[Leaplist] new office, existing cabling

[Jason Boxman]

We're moving offices.  The new building is an improvement, as it 
actually has Ethernet wired.  I don't have any background working with 
cabling, so I can't tell which, if any, of the Ethernet cables are hot 
and functional.  Several of the rooms actually have a multi-drop box of 
four Ethernet, though one just has a single drop.  (I wonder about 
Ethernet cabling and VoIP were we to move to it.)

There's also a rather complicated punch down board for the phone system. 
  We're still running a rollover two line analog phone system with voice 
mail handled upstream by Embarq.  I can determine even less about the 
wiring for it.

Anyone have any thoughts on handling wiring in a new building?  Do I 
want to get some device to test the Ethernet cables or just plug stuff 
in and hope they're actually functional?

We're running a Windows desktop per user for three users, plus a 
GNU/Linux box for managing DNS, Samba, email, and such.

One day I still want to go VoIP.  I watched Jesse Rhodes' excellent 
presentation via John Simpson's hosted video.  There are a lot of moving 
parts, though.

Any cabling issues I should be on the lookout for for Ethernet or the RJ11?

Thanks.


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