[Techtalk] networking questions...

[Walt]

We have purchased a new building for our
company, and I will be the lucky person in
charge of wiring up 4000 feet of cable to
about 70 ports in 35 drops throughout the
building.

I was planning on running cat 5e for most
of the systems and cat6 for the higher-
bandwidth computers. Are there any issues
that I should be aware of using cat6 cable
with (primarily) 100bt equipment?
I've done quite a bit of cat5 but haven't
setup any gigabit networks as of yet.

Are there any Howto's or FAQ's on network
wiring that would help me make sure I get
the most performance out of the system?

Are there some tips/warnings that any of
you would give from past experience?
This is going to (hopefully!) be a long-term
installation and I would really like it to be right.

What about cable/connector brands? Is there
much of a difference in performance between
them?

Also, I need to buy a 24-port 10/100 switch with
a gig uplink. I was looking at the 3com 3300tm
http://www2.warehouse.com/product.asp?pf%5Fid=DEH5474&cat=pc
with this 3com 10/100/1000 nic:
http://www2.warehouse.com/product.asp?pf%5Fid=DEC4444&cat=pc
Any opinions/experience with this equipment or
better?

I really appreciate any advice/input!

Thanks,
Walt


-~

     O Lord, grant that we may always be right, for thou knowest we will

     never change our minds.
                         Scotch Prayer