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Thread: Which ethernet Cables are best?

  1. #1
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    Question Which ethernet Cables are best?

    I know this is quite elementary for most of you but i'm trying to help out my father with connecting 3 computers to our network router. I see cat5's, cat6's and what not. Does it really matter? I do want the faster transfering cables if they have them. So if anybody has any idea on a good 50ft Ethernet cable I should look into that would be a great load of help. Not trying to break the bank either lol, so around 10-15 dollars would be quite alright.

    Thank you

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    Senior Member specofdust's Avatar
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    Cat5 is fine for 100Mbit stuff, probably fine for Gbit, but get Cat6 if you're doing Gigabit stuffs and want to be sure the network isn't limiting you in any way.

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    Thanks for helping buddy. People here really are quick to help.

    Thanks!

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    you don't need cat6 cable for gigabit lan, cat5e does the job just fine and is much cheaper. I have everyroom in my house wired for gigabit using cat5e and have no problems whatsoever with it.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by specofdust
    Cat5 is fine for 100Mbit stuff, probably fine for Gbit, but get Cat6 if you're doing Gigabit stuffs and want to be sure the network isn't limiting you in any way.
    It really depends.

    A student house. A grotty little terrice, with barly enough room to swing a cat, i ran CAT5e at the same time the electrition was rewriting the house (apon moving in i noticed vulcanised rubber wiring, which has been illegal for only a few decades). The Cat5e must of been wrapped around power cables at times, with the breakout sockets next to the good old 3pin plugs. No problem what so ever with gigabit, no packet loss, admitedly that was with the "good gear" but when i gave that nice managed switch back to its rightful owner, the cheapie dlink suffered no problems (and no real performance hit) either.

    basically, Cat5e FTW, enless you live in somewere the size of buckingham palace, in which case, Cat6, and make sure you keep it away from other wires (ie run data + power seperately).
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Senior Member specofdust's Avatar
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    So basicly, you both agree?

    I said Cat5 would probably be fine. Cat6 isn't that much more expensive, if its vital to you that the data is coming as fast as possible, if you don't need to be absolutely sure your not being limited in any way, cat5 is fine, as always.

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    Will work for beer... nichomach's Avatar
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    Cat5e and vanilla Cat5 are different animals. Cat 5 is designed to support data rates of up to 100Mbps; Cat5e (enhanced Cat5) is designed to support data rates of up to 1Gbps. Cat6 is also designed for 1Gbps, but with slightly more stringent requirements for protection against cross-talk, etc. Cat5e will support 1Gbps for 100m absolutely fine. Cat5e will additionally support data transmission at 100Mbps for 350m as opposed to the 100m of traditional Cat5.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    about year ago, i was chatting to someone about this project his invovled in, linking birmingham's schools via cat5. They were pushing 100mbit and 1gb over it. Thing is this was really cisco showing off, as these cables were running ~2km. Then they managed to get 100mbit over bob standard copper for phones wire. Having 1 pair per phone, they used 4 phones run to accomplish this. Again everyone was surprised to see virtually no packet loss 24/7.

    Moral of the story, buying good copper is more important than the raiting of it, espesually as these chinease imports are known to be optermisitic about such things (as anyone involved in computer related imports will rant on about).
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Wink

    I prefer blue or red cables. The grey stuff looks so bland don't you think ?

    Right I'm off to avforums to argue why low oxygen braided copper speaker cable, at £5/m is so much better than 10p/m bell wire

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    Quote Originally Posted by billythewiz
    I prefer blue or red cables. The grey stuff looks so bland don't you think ?
    Lilac all the way

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    I have found this information:

    Cat5/Cat5e are 24 gauge wire. Cat6 is 22 gauge wire. So you need to make sure your connectors will accept the thicker Cat6 wire.

    Cat5e will support GB if it is terminated properly with very little untwist and the cables are routed so there is little cross talk or attenuation from outside sources. Cat6 will be better in installations where there is a lot of noise.

    10/100 only uses 4 of the wires in the cable. GB uses all 8 wires and therefore you will get much better GB performance using Cat6.

    To achive GB connectivity the NICs in all your computers need to be GB NICs and then you need a GB switch. Linksys makes a good consumer version pretty cheap. You will also need real high quality patch cables to connect the computers to the switch or you could see a big performance drop. Cat6 patch cables should be used.

    Transfering a 4GB file on 10/100 could take minutes. On a GB connection it will happen in seconds.

    Quality counts on a GB network to get top performance.



    Cat6 is not suggested for large office because of enviromental reasons. It is because the future capability of it is well beyond 650Mhz. Cat5 is 100Mhz and Cat5e is 350Mhz.

    The enviromental rating stuff is dictated by fire codes. All cable comes with either a PVC or Plenum rating. Plenum is 3-4 times the price of PVC but is used where non-toxic fumes are required in case of fire. Most cities require Plenum in commercial buildings. In some cities like here in Chicago it also has to be in conduit.

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    When i was wiring my flat, I put lots of pieces of string through the wall, at the same time as the cat5 was going in. That way if I ever have to put cat6 or whatever through the wall, then I can just tie one end to the strings, and pull it through.

    R

    Mehul

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