On April 6, 2010 at 21:05, sofa_king_CI said...
So I recently did a job where we just punched down all the Cat cable (except for baluns) on a 24 port knock down panel on the back, top of the rack. Then below that rack mounted the Netgear 24 port switch.
This worked out really well. Is there any reason you would need the switch to be visible from the front?
I'll try to take a pic next time i'm there. We left the top space of the rack open for the wires to come in (from the ceiling) then the punch panel is in the 2nd space down and the switch at the third space.
In this particular job, they have doors that open to the side of the rack also making it very easy to get or look behind the rack if needed, but I liked the layout and am considering it for every project.
I always mount the network switch right under the cat5 patch panels at the back of the rack. IMO there is no real need for the switch to be visible or touched by the client and it makes it easier to patch your cables to it. I use front mounted horizontal power strips that are labeled "Network" so the client can manually power cycle everything if they need to.
Keep in mind though that i do all freestanding racks with 1.5'-2' minimum behind them so its easy to get to the gear. I have a few old projects that had the racks on casters rolling out of closets so i put those patch panels in the front. I don't think you want to be in a situation where a rack has to be pulled out to see the status lights.
Another related issue is that i always put the cable or DSL modem outside of my racks. I dont want them touching my stuff. In this pic you can see the cable modem on the right. Cable guy has enough slack to pull his modem out and service it without opening the door on my rack.
