Data and Voice? I know I need a switch which I connect to my router to give me internet and DHCP functionality and then connect each port on the switch to the connected ports on the panel. This will give me data to each of those connections but how do I set this up for voice? Thanks


  • #14
    sunnysoutheast
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,072 ✭✭✭sunnysoutheast


    hi LFCfan

    I've got a similar setup to you - when you get yours finished can you pop round and do mine? :)

    All:

    There's great info on here - I have a couple of questions if you could:

    * I have about 30 CAT5 to connect to the patch panel - how do I identify which is which (I'd like to group the ones going to each room). Do I terminate at the room end and can I then plug something in which will make a signal?
    * What tools do I need - Krone punchtool, line tester, crimpers, switch - does anyone have some recommendations for good makes and suppliers (PM me?)
    * I have the standard Eircom netopia router - I assume that gives me four wired LAN connections to t'internet via the patch panel?
    * What's all this A and B stuff for wiring schemes - does it matter?

    Many thanks
    SSE


  • #15
    rmacm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭rmacm


    sunnysoutheast wrote: »
    * I have the standard Eircom netopia router - I assume that gives me four wired LAN connections to t'internet via the patch panel?

    The Netopia probably has 4 ethernet ports on it but if you connect it to a switch you can connect as many devices as the switch can handle.
    sunnysoutheast wrote: »
    * What's all this A and B stuff for wiring schemes - does it matter?

    What you're talking about is the TIA/EIA-568-A/B cabling standards. It matters to a certain extent. You should use a crossover cable to connect like devices e.g. PC to PC or router to router and straight through cables for stuff like PC to switch. It doesn't tend to matter much a lot now adays as a lot of equipment will do auto MDI-X http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_dependent_interface and detect what type of cable is connected and configure themselves correctly.

    Anyway I'm drunk and I need to get some sleep.


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