From the course: CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) Cert Prep

Alternative distribution panels

From the course: CompTIA Network+ (N10-009) Cert Prep

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Alternative distribution panels

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- No one's going to argue that the 110 punch down block is the way that we do distribution for copper wired networks. However, there are some alternative types of distribution, and I'd like to show those to you right now. One of them is very, very old, and the other one is really pretty new. So let's start with the old granddaddy of all, a 66 punch down block. I've got one back here at the very back of the equipment room. I'm going to back out of the way so you guys can see this. Let me get my laser pointer handy. You see this box right here? In fact, this one is too, but this one's got the cover off. This is a 66 punch down. This is the first type of patch panel ever invented for unshielded twisted pair, but it was really just for phone lines, is where all this came from. The idea behind a 66 block is that if you look at the bottom here, you can see I've got these big 25-pair cables coming in, and these are running into my PBX system here. But coming off of this are my individual telephones that are all over the office. So back in the old days, we'd have a pair of wires that would run to each individual phone. Now, oh, this one's done a little bit differently, it's actually kind of cool. I'm going to back up, I want to see if you guys can see those white cables over there. So do you see these white cables? The same guys who run my network cable also run all my phone lines. And what they did is they ran these white cables and it comes- take a look over here. This is my 110 patch panel. You can see all my connections to my individual computers. But do you see all these? Those are actually the connections to the different telephones that I use all over the office. It's kind of a unique combination of where we take a 66 patch panel and then take advantage of the fact we've already run cables, we might as well just use the 110 block to pull 'em all together because I've got my network connection, and I have my telephones all in little outlets working together. Kind of interesting, unique. 66 blocks are fading out pretty quick with Voice over IP options and things like that. However, there's one more I want to show you, but we're going to have to go over here and take a look at it. So this poor old wobbly rack you're looking at here is really more of a storage bin than anything else, but it's storing some stuff I'd really like to show you. 110s and 66es are great for copper, but fiber optic needs distribution just like anything else. So if you have a fiber optic network, you're not going to be using a 110 punch down, you're not going to be using a 66, you're going to be using one of these. This is a fiber distribution panel. Now, it's not working for a living right now so I can go ahead and pull this out. But if you take a look, on the other side of each of these connections would be runs going out to my individual fiber connections. So what would be fairly common is I would have right here a pure fiber switch, and these would be running into my fiber switch. And then from the back of this, these would be running to other floors, to my distribution switches. And then from there, who knows where it would go. But this works pretty much the exact same way that a 110 would do, by isolating all of the connections for the fiber into a single fiber distribution panel.

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