Glossary

Note: these aren't the definitions you'd find in a book. If that's what you want, then go look in a book. These are they way I would explain the terms to someone. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know of anything that's misleading or just plain wrong, but I'm not trying to be too strict. Life is tough enough. Sometimes, I may show some sarcasm, though.

Patch Panel

A patch panel is a thingie you use to connect all your wires up to the right thing. They are really expensive ($45-110), but I wouldn't try this without one. You can get RJ-11 patch panels for phone stuff, RJ-45 patch panels for the Ethernet stuff, and T-66 patch panels which are also for phone, but don't have any RJ-11 sockets on them.

Punchdown

This is what you do when you're tired of crawling under the house. All the connectors and patch panels have little slots that you stick the wire into to make a connection. To do this reliably, you need a tool. Also, you cannot put more than one wire into a slot. The first wire kind of spreads the slot open, and the second wire won't make contact. This is a major hassle, but that's life in the closet.

T-110

This is the standard "wire slit" connector used for Cat 5 stuff, like patch panels. It takes a knife-like tool to punch the wire into the slot.