These all refer to the (usually white) network ports on the wall, that you’d use to connect a wired device to your network.
Patching-in simply refers to connecting a device or network point to the network at your network infrastructure (usually the comms cabinet in your office or store room).
If you want to set up a wired network that includes multiple wall ports in various rooms, a patch panel in a central location can provide a simple, neat and easy-to-manage solution.
So what is a patch panel you ask? A patch panel is essentially an array of ports on one panel. Each port connects, via a patch cable (usually a network cable), to another port located elsewhere in your building.
In IRL venues, your patch panel is usually a 24-port long black or grey strip which, crucially, is not powered and has no lights on it (contrary to your network switch, which is also typically a 24 or 48 port device that is powered and has lights on it).
An example of someone patching in port 11 on a patch panel
When we install a new network, or refurbish an existing network, we’ll often patch in the ports that are actively being used at the time of the install, but leave ports not being used unpatched.
The reason for not patching in all ports is because usually there are many more ports in a venue that there are active networks ports available on your network switch - eg most sites have only x24 active network ports on your main network switch, but 40-50 network points on the walls around the venue (so typically, you can patch in half of your wall ports at a time).
In order to get a new device connected into the network, you’ll first need to know a few things: