Got a customer thats taken over a premises, their hub (a BT supplied one) is on the first floor in a office.  They have a number of cat5e's left in coils over the other side of the building about 17m away, never terminated.  They now want to start using these cat5s (the other end are terminated in some dado trunking) .  

I wouldnt usually bother with this type of job but ive done a few very small data installs in houses and ive been installing loads for others to terminate at a new build for HDTV distribution, data and IR distribution, others will get to do the fun bit.  So I would like to expand my knowledge a bit on this one, if you boys think im capable.  

Whats the best way to go about this one?

The computers (4) are for some  kids to surf the net.  

I have equipment to test the polarity of the cat5 but thats it.  

Any ideas please.

What he said.

I would go for the switch and leave the BT hub where it is near the master phone socket. Extending CAT 5 is less likely to effect broadband speed than a phone extension. The switch will need a power point (but so would moving the BT hub).

If you are going to put a cabinet in, I would terminate your cat5e's onto a patch panel, and then patch them into the network switch.

Yes, the network switch is 'fed' with a single network cable from your BT router or 'hub' as they like to call them.

I would prefer to see a branded name for the switch, but thats being picky really.

For smaller home office and small office environments we have used these in the past:

Select the 24 port switch option - Complete with cabinet, patch panel and switch, £118 + vat.  

http://www.comms-express.com/products/6u-patching-cabinet-kit/





Need some patch leads too, and these days they are dirt cheap - 30p each.

http://www.comms-express.com/products/booted-rj45-patch-leads/



Why have they got two LAN ports on the machines?

For small jobs, just use a standard tester which tests pin to pin, crossed pairs, open and shorts.  Something like this: http://www.screwfix.com/p/philex-network-cable-tester/93219

For larger jobs we have hired a high frequency tester which also checks the speed/bandwidth.  They also produce a certificate for every port!  A quick google shows this:  http://www.testerhire.co.uk/equipment.html

I would not bother for your small install though, just check your pinouts as per my first link.

I edited my post above while you posted - why have the PC's got two LAN ports?  This will not improve internet traffic.

The switch is a cheapy one, but we have three installed locally and not had issues.  For a job like this a cheapy switch would be fine.

It is common to put two ports adjacent in the same faceplate, and these should all be punched down on the patch panel sequentially, but I would only patch in the ones that are required.  Leave spare patch leads for if/when the others are required.  Thats the whole point in a patch panel.