[CAT6] Pick the right cable for your project
[CAT6] Pick the right cable for your project
I need to run two ethernet cables, one fifty feet long and the other seventy feet long. The first cable goes from my master bedroom where I will connect it to an ethernet hub. From there, one wire will go to my tv and another will go to the dvr from xfinity. The second cable, which is seventy feet long, will go downstairs where I will be directly connecting it to an Asus Router to create a mesh network in my house downstairs. Now, I do have security ip cameras (poe), wired POE, and using Cat5e cable and ends done by me. This is the cable used on the Cat5e right now: Shireen DC-1021 Outdoor CAT5e FTP - Shielded - 1000ft Spool https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009WA56NK with these ends: RJ45 Cat5 Cat5e Connectors End Pass Through Gold Plated 8P8C UTP Ethernet Network Plug https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VZM477M My question is as I want to go with Cat6 as maybe a better cable, will this one here be okay?: fast Cat. Cat6 Ethernet Cable 1000ft - 23 AWG, CMR, Insulated Solid Bare Copper Wire Internet Cable with Noise Reducing Cross Separator - 550MHZ / 10 Gigabit Speed UTP LAN Cable 1000 ft - CMR (Blue) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JB4W6MF/ with these ends: Cat6 RJ45 Ends, CableCreation 100-PACK Cat6 Connector, Cat6 / Cat5e RJ45 Connector, Ethernet Cable Crimp Connectors UTP Network Plug for Solid Wire and Standard Cable, Transparent https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-100...B01K9Z4FT2 Thanks and appreciate your advice. Xfinity 1.2giga internet plan. ( 1200 Mbps) Cable Modem: Netgear CM1100 Wifi Router: Asus RT-AX86U
If you have the cat5e cable, just use it. My only problem with it is if you are using shielded wire instead of unshielded ones and don't connect the ends right or ground the metal part at all. Most people do this because they think it's easy to fix outside a data center where there are special grounding tools. It really doesn't matter much except for wasting money. If you connect the shielding correctly, it stops outside signals from getting into your line. But if you don't ground it, that metal part becomes an antenna and makes interference worse instead of stopping it. The reason this isn't a big deal is because there are no outside signals in a home installation anyway, so the interference just never really happens here.
If you already own a cat5e cable, just use it. The only problem I'd face is if you are using shielded cable but not connecting the ends properly or grounding the shielding correctly. Most people install shielded cables wrong because it is almost impossible to do right outside of a data center with all the special connectors. It doesn't really matter that much other than wasting money. Shielding works well when installed right, stopping interference from outside sources. But without ground connections, it actually acts like an antenna and makes things worse. That whole thing probably doesn't matter in a home because there isn't any real interference coming through first place. This issue is more common in big factories or hospitals where they worry about cables interfering with medical equipment rather than the other way around. I'm not sure what to say about cat6 cables here, but the specs look like they are meant for cat6a even if you didn't write that down. In any case, regular cat6 cable is just a waste of money. It won't run faster or better than the older cat5e version. Cat5e was designed to send 1 gigabit over two wires instead of four. That standard never happened to become real because cat6a was invented for that purpose. Consumer buy it simply because the number looks bigger, which they think means more power. If you actually needed ten giga bits, you would use cat6a since it is rated for full 100 meters at ten gigabits per second. A few years ago nobody thought about buying cat6a because of how expensive copper was then. Now that copper prices have gone up so much, the cost to make cat5e cables has grown too high, and making cat6a isn't any less expensive than before. Since both are getting very expensive, you might think twice if you plan on running it through walls in your house. In your situation since you already have the cable I would just use what you have. There is no benefit to buying a cable with a higher number like six or seven. If you really do need ten giga bits then buy cat6a. We will see how copper prices go in the future right now. This inflation started rising long before we saw it happening on everything else lately.
Thanks for replying. I only have about 30 feet of Cat5e cable left, which is why I was looking to get another 1000ft or even 500ft for my next two projects and keep some extra in case i need one for an ip camera if i run another wire. Hmm, now i see what i did wrong... with the cat5e! Use the wrong connectors without ground, i guess i was kind of new at this but now i see the point. Will have to check what i will go with now. Thanks for your advice.
What plugs do you suggest for cat6 cables with 23awg wire that also have a ground option? I've been looking at all the right options. Also, if you're thinking about buying this cable from here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C848GTK/ Thanks!
You don't need to worry about the grounded RJ45 connectors at all. They are for cables that have a metal shell, but you can't just plug them in. The device you connect it to needs its own tab to create a ground connection. That setup is very rare even in company equipment. Usually, the grounding comes from the wall plates or outlets already installed in your house. You generally can't add this yourself because a network cable's safety ground shouldn't be connected to the electrical wire that powers your circuits. This creates a serious risk: if there was a bad connection somewhere else in the house, you could accidentally get electricity into your internet line.
The more likely problem is actually some device causing interference on the existing ground wire inside your home. That interference gets carried onto your ethernet cable and messes up the signal. What really matters is having a completely separate grounding path for every single end of your connection. Basically, you need to run another piece of copper wire from the ground rod in your house to both ends of your jack. This setup is very common in data centers where they have special boxes that connect all the racks together. In a home, it would be nearly impossible without tearing down the walls to run that extra wire.
This new cable will work fine. You can just use any standard RJ45 plug you find. The only real difference between types of copper wire is whether it's solid or stranded. Almost everything you buy online is made of solid core wire, which is what I usually recommend. I'm not sure if there is a specific benefit to Cat 5e or Cat 6 connectors though.
Thank you so much for your help! It's very nice to hear from you. Thanks again,
The extra wires you see on those cables are definitely meant for CAT5e and CAT6 to make faster signals possible. If we cut away those two extra channels, that cable only gets half its speed instead of what it was supposed to be. The old standards for CAT3 and CAT5 actually had those two extra lines built in just to handle two phone lines at the same time plus a data plug on one wire. They were popular back in the 90's in offices but they didn't really stick around because digital phones replaced that setup. Those wires are now used mostly to power things like Power over Ethernet (POE) devices, which are super common today for things like cameras and security scanners. When Gigabyte networking started appearing, they wanted a cheap way to patch new computers with short cables using the extra wire. So they decided to reuse one of those spare channels. Switches automatically detect when that channel is there and talk fast to whatever device is connected. CAT5 was built for 100 Mbps per line, while CAT5e can get up to 125 Mbps. CAT6 goes higher at 250 MHz or more, with CAT6A going over 500 MHz. CAT7 exists but it's mostly used in big data centers and not common because anyone sending that much data over a long distance would just use fiber instead. Those speed numbers mean how far the signal usually travels, typically around 70 to 100 meters. If we keep those wires shorter, we can get more effective speeds without problems like crosstalk or errors happening. The little plastic piece in the middle of CAT6 is there to separate the two channels so less interference causes mistakes. This helps us get gigabit speeds over short distances and one gigabit over longer ones, even though fiber would be better for very long hauls. You were right about how much shielding they need; almost nobody does it correctly. Even inside data centers, patch panels usually don't have a separate ground wire connected to the shield, and most people just leave them at the top of the rack level.