Network planning and installation

It has been a LONG time since I've done any network design and installation, and I seem to have forgotten what I knew. Does anyone know of a good tutorial site (or even a -gasp- book!) that will give me a refresher on:

- network physical layer design (cable runs, common mistakes, etc.)
- details and tutorials for 110 patch panel connections (common mistakes, etc.)
- "best practices" for network cabinet layout and network physical layer
- etc.

Something that will answer questions such as:

- Should I run both the network drop and the router/switch connections to 110 panels, then use patch cables from one to the other, or is it ok to run the network drops to a 110, then connect the patch panel directly to the networking hardware?

- What's the best, least expensive way to run surface mounted cabling around a building, given that official cable raceways are a bit expensive for 1000 ft of wiring?

- Refresher on max distances (yea, I know, I can find that easily enough on my own)

- other basics that I should know, but don't right now.

Basic stuff like that, that someone who has done even only a dozen installations would just know right away.

I'm putting together a small business network and using it as a learning exercise. But it would be useful to have good information to study rather than needing to learn all my lessons the hard way. Again!

Thanks in advance.

 

110 panels are usually telco connections.
Data cable is dropped in the 'server room' and punched down on patch panels.
Rows of 'keystone jacks' that have a network plug and an area on the back you punch the network cable down into to. Then you run patch cables from them to your switches, etc.

 

As for cable trays, it all depends on the building, when we moved in here the construction co. put up rings already and we ran the cable through them.
If you cross any electrical lines do it at 90 degrees, don't run parallel to electric or to close to fluorescent lighting.

Go out and buy a TestUm Resitestor it will help you verify your connections & it has a tone generator for tracing if you buy a probe. The 2 devices together and sometimes called a 'fox & hound'.

Also run in CAT6 if you want gigabit or POE and future growth, it is more expensive. If not CAT5 will do.

 

Patch panels are often 110 at the back though (not always krone or keystone), and the pro networks I worked with (not setup by me) often had 110 blocks where things ran to. That included gigabit networks.

 

Thanks foogoo. That's useful info. I'd forgotten the "cross at 90" rule. (like I said, it's been a long long time). Any suggestions for online tutorials or books, or is this one of the black arts only learned by apprenticeship?