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

[Wiley Siler]

Depends on what you mean by expanding your network.  Do you need a bunch
of new routers?  Probably not.  Do you need to consider port count at
every station?  Absolutely.  However, there is good news and bad news.
The good news is that most of the phones that are being recommended to
you actually have a pass through port on them so you can connect your PC
right to the phone.  So, in a situation where there is one port and one
user, you have no problem adding the phone to the scenario.  You just
connect the phone to the wall and connect the PC to the switch port on
the phone.  The bad news is that is does create a small amount of cable
clutter and it does limit the speed of the PC in question to 100Mbit. So
if you go this route, don't run out and get all new Gigi NICs for those
PCs.  They would just get pushed back down to 100Mbit once you connect
them to the phone port.  In situations where you have many users in a
room and limited ports, the cost effective method will be to just add a
switch in that room.  Make sure it is a real switch though.  Hubs are
VoIP performance killers.  If you can get new pulls in place then do so,
the benefit long term is there.  You might frame it as an upgrade to the
4 wire Cat-3 stuff you were asking about.  Cat5 is sufficient for most
cases and supports up to 100Mbit.  Go to Cat5E (Cat Five Big E as it is
known) which has a 350MHz frequency and you can support Gigi over
copper.

I would check around for bids on the cabling.  $60 a drop is very
reasonable and would put you at $3600 in cabling.  A worthwhile endeavor
if you can slide it into the budget.  If not, cautious use of local
switches can accomplish the task.  Again, look for QoS capable switches
or at the minimum CoS (Class of Service).

I doubt your Cat-3 will be of any practical use to you going into the
future.  I would have them pull it out when they install the new drops
or tuck it out of the way.

I assume your comdial phones are proprietary and connected to your
Comdial PBX.  That being the case, they probably would not be reusable
(see the Wiki).  However, you may be able to sell them off to get s few
dollars back on your upgrade.

Cheers,
Wiley