Network cables

[Azurium]

Hey. Semi new to the forum. But I thought I would ask here for help. I'm looking at setting up mt house with ethernet to each room. I was just wondering what sort of cable I should be looking out for? Not sure what I should be looking for. 

[RockSolid1106]

What bandwidth are you looking to achieve? Do you have any special needs like a storage server which you need high bandwidth access?

 

Usually most people are just better off with CAT5E or CAT6 cables, which support gigabit(125MB/s)

[Lurick]

Cat5e supports up to 1GbE or 2.5GbE for 100m

Cat6 supports up to 5GbE for 100m or 10GbE for 55m

Cat6a supports up to 10GbE for 100m

 

For in-wall installation you want solid core cables

For patch panels you want stranded

 

Under NO circumstances do you want to touch anything that's CCA (copper clad aluminum). It's not per spec nor is it durable nor can it support long distances or Power over Ethernet (PoE)

[mariushm]

Cat6 cables can handle 10 gbps up to around 50 meters  (between your computer and a network switch for example)

Cat6a cables can handle 10 gbps up to 100 meters (maximum the ethernet works)

 

Cat5e is the cheapest and it's standard for 1 gbps, but can also do 2.5 gbps with the network cards that support the latest standards and unofficially, it could probably handle 5gbps for short lengths like 5-10 meters. 

 

So I'd suggest going for Cat6  or Cat6a - the price difference between Cat5e and Cat6 should be quite small -  but pay attention before you buy and avoid CCA cables (copper clad aluminum  or copper coated aluminum cables) - these are cables that use aluminum instead of copper to make the cable cheaper, but the performance is not as good and some network cards have problems with long distances of such cables.

 

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Cat6 supports up to 5GbE for 100m or 10GbE for 55m

As far as I know, the same encoding is used for 5gbps as for 10 gbps, so I don't think that's quite right ... don't want to contradict you as I'm not sure, but it feels like it shouldn't officially support 5gbps up to 100 meters. Could be I guess.

Anyway, usually there's not so big lengths in a house anyway, and the shorter the lengths, the higher the chance you're actually going to be able to get devices "talk" to each other at higher speeds with minimal or no transmission errors.

[Lurick]

9 minutes ago, mariushm said:

As far as I know, the same encoding is used for 5gbps as for 10 gbps, so I don't think that's quite right ... don't want to contradict you as I'm not sure, but it feels like it shouldn't officially support 5gbps up to 100 meters. Could be I guess.

Anyway, usually there's not so big lengths in a house anyway, and the shorter the lengths, the higher the chance you're actually going to be able to get devices "talk" to each other at higher speeds with minimal or no transmission errors.

Yah, I triple checked just now, Cat6 does do 100m for 5Gbps but only 50 or 55m for 10Gbps

https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/know-your-cable-cat6-ethernet#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5GBASE-T_and_5GBASE-T

 

Now there might come into play stricter tolerances for UTP vs STP cable to get it to work at the full 100m though.

 

But then the nbaset site says 5e or 6 can do 5Gbps up to 100m which is confusing.

https://archive.nbaset.ethernetalliance.org/technology/

[Azurium]

Thanks for the replies. They really help. At the moment cat 5 would suit my needs but I want to future proof the cables in the house.  I dont have a NAS or anything yet I'm in my early stages of any of this lol. Atm I am just wanting to be able to connect my devices like xbox PlayStation computers and thing though cable rather than WiFi. I was thinking of going cat 6 and saw some cable reels on amazon but was unsure what to look for as they seem a bit cheap and as they say too good ro be true.