Getting the mouse of my ISP

[rl249]

So the plan im currently on has 'speeds up to 200mb' and I'm currently getting an average download speed of 60+mbs, which is good and all that but I want more. 

I'm moving home and i'll be without internet for a few weeks so I want to fill up a few HDDs with movies and games etc so I'm doing a ton of downloading lately, but the date i've to be out by is coming up fast. 

 

I dont know a whole lot about internet speeds and Cat5/6 and so on, so this question might seem a bit stupid, can i get a Fiber Optic cable with an RJ45 ends?or will i need to run media converters to get the fibre to ethernet. Could someone tell what i can do to get the fastest speeds and the most out of my ISP? 

[Ciccioo]

 'speeds up to 200mb'

that means that they may or may not deliver a 200mbps connection to your place, it looks like you were just unlucky

the 'bottleneck' should be outside of your house, in the ISP's network, so i'd say that changing the network media inside your LAN won't affect speeds in any way

a normal LAN on cat5 cables should also be able to drive 100mbps (and more) unless you're using loooooong cables and/or terrible NICs, so nope, don't buy fiber

[rl249]

that means that they may or may not deliver a 200mbps connection to your place, it looks like you were just unlucky

the 'bottleneck' should be outside of your house, in the ISP's network, so i'd say that changing the network media inside your LAN won't affect speeds in any way

a normal LAN on cat5 cables should also be able to drive 100mbps (and more) unless you're using loooooong cables and/or terrible NICs, so nope, don't buy fiber

I was using a crappy NIC so i switched to a cat6, but its about 65 feet. 

[Ciccioo]

I was using a crappy NIC so i switched to a cat6, but its about 65 feet. 

the performance should degrade starting from 300ft with cat5e

in the administration interface of your router should be reported the throughput, that is the actual speed that your ISP is giving you. if you can find that number and it's 60mbps then you will be sure that you won't be able to sqeeze out any more performance, unless you call your ISP and start complaining

[rufee]

Wires mean nothing at this speed, cat5 or 6 will give you the exact same performance.

[Darren]

can i get a Fiber Optic cable with an RJ45 ends?or will i need to run media converters to get the fibre to ethernet

 

No. You've got fiber optics which is light and ethernet which is carried using (multiple) electrical signals via. copper wire.