What exactly is this, a hub, a switch, a......?

[mwc]

Is this a switch, hub.....more importantly what does it act like and at what layer?

Thank you

[Garry]

Neither, it's a patch panel. http://fourpair.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/what-is-patch-panel-used-for.html

I suppose it operates at the physical layer (Layer 1.)

[Haggis Veteran]

Its a Patch Panel

Edit: too late lol

heres a link about it

http://www.temple.ie/products/structured-cabling-systems-2/amp-netconnect/category-6-utp/amp-cat-6-utp-patch-panels/cat-6-48-port-patch-panel/

[francescob]

Burn the switch!

[mwc]

Thank you. Im doing diagnostics on a network slowdown I am having and I wanted to rule this out...

[+John Teacake MVC]

LOL! It made me laugh :laugh:

Edit: Your diagnosing "Network Slowdowns" and you dont know what a patch panel is ... *sigh* If your referring to the OSI model, It works at the Physical layer technically :-p

[Gerowen]

As has already been said, it's a patch panel, and serves no real purpose as far as the routing of traffic goes. It doesn't have any power supply, at least none that I've used; it's basically just a tool to help you clean up your switch closet so you don't have random wires sticking out of the wall and running straight into your network hardware. If somebody punched down the wires in the wrong order on the back of one of the ports though, or didn't punch it down firmly, it could have some negative effects on network performance I guess.

[+John Teacake MVC]

As has already been said, it's a patch panel, and serves no real purpose as far as the routing of traffic goes. It doesn't have any power supply, at least none that I've used; it's basically just a tool to help you clean up your switch closet so you don't have random wires sticking out of the wall and running straight into your network hardware. If somebody punched down the wires in the wrong order on the back of one of the ports though, or didn't punch it down firmly, it could have some negative effects on network performance I guess.

It routes in the physical sense not a network sense. Either that or it just wouldn't work... I would like to see more from the OP as to what the symptoms and potential causes are...What tools are you using for diagnostics???

[xendrome]

Thank you. Im doing diagnostics on a network slowdown I am having and I wanted to rule this out...

If you are doing network troubleshooting and don't know what a punch down patch panel is, the next step of troubleshooting should be calling a professional.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

It sounds harsh, but I agree with the guys above: If you didn't know what it was to begin with, you should be asking your Network team to investigate. There's no shame in it, that's what they're there for.