110 blocks or patch panels?

I have run Cat5e and RG6 to all rooms in my new home (minimum 2 home runs of each to each room, some have 4) I would like to terminate the Cat5 cables in the most cost effective way that would also have the most flexibility. I have a total of 40 Cat5e home runs for a 4 bedroom, 3200 sf house, for telephone, networking, automation, and security.

From my limited knowledge, it seems that patch panels with 110

connections on the back and RJ45 plugs on the front would allow the most flexibility, but also be more expensive. Is there any advantage to using 110 blocks? Wouldn't I still have to have the patch panels to connect everything? My thinking is that with the patch panels, I could use phone plugs as ethernet, and vice versa. However, with the amount of cable I have run, not sure it is necessary to do this.

Please share your thoughts. Thanks.

Reply to
spinquick
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Rack mount Cat5/Cat5e panels ( '110' on back and RJ45 on front) with 48-72 ports go for ~$25-40 (used), ~$50-70 (new) including shipping on eBay so having already installed those 40 runs, the incremental cost of a good CAT5e patch panel should not be a significant issue.

Do consider also having a 66 block for flexibility in setting up multi-line phone, '1-wire' data bus, IR signal send and receive, RS-xxx coms and so forth. These uses may require jumpering and(or) star configurations but typically do not require the bandwidth provided by '110 blocks' and can use the greater flexibility of '66 blocks'.

Reserve panel space nearby for a RJ31X jack for the alarm panel and dsl filters if applicable.

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

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Reply to
Marc_F_Hult

For the Cat5e, if I were you I'd grab this off ebay before someone else does. It's EXACTLY what you need and at the price it's almost free!

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coax, I'd get a rack mounted panel with keystone openings anduse the f connectors on keystone bulkheads.You can see a picture of how I did that at:
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Marc_F_Hult wrote:> On

cost of a good CAT5e patch panel should not be a significant issue.>> Do consider also having a 66 block for flexibility in setting up> multi-line phone, '1-wire' data bus, IR signal send and receive,> RS-xxx coms and so forth. These uses may require jumpering and(or)> star configurations but typically do not require the bandwidth> provided by '110 blocks' and can use the greater flexibility of '66> blocks'.>> Reserve panel space nearby for a RJ31X jack for the alarm panel and> dsl filters if applicable.>> ... Marc> Marc_F_Hult>

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Reply to
BruceR

Reply to
spinquick

Since I am also wiring a new home, I am interested in why you use a patch panel for the phone line connections. Say I have eight phone outlets wired in the house. Since I only have one phone line coming in, I see no value in useing a patch panel, and in fact, it would seem harder to have to wire eight of the patch panel plugs together to connect to the phone line coming in. I suppose if you only had a single jack in each and might want to switch it from phone to network useing the patch panel would be easier, but even in this case, how often would you be changing them over. Both the phone and network systems would appear to be a one to many connection situation, which connection blocks would appear to be better suited for. Before I put money down for equipment, I would like to get further input on this subject.

Thanks Dennis

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Dennis

Reply to
BruceR

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