atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Cat6 cabling in new non-profit facility

Because it's VoIP, she can work from home over a VPN using a headset attached to our computer to take calls (as a matter of fact, she has yet to work a day physically located at the call center)

I think something like that comes down to "are you doing it because you NEED to- or is it something that you do just because you CAN".

With all respect to your wife, a company has to weigh the added costs of supporting remote workers and the necessity of not having them in the office vs some other means such as cell phones vs having them physically present. In your wife's case I think it was something they could do so they allowed it. In most cases spending less money on a system and hiring someone who will be at the office (who also would multitask) is more cost effective- from my experience as a business owner.

To bring this back on topic, just how many extensions and work stations are we talking about? Give us an idea as to the size of this company.

-Hal

A couple nice reasons for two CAT5e if they are going VoIP is that if you have to reset the phone (especially if the phone is PoE) you lose network connectivity briefly on the PC that is daisy chained to the phone. And if the phone's switch port dies or has issues, that adds to troubleshooting issues. It's easier to troubleshoot if the PC is directly connected to a port vs a phone.

Also, I haven't seen a lot of VoIP phones that have gigabit ethernet interfaces on them, if that matters to you. Those may exist however.

Well, all these responses have settled the cabling question in my mind. Two cables is the way to go.

There will be about 60 phones on the network in two different locations.