Cat6 or Cat7 at home

[Brutalbipedal]

Hi all,

 

I've just moved to a new place and I've had to run a 10m CAT6 from my cable router to a small Netgear 5 port Gigabit switch to get to the other side of the room with a wired connection. Because I'm a bit of a perfectionist should I use CAT7 instead? Would I benefit from it or for that small distance is it worth it or is the improvement so small it makes no difference? All network experts help very welcome! 

[FunkyMike]

Will you be opening up your walls for this? 

 

Also welcome to Neowin!

[+BudMan MVC]

no your not going to get faster with 7 vs 6..   7 is not even a recognized by TIA/EIA  Cat 6 with the new 802.3bz standard will allow 5gig so pretty sure you ok with 6

 

You know there is new 8 and 8.1 and 8.2 maybe you should look for that   Gig is support by 5e anything over that is just not really needed. 5e cable will be able to do 2.5ghz under the new 802.3bz as soon as we start seeing switches and nics.

[Brutalbipedal]

Hi Mike! And thanks  The cable is attached around the skirting boards of the walls so no. 

 

Thanks for the response +Budman. Is CAT6a & 7 not better for shielding etc? Would this not be better for connection speeds and a faster ping return? Or would it be so small of an increase it wouldn't make any difference? I have already put normal CAT6 in and all is fine, I get around 180mbps down from the router sometimes about 200mbps and the cable being used is a 10m Ethernet Cable CAT6 Full Copper FTP Screened Network Lead RJ45.

 

 

[+BudMan MVC]

No its not going to make your ping times faster..  5e is rated for gig..  Your not going any faster than gig..  So how exactly would it make it faster?  If you want shielding then buy shielded 5e, or 6..

[Brutalbipedal]

So essentially my Cat5 cable I have now is fine? Im guessing what I have is not shielded - 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-10m-Ethernet-Cable-CAT6-Full-Copper-FTP-Screened-Network-Lead-RJ45-/380891748970?ssPageName=ADME:X:RRNTB:GB:3160

 

Thanks for your help.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well that says ftp on it, so would assume its F/UTP or is F/FTP or S/FTP but I would assume F/UTP which means it has a foil shield around all the cables.  So your twisted pairs are not individually shielded.

 

Pretty much any home use case just plain jane UTP would be fine..

[Brutalbipedal]

Will I see much difference between the FTP and say STP? Obviously this is not in an industrial environment just going from one side of the room to the other and has been attached to the outside of the wall.

[+BudMan MVC]

You will see ZERO difference.. Like I said UTP would be fine.. Your not running your cable over a transformer or electric generator or atop florescent lights are you?  Do run or tinker with electromagnetic generation in your spare time as a hobby near your networking equipment? Do you run your microwave with all the shielding removed? with your cable running next to it?

 

What do you think could possible be the difference?  Your ping times go from .4 ms to .399 ms?

 

Lets go over it a again.. You will see ZERO difference between a certified 5e cable or a 6 or even a 6a.. 7 or 8 or 8.1 or 8.2 your not going to see any difference in speed.  Now if you tried to use some cat 3 cable or some shoddy cat 5 that didn't work with gig.. Cat 5 is certified to be gig as well.  Then ok then you might see an issue.  I don't think normal cat 5 has been even made in years and years.  All 5e.. Which is fine.. What that cat 6 got was norhing more than a couple extra cents spent..

 

How long do you think it takes for the electrons to travel over that 10 m cable??  Do you think the speed of the electrons actually change if cable is 5e or 6?? The biggest delay in your traffic is that switch not the wire.  Does not matter if you bought that 10K$ ethernet cable http://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/02/to-the-audiophile-this-10000-ethernet-cable-apparently-makes-sense/ or the cable for 1 buck..  If its a certified cable then its fine. 

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i totally understand the need to get the "latest and greatest" but budman is right. Cat 5e is already rated for 1Gbit, so youre fine using that cable still. but then again, you said you used Cat 6 already, so youre good. no need to change anything.

[Brutalbipedal]

Thats all I needed to hear

 

I'm no networking genius so I wanted to make sure as I've not even tinkered for some 6-7 years so not much has moved on since then. 

 

And nope +Budman so far I'm not networking near any energy power plants or putting the CAT6 near my home made electric chair so all is good 

 

Thanks Jason S I will leave it as it is

 

Thanks for your help guys! I appreciate it.

[+BudMan MVC]

What that cat 6 buys him is now when/if he goes with 802.3bz when hardware becomes available he will be able to use the to get 5gbps over the cat 6.  Until such time all he got was a few extra cents spent on the cable.

 

If was in need a cable, what I would be concerned with is if actually a certified cable - then the options, like color   Or end the boots on the end.  There are different styles that some are easier to remove from a nic/switch port than others.  Some can be a real pain - I don't like the ones with little plastic boots over the clip - some of those can be a pain to release if in a tight spot, etc.

 

Most likely the cost between a 5e and 6 with all other things being equal as far as options like the length, the boot type the color is going to be small - then sure get the cat 6.  But I sure wouldn't stress over it.  Especially if cable is going to be used in a place that is easy to replace for when you go to 10ge or 802.3bz

 

I have a 5e run in my attic that connects my computer room/office to the front of the house (av cabinet) when 802.3bz becomes available and affordable I will most likely switch out that cable.  But your talking maybe 30 mins or so to run the new cat 6 and a few bucks for the cable.  So I am not concerned that I went with 5e vs 6 back then.  At that point in time (few years back) is was a few $ difference so I just went with the 5e.

[fusi0n]

2 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Some can be a real pain - I don't like the ones with little plastic boots over the clip - some of those can be a pain to release if in a tight spot, etc.

 

I believe that satan was allowed to work on earth for one day, and he made that design. 

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

I use Cat 6E when I used to do that sort of thing.

[jasondefaoite]

5 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

I use Cat 6E when I used to do that sort of thing.

I thought there was only Cat6 and Cat6a?

[sc302 Veteran]

I see another 5-10 years before anything above 1Gb/s will be affordable for home use.  Even right now, 1Gb/s internet speed is not available in most areas.  5e or 6 is more than enough for your needs.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

12 minutes ago, jasondefaoite said:

I thought there was only Cat6 and Cat6a?

I have 1000 feet in a box that is labeled CAT6E .

 

cat6 - What is the difference between Cat 6 and Cat 6e Ethernet ...

[sc302 Veteran]

7 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

I have 1000 feet in a box that is labeled CAT6E .

 

cat6 - What is the difference between Cat 6 and Cat 6e Ethernet ...

6e is not a standard.

 

Quote

Cat 6e: Category 6 Enhanced (6e) is an augmented specification (not standard) designed to double transmission frequency to 500 MHz. By wrapping Category 6e in grounded foil shielding, full 10-Gigabit Ethernet speeds can be reached without sacrificing the max cable length of 100 meters.

 

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

3 minutes ago, sc302 said:

6e is not a standard.

 

 

I know, it is better than standard. most of the diff in numbers has to do with how tight the twist is, the higher the number the tighter the twist.

[+BudMan MVC]

3 minutes ago, sc302 said:

I see another 5-10 years before anything above 1Gb/s will be affordable for home use.

I don't see it being that long before your seeing 802.3bz at reasonable prices.  I would think more like 1-2 years.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

4 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

it is better than standard

It is theoretically better than STANDARD QUALITY.  It may add to the AGREED STANDARD, but I would always always always get a cable that is rated precisely to an AGREED STANDARD.

 

Capitalisation to highlight the different usages of the word "standard" which I feel have been lost a little in the posts.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Just now, Nik Louch said:

It is theoretically better than STANDARD QUALITY.  It may add to the AGREED STANDARD, but I would always always always get a cable that is rated precisely to an AGREED STANDARD.

 

Capitalisation to highlight the different usages of the word "standard" which I feel have been lost a little in the posts.

As one that use to use this wire it is way better than Cat6 as it is shielded. The shield is there for a reason. It is used in areas that require shielding.

[Andre S. Veteran]

3 hours ago, BudMan said:

How long do you think it takes for the electrons to travel over that 10 m cable??  Do you think the speed of the electrons actually change if cable is 5e or 6?? 

To be pedantic, the electrons don't actually need to travel from one end to the other to carry information; it's the wave (electromagnetic wave) propagating from one to the next that does.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

3 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

As one that use to use this wire it is way better than Cat6 as it is shielded. The shield is there for a reason. It is used in areas that require shielding.

Completely agreed that it is theoretically and potentially practically better.  But saying it's "better than standard" is an ambiguous thing to say - the word standard is being thrown around in different contexts.  I would always adhere to an agreed standard specification - and if shielding is your bad, there are agreed standard specifications for that.  6e is not an agreed standard specification.

Just now, Andre S. said:

To be pedantic, the electrons don't actually need to travel from one end to the other to carry information; it's the wave (electromagnetic wave) propagating from one to the next that does.

You see, it's like a pipe, and there's a big bucket at one end...

[jasondefaoite]

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

I don't see it being that long before your seeing 802.3bz at reasonable prices.  I would think more like 1-2 years.

Supposedly ASUS are not interested in adding 802.bz support in their routers. They plan to move directly to 10GbE, but I don't know the timeframe. Bit stupid if you ask me.