When undertaking a new house build, advance planning of the networks within it will make life simpler and cheap in the long term. Consideration needs to be be given to the networks to be installed and the use cases for installing them.
The downside of wired networks is that retro-fitting them to existing homes can be challenging, requiring installation and redecoration. This is why it is always better to install too much cable in a new build, rather than too little. Cable is cheap compared to the time and effort required to retro-fit it at a later date. Not all of the cables need to be wired up to face plates initially and this can be done as more are required. Twin-port faceplates can also be used initially and swapped out with quad-port face plates later, if required.
Given the choice, our advice is:
It is important that all ports and cables are wired up correctly and we have adopted the T-568B wiring convention in our home. We also use an Ethernet cable test tool. This makes it very easy to test your wiring and connections.
Network ports in rooms are usually exposed via a single or double width wall plate and these can have from 1 to 8 RJ45 sockets. The sockets used on these faceplates are often separate modules and need to be chosen to match the Ethernet cable and network speed you plan to use.
All of the home network points are usually wired back to a central point and are then exposed via a patch panel. These are often mounted in a 19" rack cabinet or a smaller wall cabinet. This provides more flexibility.
In practice, it is cheaper and easier to terminate all cables with a RJ45 plug directly, so that they can be plugged straight into a switch. This removes connections and thus generally improves reliability. It is also cheaper. If using a patch panel, then patch cables are used to then connect patch panel sockets to the switch sockets.
