Cable Management

jester77

I have cat 7 cable running around the house and it's terminated in the basement in a server rack cabinet. The cabinet has a patch panel and gibabit switch but the cables are all over the place. They are all way too long, so I've decided to tidy them up a bit. I was thinking of just cutting them to a minimum length.

I've never done anything with networking cable before, so what would I need?
Current list is:

• Cable tester device.
• Crimping device, is there a difference between CAT 5 and CAT 6 crimping?
• Punch down tool
• Cable stripper/cutter
• RJ45 Cat 6a/TM31

Is there any difference between the cable that runs between the patch panel/switch and cable I would use around the house for connecting devices?

I notice that the cable in the cabinet is cat 5e cable, should I replace this with cat 6 to get the benefit of the gibabit network, or is cat 5e ok over such a short distance?

I also want to cut custom length cables for all my devices around the house. I see a lot of different types (shielded, cross over, patch, etc). What type cable should I get for connected devices to the network? And would this same cable be ok to use between the patch panel and switch as well?

Cuddlesworth

Cat5E is fine for a gigabit network.

You would be better off trying to tidy the cables through cables ties, rather then cutting them down to length. Its also hand to have some spare cable in case you ever need to move the rack.