Cat5e patch panel vs ethernet switch?

Question

I need to run a ethernet cable from my demarc in the garage to my laundry room (about 50 feet away) where my wiring box is in order to have ethernet access through out the pre-existing cat 5e to every room (6). I'm going to be using the cat5e wired phone jacks and change them to ethernet jack since i dont use them for that purpose. would it be better to use a patch panel or an ethernet switch to minimalize the loss of data speed?

Answer 1

A patch panel is used to interconnect, the switch will rebroadcast the signal helping to prevent data degradation.

Answer 2

You understand that you need a hub or switch in the network somewhere, right? Ethernet does not work like a telephone. You can't just connect together a bunch of Ethernet wires, plug those into computers and have that work. At most, you can connect two computers (using a crossover cable) without a switch involved.

The logical place for the switch in in the laundry room - probably mounted on the wall next to the wiring panel. The line coming from the garage would go into one of the ports of the switch. The lines from each of the other rooms (another six rooms?) would go into the others. At a minimum, you would need an eight-port switch is sounds like.

As far as speed, any reasonable Ethernet switch adds very little delay to the network - generally on the order of microseconds (where 1 mSec = 100 µSec). Don't worry about delays in the switch.