question for the computer experts

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LEAP

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Dec 22, 2006
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I'm going to be running some network cables around my house. I went to a big box store and found that since the last time I looked there are a few new cable types and connectors. What is the difference between Cat 5, Cat 5e and Cat 6 and what would be the benefits of one over the other. Do they all use the same connector? I've got a crimping tool. from when I ran some Cat 5 will this work on the other cables. My wireless network works great on the first floor but not so good in the basement family room so I've got to do some upgrades.
Thanks,
 
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cat 5 is good enough for most residential applications but if you have a super duper 100 Base-T or Gigabit Ethernet you'll want to use cat 6... they all use standard RJ45 connectors.
 
Cat 5e & 6 are backwards compatible with Cat 5 & 3. Cat 5 is not found except in some NOS warehouses. 5e would be fine for your home network unless the price difference between 6 and 5 is negligible. The difference is the certification for higher speed and it comes down to turns per inch and a whole lot of techno mumbo jumbo. The advantages (improved SNR and reduced packet loss over longer hauls at 10 gbs) of Cat 6 are normally not seen unless you have multiple routers in your house. Some will advise that as router speeds climb you might want to run 6 but I don't see it as wireless is the way of the future for home networking in the next decade. My advice for the home given the doubling in price I would stick to Cat 5e.
 
LEAP said:
Thanks guys, Thats kind of what I thought but wanted to make sure. I'm assuming that the wiring sequence in the connectors remains the same.
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Yes it is the same just make sure it is consistent with existing wiring and ensure you have the right connectors for the cable either braided or solid conductors.
 
Like said above I would go with the cat6 if the price is in the same ballpark. It should be rated to 350Mhz, and have a better SNR. I am assuming that if you are pulling cable through your house that you are wanting to do a bit more with your network such as move 1080 movies around to a homeserver ect. I also agree with the fact that wireless is more so the new norm, but as the trending as been I expect we will get a faster than 802.11n wireless protocol sooner than later. At that point it will probably be better to have the better cabling at the least from bridge / router to the access point. So the real question in my mind is do you do this once with future expansion or pull something sufficient for today and potentially have to pull more later. It all depends on what you expect to scale to...
 
@ctubbs fiber would be the ultimate, but the GBICS or SFPs as well as the medium to enterprise class switches maybe a bit more than one would want to invest for a home from a monitary and configuration stance. Plus from a wireless stance, I am not aware of any accesspoints currently that have GBIC capability so you would probably need a transceiver to convert the fiber to copper and thus have an extra component in the mix that is subject to failure.
 
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