Networking an office

[Vae]

I'd like to pick your brains for advice if you don't mind

I've been tasked to work out in general terms what is needed to install a networked Lan and phone system in a new office if anyones got any advice or places I might want to look.

Current system:
NT4 server and 2 16 port Lan boxes, 1 in each part of the office, connected together. Analogue (Yes it is that ancient!) phone system.

Planned situation

Server and network cabinet (with about 16 NIC for computers and 16 for phones I guess). We have a server already runnign NT4 (It's just a file server really).
Phone network - Digital but is getting one that uses Voip a good idea?

I'm presuming I'd need to run an RJ45 cable from the network cabinet to each network port (this would be all hidden in trunking) and that i'd need the same for the phone system. Does the phone system work on normal RJ45 cable or is is on a different type of cable? Any specific recommendations about a phone system? I presume the fax would still need to be on an analogue line (which we'd also use for the ADSL connection)?

Any other advice you can offer?

 

[RandomBastard]

Shorten your sig, thats always good advice

 

[Vae]

Filter the sig to only 4 lines or whatever would be the corresponding advice

 

[SheepCow]

I helped network a new building in my school, basically we used cat5e cable for the networking and phones (different colour cable though, clever huh?). Phones only actually use 4 of the wires as they have RJ11 plugs on the end. Cabling was run around in the roof then dropped into trunking around the walls.

Dunno about VoIP

 

[Summo]

You're practically there, to be honest. Use cat5e for both voice and data cabling and a nice new rackmount digital voice switch (no need to use the old RJ11 connectors on these, just RJ45 all round). Your fax wont necessarily need a dedicated anaolgue line, depending on the capabilities of your voice switch but personally I find a dedicated analogue line is more reliable and easier for fax.

I'm guessing your 16-port data jobbies are hubs, not switches? This might be fine for your needs, but if it were me I'd hanker after two 24-port Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches. They're the nads, and easily managable, though might be overkill in this case.

You mention that you have two hubs in two different locations. Is this necessary? Provided the furthest PC and the network cabinet are not more than 100m apart (allowing for sometimes convoluted cabling route) then you might want to go for a single cabinet and have all the network points run back to this central location. Otherwise, you might want to consider a 6U wall-mounted cabinet for a remote part of the office linked by a single piece of cat5e (or fibre? probably excessive) to your 'main' cabinet with the server and remaining outlets.

Each network outlet in the offices should cable back through trunking (as you said) and terminate in a patch panel in a cabinet.

Forget VOIP. Way excessive, expensive and utterly pointless.

 

[Xavier]

Summo r teh winnar, only a couple of things I can add here.

Use the same cabling throughout your trunking, don't split it into colours or anything as suggested above, make sure you number the ports on the wall sockets to correspond with those on your patch panel and number each length of cat5 as you pull it, makes the wiring process later much quicker. Only use double sockets - for the money singles are a TOTAL waste of time. When it comes to your patch panel THEN you need to choose two colours to identify what's going into the ports, I'd suggest yellow for voice and blue for data, but it's as much a matter of taste. Buy some cable tidies too unless you want it to look like spaghetti junction inside a fortnight. If you don't have a proper Krone tool get one too- those plastic efforts are totally useless and in some cases you'll get a better result with a thin tipped screwdriver (don't even consider it, buy the Krone).

Cable tie the cat5 as it comes out of the wall to your patch in their wiring groups, either per room or network segment, depending how you want to organise them. Use a mod-tap to check your connections after installation and before you close the conduit, believe it or not pulling a new piece of CAT5 over existing laid cable can actually cut through itself, like a wire-saw. I've worked on a site where we were pulling cable in 80m lengths, and someone got a little over-enthusiastic, yanked a new length too quickly through some conduit running above a false ceiling and severed the wiring which had consisted of the previous two days efforts.

With regards to the fax, run a normal analogue BT line to the destination port (there are adapters to help you do this) and use the same style adapter at the other end.

All the bits you need can be sourced from black-box, who also have an excellent bunch of techies to support and advise you, should you need it.

Xav

 

[Vae]

Many thanks for your help so far guys - Quality advice as usual

A few more questions though:

What's the advantage of a managed switch and is it worth it for a small network of 10-12 computers? Does an unmanaged switch just function as a hub that directs the traffic better?

At the moment we have a USB ADSL modem on one computer and use a socks proxy (Vsocks) for http access from each computer. I'm considering putting in a ADSL modem/firewall/router instead and reconfiguring the network. Any suggestions as to a good model (preferably fairly cheap)?

What are cable rings (e.g. CAT5e High-Density Patch Panels with Optional Cable Rings, Unshielded)?

I had a look at Blackbox but they do seem more expensive: e.g. patch cables for £2.75 compared to £0.85 from Ebuyer, 24 CAT5e High-Density Patch Panels £62 vs Belkin 24-Port Cat5 Patch Panel £49.77. Is the fact one is CAT5e and one is CAT5 going to make a difference?

Summo: You mention a rackmountable Digital Voice switch - Any suggestions where to look for this or for phone systems using it?


This is my plan so far:

CAT5e cable running in 2 colours (1 voice and 1 data) from dual ports at each desk. (Ok the colour code isn't necessary but can't hurt).

Wallmounted rack cabinet (server will probably go elsewhere or might all be combined in one cabinet)

2x 24 Patch Panel (One will patch to the network switch and one will patch to itself as will have the cables from the phone system and from the phones both come into it or will patch to the digital voice switch).

1x 24 10/100 rackmounted switch should be enough for the data networking.
Looking at the prices I think the Cisco switches are definitely overkill. I think a reasonable brand like Netgear will be ok.

CAT5e UTP 100-MHz Basic Patch Cables (2 colours - Voice and data).

ADSL modem/Firewall/Router

fax will stay on an analogue line which the ADSL will also use.

 

[Lester]

If it's important that you keep the network up then you need to pick a reliable switch with proper support. That's why people recommend Cisco. You could buy a cheap switch but then you should really budget on buying two - one spare to swap. Cisco 2950's are not dear at all and your boss wouldn't thank you if your switch fell over at 9am and you had to wait till the next day (or worse) to get a new one. Cisco (and 3com, allied etc) do proper support (24X7 4Hr etc)

<Cisco fanboy>

If you've got loads of money you could go for Cisco VoIP - same cable for voice and data and you get to have audio clips from Blazing Saddles as your ringtone!

 

[Xavier]

Don't run two colours of cable to the desk, there's no benefit in it, in fact it will confuse matters. Just keep your ports numbered and use colour coded patch cables, that's the point in having a patch cabinet.

As for a router, check out Drayteks products: http://www.draytek.co.uk

 

[SheepCow]

Don't run two colours of cable to the desk, there's no benefit in it, in fact it will confuse matters. Just keep your ports numbered and use colour coded patch cables, that's the point in having a patch cabinet.

As for a router, check out Drayteks products: http://www.draytek.co.uk

There is a benefit, when you open up the trunking and need to find a specific cable you can, otherwise you'd have to trace it back from the far end

 

[Xavier]

No, that's why you number the wires matey... Not every dual socket will always serve 1-voice 1-data, and even if they did, the point of a patch panel is to let you choose what goes down the wire...

 

[Jupitus]

Numbering the cables is the best way, but I don't see how having the added distinction of coloured cables will cause confusion. Besides... coloured cables look pwetty, don't they Vae?

 

[Xavier]

Colour coded patch cables, yes, but the cable in the trunking isn't going to be seen, and generally is only available in grey or blick, well at reasonable prices anyhow. There really is no point using more than one colour for that kind of wiring.

 

[Vae]

Advice noted

<Moves coloured felt tips away from the architects plans>

 

[Xavier]

Oh - have you factored in the price of conduit yet? It's not cheap. Get sticky conduit and use the sticky backing to holt it in place while you drill and fix it.

 

[Vae]

Nope not yet but that areas not my concern - The new office is basicly being renovated (read demolished and rebuilt) at the moment and the electrician is going to be putting in cabling and conduit etc later this week. I've just been tasked with telling him where we want sockets and what cable to put in. It's a bodge-job typical of my bosses who just say "Ah you're the office IT expert what do we need to put in?" without planning everything first.

 

[Ala]

Eeek Hope they're paying you handsomely for it.