Are Patch Panels critical ?

I started off in the IT game at the bottom of the layers - Layer 1 Physical. Now I have 5 years of LAN and WAN experience. Where do I start?
The utmost reason is. The cabling that is used from the desktop to hub is 99.9% 8 wires (4 pairs - CAT 5). These 8 wires are solid. If these solid wires are crimped on the RJ-45 connecter they do not crimp properly. How does this effect you. Well this commonly causes jabbers. This in turn gives poor network performance. I had a situation before where a network spanning across 4 floors in a building kept on dropping. The network kept on hitting what looked like a high utilization, degraded service. After 3 solid days of fault finding it was found that a solid UTP cable was used for a fly lead.
Secondly by using patch panels it is easier to move users from one installed point in the office space to another. Most of the clients I support saturate the floors with points - maybe every meter apart in the roof. No need for additional points to be laid, just a repatch.
Saturation of points can be a costly thing BUT if the cable installers do a certified installation well the vendors (Mod-Tap/ Krone)certify it.
Patch panels and documentation makes it easier to manage the infrastructure i.e. this user is using this Cable ID and is plugged into this port on the switch/hub. This makes it easier with moves/changes. Capacity planning.
So basicaly that is it. Surprised that your cable guys cant answer that one.
Obviuosly if you a small network 10-50 users well. I wouldn't worry.
Cheers.

For a stable workplace configuration, you are better off with no patch panel.
Fewer joints means fewer problems and better performance.
If the workers are playing musical chairs, install the patch panel.
Regards, Chris

Ok, so pulling CAT5e through the walls
and crimping an RJ45 would provide a
clean signal, BUT no good cable
company (or consultant) would
recommend it. Can you imagine a server
room with 100 or more direct
connections? Switching HUB ports may
cause a cable fault and then what do you
rather do? Cut and recrimp or replace a 3
foot patch cable? Put the cable in the
conduit and terminate it at the Patch
panel on one end and the plate at the
other. Now your wire, like those built into
the building, are safe from damage
caused by manipulation or accident.
People pull from the wall (no plate) and
run straight to PC's all the time. Then their
chairs run over the cable and it requires
repair. A patch cable from the wall jack to
the NIC is easier to replace. If you have a
cable company that recommends
something but can't say why...find a new
one. Hope this helps.

Steve

Cat5e cable is single strand/insulation displacement fixed cable, not designed to be flexed and moved around, neither are the punch down connectors designed to hold onto a cable which is moved.
your patch panel provides a fixed point to terminate your fixed wiring, so that you can then use stranded link cables, which are specifically designed to be flexed, that is why they are stranded, and they must be terminated differently to ensure that all the strands are 'caught'. Also using a patch panel forces a tidy discipline upon the installer, rather than loose cables coming out of the wall then being coiled and plugged into a hub. This produces a rat's nest.

There is no real right way or wrong way with regards to the use of patch panels vs a hub.

On my network it's mixed. All of my users have drops to their desks. Some of their areas are sent to a switch is in turn is sent back to our NOC and wiredinto a patch panel, which then in turn goes inside another switch.

But then I have rooms that have nothing but large rows of systems (40 systems per row). Do I have patch panels there? No... And why, there is no need to. I just have everythingrunning directly into the switches that sit located in between the rows. The systems are not going to move, so why pay the cash to have everything run inside the walls for no reason.

Next look at a server room. Most of your servers I would think would not be going into patch panels. Normally they would be run directly into your switch. But you can also wire them into a patch panel.

What it really boils down to is
A: Is the needed connection permament to that location?

B. What is the aesthetics fatcor?

C. Physical location. (if you have to have a user connected that is 200 feet away, I would thrown in a drop by them, run the connection thru the walls, into a patch panel in the server room or directly into your switch/hub.