I’m planning on a 22u rack in this space and was wondering how folks typically connect the CAT6 cables in this panel. Would you drill a hole at the bottom of the door and pull all the cables out, or take off the door entirely and have the rack in front of it?

  • bobdvbB
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    11 months ago

    Treat the home network panel as another rack.

    Get a patch panel in the server rack and then run a bundle of cables from there to the network panel and plug into a patch panel there.

    Neatly tie the cables with velcro cable ties, or cable ties (but that’s less fashionable these days). I’d buy pre-made, others would custom make them to the perfect length to make it prettier

    Look at r/cableporn for inspiration, lacing a bundle of cables can be a beautiful thing.

  • beekercB
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    11 months ago

    note sure a 22u rack will fit in that wall cut out space, or that space in the wall is like a wiring closet, so my comments may not be truly relevant or not.
    i have a 24u (half-rack) in my basement office. i put 72 ports worth of patch panel into the wall and that’s where all the house wall-ports feed into (i like hardwire, not a big fan of wifi). right below it is a 48 port gigabit switch which is strictly a client port hub.
    http://www.beekerland.com/misc/my_rack_5.jpg

    in the rack itself, there is a 48 port gigabit switch which handles all the network connections within the rack. http://www.beekerland.com/misc/my_rack_3.jpg
    http://www.beekerland.com/misc/my_rack_4.jpg
    the two switches talk to each other over a 2-port LAG group.

    i would resist the urge to take wires directly out of the wall and go directly into the rack. whether your connect from the rack to the wall is into a patch panel or switch, you want that connection to be via Cat-6 patch cables. that way you’re terminating your cable runs to a fixed point at the wall. hope this helps.
    Cheers