Network noob in need of help

Hey all,

I've been tasked (not sure quite how) with setting up my building's network. I'm certainly not a trained IT specialist but I know my way around computers well, outside of networking.

My company just opened a new building and we're now in the waiting stages as internet is being setup to the building. Since this is a new building, we have internet ports littered throughout the rooms of the building but all the cables run into a utility room. Just today, I checked on the cables and they are all running into what looks like half-a-switch. ie the cables run into the back of faceplate which has corresponding ethernet ports on the front of it. 48 cables run in to the back faceplate which has 48 ethernet jacks on the front. I think it might be a 'Patch Panel'.

Once we get internet, the company providing it will give us a router, so I know that we'll need a switch to get internet out to all the ethernet jacks in the building. Here's where the bulk of my questions lie.

1) I've been looking at a lot of switches on NewEgg. Any of the larger ones don't have an 'input' port for a cable from the router to the switch. After reading a bit, I think I'm to assume that I can just plug the router cable into the 1 port of the switch. However, if I need all 48 ports... does this mean that I need to get a switch with more ports or would something like this work? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833122094

2) If I am working with a patch panel, am I correct that I'll need to get 48 short ethernet cables to go from each port of the switch to each port of the patch panel?

3) The types of cables I'll need is also confusing me. From the router to the switch, what type of cable will I need? And from the switch to patch panel, what type of cables will I need? PS - we don't have a rack but I'm assuming that I could mount them on top of each other relatively closely. ie ghetto rack.

Thank you guys for any help you can give. I'll also gladly elaborate on what I've written since I'm sure it doesn't make complete sense.

Thanks for getting back to me Ghislain.

If I ended up getting the NETGEAR switch that I linked above, could I use one of the gigabit ports as the input from the router to the switch, leaving the 48 other ethernet ports open for patching?

Thanks again for the reply.

The vast, vast majority of what we'll use the network for, is internet. If I do end up setting up a server, it'll be used sparingly. As per our internet connection, we're getting T1 cabling hooked up to the building but (I guess) we're still unsure whether we'll opt for T1 or half-T1.

I really haven't a clue what the T1 or half-T1 speeds actually are. Again, with me being a network noob . Would either of those options be bottle-necked by a 100Mbps network on our end? Does the gigabit network makes a lot more sense (for any number of reasons)?

Unfortunately, I all the network choices are out of my hands and I think T1 was decided on for price. Not sure but again, sadly nothing I could change now.

That being said. Would the config I listed work well? Or does the gigabit network really make more sense? Considering that we'll rarely transfer files over the network and that it'll predominantly be used for internet, does the 100mbit network seem OK?