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Sorry if this is not the correct site. I am really not very knowledgeable on network cable installing (so sorry if I say something very stupid here), but we are moving to a new office and want to do it as best as I can.

This is a pretty small company, and I don't have the budget to hire a qualified network installer so I have to "do it myself". I can pass cables around and I can crimp cables (and have done several home-network cabling which works just fine), but have never done any kind of well-done network cable installation for a company and want to do it as best as possible taken my budget limitation.

We have a 19" rack for a couple servers with a lot of empty U's, so I was thinking of using the same rack for cable centralization (good idea or should I use a separate racks?).

What I plan to do is having 4 FTP cat6 cables running through the walls to each of the 4 office rooms, plus I need some more small cables within the rack itself (for both the servers, router, etc.).

My plan is to buy a 24 port patch panel which I'll use for the wall cables (leaving non-used ports if I ever need to install more wall-cabling), and also a 24 port gigabit switch.

I'm going to install 4-port female RJ45 wall plates on the office themselves and all of these cables would go to the back of the patch panel (properly tied and marked).

Then from the front (the RJ45 ports) of the patch panel, I wanted to connect very small length cables (just enough to do a proper curve angle) directly to the front of the switch.

Most cable installation photos I've googled typically use a longer cable going from the patch panel to the side of the rack, then coming back from the side to the switch port (for example: this pic or this one)

Is there any reason to do it like this? Any minimum cable length maybe? Would it be a bad idea to use such short cables in a "curve"?

I'd like to do it like in this picture (the blue cables in particular)... I've found this picture but was not easy: most I've found do it the other way (using longish cables), so I was wondering whether this is or not a good idea.

The new offices are not THAT big (much bigger than what we have now, but not that big) so room for too much expansion is not really needed... should we ever need a bigger-than-24-port network we'd probably have to move again (and we'd probably have budget to hire a qualified network installer ;-) )

So taking the requirements... am I on the right track? Any tips that would not involve spending more money than strictly needed? Of course I could be just running cables directly from the switch to the PCs, but caring for the budget limitations, I still have some room for making it "a bit better" and that's my plan.

PS: no need to comply with any standards... basically, I can do it "like I want"

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the first two pictures you've referred to are used in "bigger" environments where expanding is probable. if you can plug the cables from the patch panel down to the switch directly and close the cabinet door (if applicable) without snapping them, you're fine. what i suggest however, is patching up all your patch panel ports right from the start, so you don't have to mix them up later and end up with something like this

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  • When you say "patch all your patch panel ports", you mean put (even if they are not connected behind) the short wires going to the switch, right?
    – Jcl
    Mar 22, 2015 at 17:39
  • exactly. providing a completely functional network infrastructure for everyone/-thing to come in the future
    – kindaleek
    Mar 22, 2015 at 17:40
  • I see. I'd need to use some ports in the switch for other things though (the servers, the router, and a couple other devices which would be inside the cabinet and would not use the patch panel) so I would not be able to do a 1:1 relation from the 24 port patch panel to the 24 port switch. Is this a bad idea? I understand I'd ideally use a different switch for this, but taken that these 4 cables x 4 offices is already oversized (I'll not use more than 2 of those per office from a start), does the cost of aquiring another switch make sense?
    – Jcl
    Mar 22, 2015 at 17:45
  • that's up to you to decide. a complete patching is not a have to of course, it's just a nice start. if you ever happen to use all your office ports, so all 24 ports of the patch panel, you will also need a 2nd switch, and it shouldn't be a problem to lead these few cables on the side to the new switch ;)
    – kindaleek
    Mar 22, 2015 at 17:51
  • Makes sense. I guess I'll just buy the 24 premolded patch cables to the right length (should be cheap), patch it fully first, then unplug the strictly necessary for these devices and store the unneeded cables for any future upgrading. This way should I ever need to upgrade, I'd already have the correct cables to keep it tidy (and I wouldn't use the "first available" which would probably make things messy in the long run). Thanks
    – Jcl
    Mar 22, 2015 at 17:58

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