When our district was re-wiring a school, we decided to go with Cat5e and 100mbit to the desktops.
The cost of a 100mbit switch vs an equivalent gigabit switch was easily double, and we could see no need for a faster connection for any of the desktops. If a need did arise, we had the cabling capable of gigabit in place for the future upgrade. Swapping out cheap 100mbit switchs for new ones in the future is easier than pulling new cable. Also, we choose to stick with 24 port switches, instead of the 48 port units. By keeping the number of ports per switch down, we decreased the impact of a dead switch. Last, using 24 port switches allows us to place a 1U punchdown for each switch, which if you're careful about your wiring can keep the wiring center looking very tidy. Of course, My wiring rack looks like an 80's rock band bad hair day. Sm:)e. --Matt Ross Ephrata School District ----- Original Message ----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] To: NT System Admin Issues [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:24:33 -0700 Subject: Re: Recabling and office Expansion > On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 3:39 PM, Jonathan Link <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I'd like to recable the office with Cat 6 everywhere ... > > Either run CAT5E (Category 5 Enhanced) or CAT6A (Category 6 Augmented). > > Gigabit will work with CAT5E; ten gigabit needs CAT6A. > > CAT6 is *not* good enough for ten gigabit and pointless expense for > gigabit. > > CAT6A was rather more expensive (more than 3 times, IIRC) when I > last priced it out (a few years ago), so consider whether it's worth > the expense. Ten gig copper adoption outside the datacenter and > backbone, while likely, is by no means a given. Maybe they world will > go with fiber this time. > > > ... including phone ports, but I'm unsure if the phones > > support Cat 6. We're using a Toshiba Stratagy ... > > Most digital phone systems need a single pair of "voice grade > wiring". Voice grade basically means "it conducts electricity and > doesn't short". CAT5, CAT3, Romex, barbed wire, etc. Some systems > are picky and want CAT3, or two pair, but they're the exception, not > the ture. I've never seen anything require a full four pairs, nor > CAT5. CAT6A is way overkill, but it will certainly work. > > Once you go VoIP, you might make use of CAT 5E/6A for phones, since > then the phones are really just Ethernet nodes. But a lot of people > chose to just buy phones with built-in Ethernet switches. That's the > way we wired our newest building. Every jack location is just an > Ethernet port. We plug the phone into the wall and hang the PC off > the phone. We saved a fair bit on wiring costs by not running two > sets of cables everywhere, plus the number of switch ports is greatly > reduced. I wouldn't run a server through a phone like this, but that > building is all sales people and factory stations, neither of which > are demanding data net users. > > YMMV, IME, etc., etc. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
