First time hard wiring network cables for home questions


Recommended Posts

Hey all

My parents are moving into a renovated house this weekend. Early on I pre wired the house for cat6 networking, oddly the cat 6 cable was cheaper than the cat 5e at home depot. Anyways I have all our phone, network and tv coax cables run to a structured media box in one of the chases. I am running the network cables through a small blank cover and going to terminate them with rj45 jacks to plug into the wireless 4 port router on the wall. I am opting not to do a patch board yet because of limited space in the panel.

So my first question, while at home depot I did not see any cat 6 rj45 jacks but they did have a set of 5e ones. Is there really any difference between cat6 and cat5e rj45? I went to RadioShack and they just sell them as RJ45.

Next question. It appears the guy that wired up our old house 11 years ago used the 568B standard to for all the jacks, is this still the correct one to use? What is 568A used for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so far as i know RJ45 is RJ45 there is no difference. the difference is in the wire itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also don't believe there is a difference.

The main difference between Cat5e and Cat6 is shielding and wire quality. I don't think that the terminators make a difference.

Anyone feel free to jump in and tell me I'm wrong >.<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no difference for the RJ45 heads between CAT5e and CAT6 to my knowledge, however they have solid and stranded RJ45 heads so make sure you match it up with the type of CAT6 you purchased.

There is a difference between the punchdown keystone modles though, so if you're going to use wallplates, I would buy the CAT6 keystone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No difference. Difference comes from the wire, but the cable pairs should be the same: WG-G, WO-B, WB-O, WBr-Br, for the 568A Standard and WO-O, WG-B, WB-G, WBr-Br, for the 568B Standard.

ANd the only difference between them is the wire layouts, they're still both straight through cables though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no difference for the RJ45 heads between CAT5e and CAT6 to my knowledge, however they have solid and stranded RJ45 heads so make sure you match it up with the type of CAT6 you purchased.

There is a difference between the punchdown keystone modles though, so if you're going to use wallplates, I would buy the CAT6 keystone.

you can buy shielded RJ45 Jacks and plugs for Cat6a so there can be a difference if you want that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

B is the current wiring standard, almost every patch cable on the planet you buy now uses the B standard (I did say almost, some use their own standard).

Regardless, there is a slight difference in a cat 6 and a cat 5 end, but it is, IMO, negligible. Internally, the end may look like this '|'|'|'| and it really doesn't matter between solid or stranded ends you can use solid ends on stranded (I think the blade to cut through the wire is a bit stronger). Most cat 6 wiring ends come with the high low splits, not sure if this exactly is a standard but it is recommended.

You can see the high and low here in the insert for cat6 ends (it is the little piece on the right hand side)

http://www.startech.com/media/products/crj45c6sol/Large/CRJ45C6SOL.Alarge.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks guys, just wanted to make sure I have everything set up right

if rj45 is rj45 I wonder why on earth places sell specific cat5e and cat6 ones, the cat6 ones are twice as expensive on homedepots website. any who I will just go with the rj45s I have and go with the B standard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are talking about the clear plastic connectors when you say jacks, there is a difference. Cat 6 cable is thicker than Cat 5e due to the spine in the cable. The Cat 6 connectors are also easier to use because there's a little plastic piece (load bar) you put on the cable first to hold them all in place while you push it into the connector.

At least this was what I recall from the last time I worked with Cat 5. I believe I had tried to use the same connectors and had an issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What nesl said, plus some!

The cable size is a bit thicker, so it may or may not work.

Secondly, and apparently information to many, one of the big changes to the CAT6 spec over CAT5E is that it included specifications for the connectors and terminators. Really important for getting cable (or an entire data center) certified. A home? Well... i'd (and am going to when I wire mine) put in the same as the cable. Cat6 ends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also don't believe there is a difference.

The main difference between Cat5e and Cat6 is shielding and wire quality. I don't think that the terminators make a difference.

Anyone feel free to jump in and tell me I'm wrong >.<

There is a difference in size - but you can use them interchangeably

I have Cat6 going from my modem to my router, and from router to desktop because this brand was much thicker and had cool looking plugs

No difference in performance - just cooler looking :)

post-74610-0-74915600-1333056693.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

568B is the far more common wiring order. 568A usually came into play with crossover cables (wiring one end as A and the other as B), for things like wiring up 2 PCs to each other with no hub or switch, or daisy-chaining. When auto-sensing ethernet ports came out, it made crossover cables largely unnecessary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're going to use faceplates, use solid not stranded.

I have Cat6 going from my modem to my router, and from router to desktop because this brand was much thicker and had cool looking plugs

No difference in performance - just cooler looking :)

Monster cables are a rip-off haha.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.