Ok, well I posted a few days ago about running ethernet cable around my house and now I have a question. Well, it is actually two questions but, yea. A. What exactly does a patch panel do? B. Do/why do I need one?
When you run a permanent network, you definately want female connectors on each end, connecting the nodes with patch cables. That way, if a patch cable gets run over by a chair or you want to reconfigure the topology, it's just a matter of switching a few patch cables around. A patch panel is the coreward termination point, whereas RJ-45 faceplates are the edgeward termination point. If this doesn't make any sense to you, look at my crappy illustration instead. P.S. - Though it's not included in my cheap diagram, a patch panel is usually mounted in a rack!
Hmmm, so, in my application I don't think I need one. I am running a patch cable a few feet from a router to a switch and then running permanent cable from the switch through some conduit and into a trench. The cable will then cone back out of the trench and come into the wall and into the wall jack. The only cable that could conceivably be damaged is the one form the router to the switch and that would be easy enough to replace. Am I right in saying this?
