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Cabling 101

There are so many questions to be asked when you are about to take on the project of having your new or existing office rewired. There will be vendors saying that it is best to run all Category 6 cabling (Cat6) and there will be some at the other end of the spectrum saying that all you need is Category 5e (Cat5e) cabling for computers and Category 3 (Cat 3) cabling for your phones. We will attempt to answer some of those questions for you. Don't expect to get in depth data from here, but expect to walk away with a very basic knowledge of what you need and what you do not need.

What are the differences between the different categories of cabling?

We are only going to touch on three types of cabling right now, Cat3, Cat5e, and Cat6 cabling. We will not be talking about fiber-optic cabling as it is rarely used in the small office environment. As technology has improved over the years there has been a need to transmit data faster between computers and the Internet. That has brought us to where we are today with improved cabling over the years past.

Category 3 cabling is what we use today for our voice cabling. In most office environments each desk usually has a "dual drop." What that means is that there is one Cat3 cable for the phone and one Cat5e cable for the computer. This has been the standard for years now but slowly that is changing. There is much debate as whether it is better to run two Cat5e cables to the desks as dual drops rather than running a Cat3 for phone and Cat5e for data. There is not much difference in price between the Cat5e cabling and the Cat3 cabling and I am of the opinion that it is not a bad idea to run all Cat5e cabling in the building and have no Cat3 cabling. More can be read on the subject by clicking here.

Now, the real difference between Cat5e and Cat6 cabling. The basic difference between the two categories is that Cat6 cabling can transmit as gigabit speed and Cat5e cabling does not. Right now the only real need for gigabit speeds are from servers into your network. There is not a need to have your desktop computers running on gigabit speed. If in the future you plan on transmitting extremely large files between the computers at your office then I would say go ahead and run Cat6 cabling for your computers. But you will also need to invest in Cat6 network cards for your computers and gigabit switches for your network. All in all, I don't particularly think it is worth the extra cost right now. I say stick with Cat5e for the desktops and Cat6 for your servers if you have any.

Should I terminate all the voice and data cabling onto patch panels?

Now this is a very hard question to answer and there will be many different answers depending on who you ask. Simply put, it is best to keep the voice cabling terminated as normal on 66 blocks and the data cabling terminated as normal on patch panels. This setup is displayed to the right. It is hard to see but the voice cabling is terminated on the 4 blocks under the phone system. The data cabling is all the way at the bottom, almost out of the picture, on a patch panel.

Now, there will always be exceptions to this rule. When you are in a smaller office with less than 10 computers sometimes it is more cost effective and cleaner to just have plugs put at the ends of the data cabling that plugs right into your switch or router. However, there are some larger companies that need to have their cabling terminated to patch panels so for ease of troubleshooting and administration. However, you also have to take into consideration how you are going to keep all that cabling looking nice if you do go the route with patch panels.

In theory it is a very good idea to have all the voice and the data cabling terminated to a patch panel. It helps with the adds and changes that every company makes and can (I use that word very cautiously) save money for the company. However, it can also end up looking like a complete nightmare if not properly executed. You can see some examples of these nightmares by clicking here.

If you truly do want to go with the patch panel solution the best plan is to purchase a rack that will house all the patch panels and cable management. This solution will allow you to have the ease of management that you are aiming for while still keeping things looking neat and professional. Here is an example of what I am talking about. If you neglect to get a rack and you decide to use the 3-4 inch deep mounts for patch panels your cabling will get ugly real fast and your ease of administration that you thought you had will get ugly really fast.

Is it cheaper if I just have the electricians run the cabling?

No! I can't tell you how many times we have run into the scenario where the customer thought they would save money by having their electrician run the cabling for their building. Simply put, in the end it will not save you any money. In fact, you will most likely end up spending more money fixing what the electricians did wrong. Electricians almost never know how to properly run cabling so when we get there after "the cabling has been run" there is always work to be done. When it is all said and done, the price that you end up paying us to fix what they should have done is more than the difference between our price and theirs to do it all.

Bottom line is that I would suggest having a qualified telephone company run all the cabling for your new or existing building. It is not worth the headache trying to figure out who did what and how it was done. You will save yourself some money in the end as well.