Cat5e, Cat6 - Gigabit Network Benefits

[MovedGoalPosts]

In theory Cat 6 is the top spec more robust, better sheilded and such like. It should be best placed to give better throughput of data. But how necessary is it for a gigabit speed network?

Cat5e cables seem to be allowing a connection which the ports / switches/ cards are suggesting is gigabit. But then I've also seen some cables of similar 5m length decide only to allow 100 mbit connections

Even if the cat5e cable is allowing a connection, would cat6 make any noticeable difference?

[bomber_g]

As far as I know the only difference between cat 5 and cat 6 is the maximum length the cable can be before the quality of the signal degrades

cats 5 has a max length of 100M, not sure about cat 6 - so you don't really need cat 6 when running a network in your house - it's usually used in big office bulidings where you have several floors that are networked - and even then it's only between patch boards and things, not necessarily to each work station on a floor

[Kymmy]

Just because the cable has cat5e printed on it it doesn't mean to say that it'll cope with cat5e limits in every single application or for that matter it'#s actually true cat5e cable

The cable path, materials, and local emc sources can impact on the speed attained.

For gigabit (even indoors) if you're having a problem with cat5E then yes Cat6 or 7 will probably help though even cat6 can be limited to about 30m in certain electronic hostile areas

[haydnwalker]

How about using an app such as NETTEST to test actual throughput on different spec's of cables? You would then be able to make an informed decision on whether you'd see a noticable difference.

In reality, our gigabit network in our office at work only attains about 400mb/s over cat5e through gigabit switch ports to the server which is also on GIGe

[bomber_g]

Originally Posted by haydnwalker

How about using an app such as NETTEST to test actual throughput on different spec's of cables? You would then be able to make an informed decision on whether you'd see a noticable difference.

In reality, our gigabit network in our office at work only attains about 400mb/s over cat5e through gigabit switch ports to the server which is also on GIGe

/\ this

also Iperf ( Iperf | Get Iperf at SourceForge.net ) is a fanatstic tool for checking throughput over your hardware - use UDP testing rather than TCP to give you proper performance of the hardware you are using

remember to bare in mind that you will always get the maximum throughput of the worst performing piece of hardware - ie if you have a network card and cabling that can carry a gig, then a network card at the other end that can only carry 300mbits - you will always see 300 mbits in your testing

---------- Post added at 10:00 ---------- Previous post was at 09:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Kymmy

For gigabit (even indoors) if you're having a problem with cat5E then yes Cat6 or 7 will probably help though even cat6 can be limited to about 30m in certain electronic hostile areas

no wrapping your network cabling around you microwave then?

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by bomber_g

no wrapping your network cabling around you microwave then?

Nah, they're well too shielded.. You can though wrap it round my HF radio feed

[MovedGoalPosts]

So the concensue seems to be not a lot of difference as it's more down to the kit at each end of the cable, but if buying new cables, it might be worth that extra few pence on Cat 6.

[haydnwalker]

Yep... extra few pence is future-proofing yourself isn't it

[Bennylaball]

I havnt noticed any difference at all, and to answer a previous question 100metres is the maximum network cables can run unless you get fibre, due to the cable becoming a giant capacitor (and for signals thats rather bad) it depends on the ouput power of the network card whether or not you will get gigabit on cat5e!