>1) better to run as many CAT5e/6 wires to the individual rooms plus any >extras for the future, > > or > >2) run one CAT5e/6 to each room and put an unmanaged switch in each room >for the number of devices required.(4,6,8Port)
If you do #1 you will spend more and will eventually still find yourself doing #2 in some rooms as unexpected needs arise. The biggest potential problem with #2 is reduced bandwidth, but that will not always matter. The unmanaged switch in going to concentrate traffic on a single wire that runs back to your main switch. If that wire is Cat6 with 1000 Mbps capacity you may have sufficient headroom in the wire so handling all the traffic may not be a problem. You need to estimate what is going to be concentrated on that wire and see what it adds up to. If it is less than half the capacity of the wire you are ok. For example, I would not attach a server to such a shared wire. Similarly if somebody is doing heavy graphics or video work you would want them to have a dedicated wire, not going through the room's switch. But standard office applications, VIOP, printers, etc. can certainly share a wire. I would go with #2 (one wire to the room leading to a room switch) and supplement that with a few dedicated lines for the above mentioned special situations. Just be sure that you don't connect one of your unmanaged switches to another unmanaged switch. You want them each connected to a dedicated line going back to your main switch. If you later need more drops in a room you should swap out the unmanaged switch with a switch that has more ports. Do not connect more switches to the one you already have there. I worry about using a switch that goes into the wall because people won't think about there being a switch already there and will be likely to add another switch to it. That won't be good. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
