internet cable

Domestic management has decreed that I need to move the internet socket in the back room. I can get cat5E and cat6, both outdoor rated. I already have the wall mounted sockets from the current installation. Is there any point paying the extra for cat6? The total distance is less than 50 ft

I think the ‘installation requirements’ may be more troublesome than the cost increment:

MichaelG.

.

Ref.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable#Installation_requirements

… not much point using it if you don’t install it correctly.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/09/2021 22:48:53

I'd go with Cat 6, it's not that much more expensive. But Cat 5E would probably work quite adequately.

I guess it's the old "quality" question in a slightly different form.

Rob

Reminds me of a problem a few years ago on another forum. Chap was reporting that as he installed the Ethernet cable through the garage it kept snapping and breaking apart, It was new cable so why the problem. After a few days of advice and disbelief he finally revealed that he was in Canada and it was 20 below zero.

Well I realise that North Cheshire is the frozen North to people who live in the home counties, but the coldest I have known it was - 8, that was actually in Bala on my way to work.

Cat5 ethernet cable can handle up to 10/100 Mbps at a 100 MHz bandwidth.

Cat6 cable is similar to a Cat5 ethernet cable — it consists of four pairs of twisted copper wire. However, it provides you with much more functionality. A Cat6 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 250 MHz, for example, and it offers you speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

Internet speeds are getting faster and for the slight extra cost of cable, is good insurance for the future.

I can recall the frustration of cabling a 5 bedroom Victorian house on 3 stories back in my S London days - and trying to keep it neat. Wife and I had separate office rooms and catered for the kids and family areas and we had some huge business files to upload. But as soon as reasonable wireless systems became available, the lot got ripped out when redecorating. It was different at my clinic with a dozen permanently located work stations, but even then some of the later additions were wireless links directly to the digital imaging systems to reduce router traffic.
Here the incoming speed is a few megabits and I see no point in bothering making any additions more complicated than powerline adapters until that changes and I become a YouTube influencer with live feeds (fat chance). I did run 60 or 70 yards of exterior quality cable up the side of the house to the gable end and attached to an overhead wire to my hobby shed. Much like the redecoration I wish I hadn't bothered because what was a small sapling is now a huge tree en route that requires branching. I’ve got powerline adapters to the barn which is just as far and probably cheaper than the cable cost and gives wired and wireless access within the barn space..

pgk

^^^ Cat 5e can handle a bandwidth of 100MHz to a distance of 105 metres and a data rate of 2Gb/s. (part of the magic that allows more than one bit of data for every change in voltage, it isn't just on and off. Gigabit uses all four pairs, 10 and 100 use only two pairs)

There's no need for Cat 6 unless you intend to run 10Gb/s and that won't be to standard unless the sockets were replaced with correctly installed Cat 6 hardware. As Michael points out.

Edited By Mark Rand on 04/09/2021 09:38:57

Just make sure the new cable sqmm matches the old one or the cable will not punch down properly. Each successive punch down weakens the connector tension especially if the new cable is smaller than the old. This gets even worse if you can only get stranded cable or the insulation is a different thickness. Check the specs of both the cable and boxes for matching thoroughly.

Cat5e and Cat6 are both rated for 1000Mbp. You will not gain any extra speed from Cat6 unless you have 10Gbps interfaces, which is very unlikely. Most domestic routers I have seen are only 100Mbs and I expect your internet connection is even lower than that.

Indoor/outdoor rating is not that important if the cable is sheltered, more important is that the cable is shielded, but then you need to have the right sockets that can ground the shielding.

I doubt you are getting close to the 100m limit or that your environment is particularly electrically noisy, so you probably only need the single foil wrapped type (FUTP), not the type where each pair is wrapped.

Have you thought of using HomePlug/PowerLine/TP-Link? A lot easier than drilling holes in walls.

Personally I would treat CAT5e as a minimum, there is hardly any cost difference between gigabit and 10/100 switches and 802.11ax routers are normally gigabit anyway. I'm wiring our bungalow with CAT6 as the cost premium compared to CAT5e copper was negligible, and with a rural broadband subsidy our fibre connection delivers 300mb at the lowest price tier - if I could afford it 900mb is available over the same hardware.

I'm not sure that the installation requirements for CAT6/6a are that onerous, after all, minimum bend radii apply to all cables, and unlike power cables, if you go below the minimum, the worst that would be likely is a drop in speed, not a fire. (Probably not anyway, 10GBASE-T or POE might get warm).

If you do choose to go CAT5e or below, you might want to consider CCA (Copper-Coated Aluminium) cable which is less than half the price of copper. It is cheap enough to make it worthwhile doubling up on cable connections rather than using additional switches to get an extra connection in a remote location.

Brian G

Edited By Brian G on 04/09/2021 12:36:53

Edited again as I forgot to insert the link to Kenable for CCA cable.

Edited By Brian G on 04/09/2021 12:38:41

Good point about reusing sockets, so I'm going for cat6 as I don't know what is there now and cat6 seems to have thicker copper. Thanks to those who replied

I am guessing that you are altering a hard wired Ethernet installation so unless you need to future proof the system then cable matched to your system is all that is required. Care in following the installation requirements is probably more useful than an over specified cable.

Mike

I'm puzzled by this. Gigabit (domestic) routers and switches have been around (and common) for well over a decade. Am I missing something?

Edited By Peter Greene on 06/09/2021 01:56:53