First Cat6 install - all advice needed!

[vrykyl]

Right - I've ordered all the kit etc, so should all be here in time to start the install this coming weekend!
Ended up going for the cat6 STP in the end... I'll brave the added hassle in favour of higher speeds. Paid £55 delivered for 305m of pure copper cat6e stp cable in the end.

Will take everyones advice and run plenty of extra length/s everywhere I go, plus leave plenty of excess cable on each run in case theres a problem with a connection!

Added up how many ports Im likely to want in each room, and settled on a 24 port patch panel - because of where the cables need to gather I'm definitely going to put some form of cabinet in - though just terminating into a load of quad port wall boxes would have been cheaper / easier.


Now I just need to get a double power socket installed at ceiling height where the cabinet will go - whats the best way of powering things inside the cabinet itself (when I get that far)?
Am I better taking Dave's approach and putting an extension lead in one side of the rack, or can you buy surge protected rack mountable power strips?

How deep would my wall cabinet need to be and how much weight can they take? As my current plan is to only put the patch panel, gigabit network switch (again when I get that far), and modem in there...
BUT it'd be nice to have the option to stick a cheap home made server in there at a later date and potentially a ups too...

[nonstandard]

Here's a useful supplier of installation parts: (small cabinets page). I'd worry about how much weight your wall can take more than what the cabinet will support. Remember to label *everything* as you go along and you'll be fine.

[dave87]

Here's a useful supplier of installation parts: (small cabinets page). I'd worry about how much weight your wall can take more than what the cabinet will support. Remember to label *everything* as you go along and you'll be fine.

Worth mentioning they are 10" racks, so most rack mount switches won't fit in them.

Definitely right about labeling everything - makes it much easier

[nonstandard]

Doh: Posting links without reading them 1st! Well spotted Dave! This is more what I meant to link.

[dave87]

Right - I've ordered all the kit etc, so should all be here in time to start the install this coming weekend!
Ended up going for the cat6 STP in the end... I'll brave the added hassle in favour of higher speeds. Paid £55 delivered for 305m of pure copper cat6e stp cable in the end.

Will take everyones advice and run plenty of extra length/s everywhere I go, plus leave plenty of excess cable on each run in case theres a problem with a connection!

Added up how many ports Im likely to want in each room, and settled on a 24 port patch panel - because of where the cables need to gather I'm definitely going to put some form of cabinet in - though just terminating into a load of quad port wall boxes would have been cheaper / easier.

You'll thank yourself later when you come to add/change something!

Now I just need to get a double power socket installed at ceiling height where the cabinet will go - whats the best way of powering things inside the cabinet itself (when I get that far)?
Am I better taking Dave's approach and putting an extension lead in one side of the rack, or can you buy surge protected rack mountable power strips?

I had the power lead spare, so it made sense to do it that way (cost=minimal). The other option is something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rack-Mount...item1c2268529f

It takes 1u of space, so you instantly lose at least that plus wherever the power leads go to (which on most kit is the back of the unit). I decided I wanted as small a rack as possible, with the most space for kit, so this type of item wasn't suitable.

Only downside is that I'd have to take out a switch or the patch panel to unplug something once the rack is full. That said, I'm only likely to unplug something when doing that anyway...

How deep would my wall cabinet need to be and how much weight can they take? As my current plan is to only put the patch panel, gigabit network switch (again when I get that far), and modem in there...
BUT it'd be nice to have the option to stick a cheap home made server in there at a later date and potentially a ups too...

Don't simply go for the patching frames, they aren't deep enough for some switches. You want the wall mountable ones.



Photo wasn't taken for this purpose, but you can see the difference in depth between the 3com 2250 and the Linksys SRW2024 I've got. I wouldn't have been able to fit the Linksys if I had made the cabinet much smaller.

UPS/Servers require full depth cabinets, the ones you'd want to wall mount are about half that. The other issue is heat - where is it going to go? Switches don't kick out that much heat, but servers do - especially if they are doing something. I'd separate out those two bits unless you want a full depth cabinet like Jay. Also UPS are very heavy, so that is another consideration if you are wall mounting.

Re: Rackmounting Servers - I surmised that I would be better putting a bigger rack in the garage and giving a generous number of connections to it from my current install if I went for them. Haven't had the need so far though!

[peterb]

I installed 450mm deep 12U 600mm wide cabinet fir someone, the max recommended weight was 45Kg. Remember it is the friction of the back if the cabinet that holds it in place. There shouldn't (ideally) be any shear force on the mounting screws, they are there to ensure a snug fit against the wall (to provide friction) and the top bolts also act to stop the case pivoting about the bottom edge.

I did find a rack case to fit the 450mm deep rack, and used that for a server, but it was a very tight fit!

As you have got the Cat6, that is now done but I would have stayed with Cat5e. Unless you have very long cable runs, the increase in performance will be negligible. I guess you are not planning to run at above 1Gb/s. The limiting factors are more likely to be the devices attached to the lan, rather than the lan infrastructure itself.