CAT Cable .. for my home Network

[lineup]

I have one D-Link Router.
To connect my 2-3 computers to internet/eachother.
I use high speed broadband. 100 Mbits connection.
Within my region I usually have downloading speeds like 40-50 Mbits.

Cable used is called Patch cables.
Cat XX UTP, with RJ45 connctors.
UTP stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair. But there are shielded, too.
Where XX can be
--- 5
--- 5E
--- 6
--- 6E
Here is some information:
CAT-5, CAT-5e, CAT-6, CAT-7 Patch Cables FAQs

I am about to buy some new CAT cables. I had problem with one longer CAT 5 cable (10 meter)
CAT 5E seems to work well. Even 5 meter long.


I will buy 5 meter cables.
Should I buy CAT 5E .. or even go for 6, 6A, 6E or something?

1. What is the difference between CAT-5, CAT-5e, CAT-6, CAT-7...
The Simple Answer:
CAT-5 is rated to 100MHz
CAT-5e is rated to 350M
CAT-6 and CAT6e is rated to 550M or 1000M depending on your source
CAT-7 is supposedly rated to 700M or presumably 1000M

[eclectic2k]

Originally posted by lineup

I will buy 5 meter cables.
Should I buy CAT 5E .. or even go for 6, 6A, 6E or something?

Cat5e is the most cost effective and reasonable solution for home use.

100Mb and 1000Mb ethernet are spec'd to run 100 meters over cat5/cat5e

5e, 6, 6a, are all basically improvements to the tolerance, twisting, and impedance control of the basic 4-pair cat5 cable architecture. as you go up in number and the cable spec goes up in frequency you just gain slightly better crosstalk and return loss numbers

If you had trouble with a cat5 cable at 10m, it was either very cheap cable, or more likely, it was badly terminated. (RJ-xx connectors never have been very good, so it's fairly easy to get a bad termination.)

cat6 will give a little lower noise, might get you a bit longer reach - which is pretty meaningless in a 100Mb network at short lengths. Unless to plan on running 10 gigabit ethernet there is no real need for cat6 or better.

in a nutshell, buy whatever decent cable you can find for a good price - most likely a decent cat5e ;-)

-CK

[lineup]

yes, thanks for your comment
I also am thinking cat5e is good enough.
It is like the normal standard in use. Can easy find in shops for a reasonable price.
And 1, 2, 5 meters lengths.
So I will buy some a couple of CAT 5E cables for my Router connections.

Another advice I found out at info pages was:
Keep these network cables some distance from mains cables and other cables that may disturb.

And never make any sharp bends, that may hurt cable.
Same goes for SATA Drive internal cables: Never make 90 degrees cable bends inside PC chassi.

[Juergen Knoop]

likely a connector problem, encountered several with industrial made patchcables.
Watch out for uneven crimped contacts or thin plastic layers on the contact area.
regards

[AndrewT]

This is all secondhand, but it's what I have picked up.

Cat5 is solid core twisted pairs. 4pairs to a bundle. The minimum radius ~25mm (50mm diam).

The Patch cable at each end should be kept short and the total Patch cable in the route should be less than 10m.
Patch cable (the flexible stuff) does not meet Cat 5 standard. The physical requirements to make it flexible and non-breakable are not compatible with the Cat5 UTP standard.

Run your main lengths in the solid core on a fixed route and just use the shortest flex (Patch cable) to tie in your equipment at the ends.
If you have a Router or Patch panel in the route, the flex used here must also fit within the total limit of the 10m or so.

[Juergen Knoop]

no, cat5 sftp patchcables can be over 100m long.
This is my firsthand experience.
regards

[ostripper]

By Jk - no, cat5 sftp patchcables can be over 100m long

Yes, the quality shielded commercial 5e can be 100M , but
after 50m , depending on quality, throughput will decrease
proportionately.
The more flexable ,cheap 1M - 3M patchcords you see in
walmart or radio shack have little or no shielding.
A loop in a long run will create inductance degrading
throughput considerably.
For a multiple workstation network it is sometimes more
economical to buy the cat5 crimper (20-30 US$) and
5e "by the foot" ($.50-.60) Attached below is the instructional for
hookup and the full guide.

Ethernet full guide - PDF
Note the cabling requirement section..

[Juergen Knoop]

throughput will decrease proportionately.

I have tested them with an expensive Fluke tester and they were always in spec.
Of course there were no data losses or throughput problems at 100Mbit/s.

patchcords you see in walmart or radio shack

eek!
thanks for the pdf!
regards

[wakibaki]

I put in Cat5 + phones all over the house about 5 years ago when we had a lot of work done, even the loft.

Just a few years later I thought I wasted my time because wireless is everywhere. I still use the wired network though, all the desktops are wired and my laptop doesn't like my WAP although the kid's laptops seem to work fine.

w

[eclectic2k]

Originally posted by ostripper

Yes, the quality shielded commercial 5e can be 100M , but
after 50m , depending on quality, throughput will decrease
proportionately.

True. but proportionaly is only a fairly small percent ;-)

...Lets just say I do this for a living...

ignoring Sheilded Twisted Pair (STP) because it is the same as Unsheilded (UTP) save for the benefit of a shield to reject more noise in extreme environements...

"patch cable" in the ethernet world just means that the cable is flexible. They do this by making the cable with stranded wires instead of solid core as was mentioned.

The real performance of the wire is such that a stranded "patch" cable might have ~5 to 10 percent worse performance than an equivalent solid core "infrastructure" cable. (stranded doesn't twist as nicely, and is typically a little higher impedance)

This really is meaningless until you get out to ~85+ meters. At that point a 90 meter cable will electrically look as "bad" as a 100m cable. The IEEE802.3 ethernet spec does recommend 90m solid core infrastructure wiring and 10m of patch. In reality, you can mix and match to get the same effective electrical performance.

under 60m - 80m this is all pointless - as long as the cable is well terminated it'll do just fine - whether stranded patch or solid.

Oh yeah, and all the fun stuff that applies to audio cable applies to ethernet. Don't bend too tightly (will affect the impedance) and don't rout too close to noise ;-)

-Chris