All Patched Up And Ready To Go
I've been wanting to tidy up my rack for quite some time. Having my cables dropping directly to the switch was a quick and dirty setup and I'll admit it, I was a rack virgin at the time. I never owned a rack before but you have to start somewhere right? Just take a look at this mess!
Granted, I'm still learning how to stack and rack a proper server to this day so take whatever you see here as a grain of salt. I am NOT a professional quite yet but I know a thing or two about servers and networking to get me by.
The new patch panel is from Detroit Packaging Co. One I grabbed off Amazon. It already has the keystones installed and ready to go. So far, I am pretty impressed with it.
More specs about the patch panel:
| Cable Type | Ethernet |
|---|---|
| Color | 24-port |
| Connector Type | RJ45 |
| Data Transfer Rate | 10.0 gigabits_per_second |
| Ean | 7432801740770 |
| Size | CAT6a Shielded |
The Detroit Packing Co. 24 Port CAT6A RJ45 Through Coupler Patch Panel was a breeze to install. All I had to do was unplug my cables from the switch and plug them into the back of the panel keystones. Then Just patch them in with the new purple patch cables I purchased.
These new purple InstallerParts 6 inch patch cables don't really look perfect either. I'm soon replacing those with some thin Monoprice cables. Don't get me wrong, they do look nice but I want something a little more. And that's the thing, when you build a home lab rack, you always want more or it some how ends up growing into something much more than you had ever imagined it would be.
So when I sat back and admired this new look for a few minutes, I had to ask myself "where has this been my whole life and why the hell didn't I buy one sooner?". If you're looking for a decent patch panel with keystones ready to go, I do recommend this one. Hell, I also found out by accident Techno Tim is also using one of these in his lab. I had no idea until I was doing some searches for photos to use in this post. So there you have it.
