It's not glamorous. It's not the bit people show off on the office tour. But when it comes to reliable IT, structured cabling is the unsung hero.
Whether you're setting up a new site or inheriting a Frankenstein network built over years of improvisation and under-the-desk fixes, your cabling infrastructure is the foundation everything else rests on. And if that foundation is shaky? Well, expect slow speeds, dropped connections, poor reliability, and a whole lot of finger-pointing.
Let's take a look at what good cabling looks like, why it's so important, and how to spot the warning signs of a network in distress.
Start at the heart: the comms cabinet
Every site, even small ones, should have a dedicated comms or server cabinet. This is where the network lives and breathes. It's not just about keeping things tidy (although tidy is a big bonus); it's about security, airflow, cable management, and keeping your core hardware out of harm's way.
Benefits of a comms cabinet:
- Keeps switches, routers, firewalls, and patch panels protected from physical damage.
- Prevents "accidental unplugging" incidents (you know the ones).
- Supports proper ventilation for equipment that generates heat.
- Makes future expansion or fault-finding massively easier.
Sticking your main switch on top of the filing cabinet surrounded by spaghetti cables? That's a no.
Patch panels and numbered faceplates: clarity is king
A numbered patch panel matched to numbered faceplates throughout the premises is a game-changer for manageability. Want to move someone's desk? Patch it in. Need to troubleshoot a dead port? Easy to trace.
Without this, you'll be tracing cables like Indiana Jones, guessing where they go; moves and changes take longer and introduce more risk; and fault finding becomes guesswork, not diagnosis. Short patch leads (not 5-metre cables looped six times around the cabinet) complete the picture. They're neater, better for airflow, and reduce the risk of signal degradation.
All the core gear, all in one place
Routers, modems, firewalls, and switches should all live together in the cabinet. Why? Power protection: you can connect them all to a UPS. Security: you don't want your router on the reception desk. Cabling: short, high-quality interconnects inside the cabinet mean better performance and less chaos. If your network's scattered across several rooms like a treasure hunt, you're setting yourself up for confusion and unreliability.
Gigabit-capable and future-proof cabling
Let's talk cable spec. At a minimum, use CAT5e, though ideally CAT6 or higher. If you're still laying CAT5 or (brace yourself) phone-grade cable, you're building in a bottleneck.
Why gigabit matters: even average PCs need more than 100Mbps when accessing cloud apps, video calls and file servers; phones, printers, and WiFi access points all benefit from higher throughput; and future upgrades (like 2.5Gb or 10Gb networks) are impossible with substandard cable. You wouldn't build a motorway with single-lane tarmac. So why build a modern business network with yesterday's cable?
Beware the small unmanaged switch
They're cheap. They're easy. And they cause a world of problems. These little 5-port and 8-port switches scattered around a building create loops, bottlenecks and dead spots that are miserable to diagnose. If your network has grown a collection of them, it's a sign the structured cabling underneath was never done properly.
Building or refitting? See our cabling service and the 13-step squat practice IT guide.