noob question: do I need a cat6 cable? or is cat5 fine?

[captainthrall]

I have the standard home cable internet setup: wall jack -coaxial cable-> docsis 3 modem -cat 5 cable-> router -cat 5 cable-> computer

Would it make a difference if I bought 2x cat 6 cables?

 

[Janus67]

To be clear, are they Cat5 or Cat5e?

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/04/ask-lh-whats-the-difference-between-cat5-cat5e-and-cat6-cables/

 

[captainthrall]

I'm pretty sure my cables are cat5. I'm going to upgrade to cat7. According to what I read, CAT5 maxes out at 100mb/sec while CAT7 can do 10,000 mb/sec.

It only costs $5 for a couple of cables, so it seems like a no-brainer

 

[EarthDog]

Cat5 will do gig over shorter distances.

Anyway, go cat5e or greater. Here is a link i found when i googling your question: http://www.networkcablingdirectory.com/articles/structured-network-cabling-id_1151.htm

It likely wont make a difference considering your internet speed jsnt 100mbps in the first place.

 

[captainthrall]

Cat5 will do gig over shorter distances.

Anyway, go cat5e or greater. Here is a link i found when i googling your question: http://www.networkcablingdirectory.com/articles/structured-network-cabling-id_1151.htm

It likely wont make a difference considering your internet speed jsnt 100mbps in the first place.

ya, 100%. I think my cable internet tops-off around 70mbps on a good day. I guess the higher bandwidth cable could be useful when connecting two computers to a router and file-sharing LAN style. Who knows. Anyway, for $5 I wont have to worry about it.

Side-note, I wonder if the article you linked was written before CAT7 existed because it doesn't mention it at all. According to wikipedia, CAT7 didn't even exist as an official standard until 2010ish.

 

[EarthDog]

Maybe? I don't see a date on it either.

I googled another link that was created in 2015 and still no mention of it: http://www.howtogeek.com/70494/what-kind-of-ethernet-cat-5e6a-cable-should-i-use/

 

[wagex]

cat5E will do 10g up to 147ft. i still dont see any reason for a home to use anything more expensive / harder to work with imo. unless you have some looong runs / plan on doing higher than 10g?
http://www.kit-communications.com/FAQCat5evsCat6.htm

 

[captainthrall]

plan on doing higher than 10g?

I mean considering the LAN port on my computer tops out at 1gb/sec, I don't imagine I'll be breaking the 10g barrier unless my house gets struck by lightning.

It seems like CAT5e would definitely be sufficient for any home use. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure my old cable is just "cat5" without the E. The first article that Janus linked says "Cat5 cables were made to support theoretical speeds of 10Mbps and 100Mbps. You may be able to get gigabit speeds on a Cat5 cable, particularly if the cable is shorter, but it isn’t always guaranteed." Meaning even a cat5(no e) is probably just fine, but it's not certified beyond 100mbps.

Since mine is old and frayed.... it's been stepped on, sucked up by vacuum cleaners, attacked by animals etc etc, plus it's that ugly pastel-blue color - I'm going to replace it. And yeah, since 2x 6-foot gold-plated CAT7 cables are only $5, I went ahead and bought a pair.

btw, thanks everyone for the information. As always, this forum has been extremely educational.

 

[Jeff G]

I ran CAT6 when I put in my new media room, I ran it throughout the house for everything I'd need. CAT5e vs CAT6 was pennies difference, maybe $2 difference for 100ft roll. I figured it would worth the $2. And I got some of the hollow quarter round for running cables, it makes running long distances in a room super easy to hide cables.