[Asterisk-Users] Systems Admin; Telecom Newbie - What do I ne ed?

[Colin Anderson]

>But currently, I only have one ethernet jack per office. Routing  
>another 60 or so ports would add a very substantial expense in both  
>cabling and backbone expansion (what category ethernet is required,  
>BTW?).

Most decent phones have an ethernet passthrough (2 port) so you can plug in
your PC. As long as your LAN is decent (Cat5 100baseT switched) the overhead
using VoIP is negligible. 

I have used the 3Com NJ wall jacks with good success:

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase
&sku=3CNJ90

It's basically a 4 port switch that you replace your wall jack with. I used
the NJ200, it allows you to set priority per port, although I think they are
discontinued now. In combination with a 3Com power over Ethernet injector, I
was able to expand a 24 port LAN to a 96 port LAN with a per-port cost of
$62 Cdn. And, 24 ports of those 96 are PoE, so I can plug my phones right in
to port 1 and they power up, no external power supply needed. 

hth