Electrical sampling with builder preparation

Almost. You haven’t seen a Keystone or such a patch panel live yet, have you?

This is what keystones look like on installation cables:


This is what a patch panel for keystones with inserted keystones looks like:

From there, you go with a short patch cable to the switch. The advantage of keystones is that you can easily change the order on the patch panel.

For example, in case you need PoE for access points but only have a switch with PoE on certain ports. This way, you can deploy it cleanly and avoid messy tangles (PoE port typically on the far left, connection for the access point on the far right, etc.). Or you prefer a specific order on the patch panel and therefore also on the switch, or whatever. It’s simply neater, and you don’t have that metal piece with the stubborn cable bundle in the rack, which is really hard to arrange nicely. Of course, you don’t necessarily need any of this, but it’s just better and especially cleaner this way. Moreover, keystones can be laid down much more easily than on an LSA field when you don’t have much space. It only has advantages and no disadvantages.

This is how it would look reasonably neat. With a 24-port switch that also has its ports arranged in a row, it would be even nicer:

Ah great, now I get it.
The installation cables are simply structured into the keystone patch panel, so nothing is additionally wired. It’s just for organization.
Then from the patch panel out to the switch with short cables, that’s clear.

Your pictures really helped me here, thanks.

Actually, only the two Unifi access points need PoE-capable switch ports at first; the “normal” duplex sockets, from which the patch cable goes to the TV/PC/console, don’t need that, right?

You actually only need PoE where you want to power a device with it. Even though there are injectors, I would "for the sake of cleanliness" go for a PoE switch, because that saves you a 230V socket and various cables in the rack. The one in the picture is the smallest 19" switch from Ubiquiti with PoE (16 ports, 8 of which are PoE). Experience has shown that in some places you might need more ports than you planned years ago, for example in the study when the kids get older or in the living room. Then you simply use a small PoE-powered switch there (Netgear has a lot of good stuff here) and enjoy that you bought a main switch with PoE back then and thus save another power supply and a used socket in these rooms. This way you can rely on wired LAN and don't have to clutter WLAN. And because you have keystones, you can easily build the respective ports close to the PoE ports of the switch. As mentioned, keystones only have advantages :)

This would look somewhat clean. With a 24-port switch, which also has its ports in a row, it would be even nicer:

After the many nice pictures of the networks, I’ll just chime in here, since I am currently a bit annoyed with myself for having let this topic slip a bit.

Actually, I also wanted to get such a nice 19-inch wall cabinet and then cable everything neatly. In practice, it will probably have to go differently, because for example, I didn’t have the water at all on my radar and the pipe will be less flexible than my network.

This is how it looks like in my basement.


Actually, I also wanted the electrician to install keystones, but before I thought of telling him that, facts were made and cables were cut. So the patch panel will stay like this for now.

The idea would then be to buy the network cabinet anyway for the router and PoE switch (Ubiquiti?). Mount it below the orange lid and then pull longer network cables from the patch panel to there. I first considered just hanging the switch on the wall with brackets. But I basically discarded that idea because we will also have the washing machine and dryer in that room and I didn’t want the network equipment exposed with the fans of the switch then.

The fiber optic ONT also still needs to go somewhere, just like a double power socket still needs to be added. I would try to run everything through the cable duct above.

Can one more or less hold up with that in front of you order fanatics, or are there better ideas? Then I’d slowly start ordering.

Addition to that: Ubiquiti POE switches >=16 ports do not seem to be available in the EU at the moment. So, for example, then Netgear routers and then supplement with Unifi NanoHD or something like that, I had imagined.

Question: I'm not quite sure where the panel is. And what kind of panel are we talking about? 8, 16, ….? Regardless, a switch just needs to meet your requirements. Do you know them? PS: I looked again and found the panel. It's at the top, under the ceiling, right? 16 ports are quite manageable. I would consider a 19" rack to be overkill. But it depends on what is connected to the panel. NVR? How much PoE? Etc. Also keep in mind that a 16-port switch cannot fully serve a 16-port panel. You still need access to the WAN.

Yes, exactly. The small white box on top is a 12 patch panel. If I remember correctly, 14 cables would have to be terminated. There must still be some stray CAT cables somewhere. Then I also have the inverter and WAN. Then the 16 ports would be full. I have planned 3x POE for it. Back then, I definitely wanted to have a NAS, but I'm not so sure anymore if I still need something like that.

16-port might already be too small now, if I think about it.