Cabling advice for gigabit home network?

413x

413x

413x

Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2010
Posts
33,595
Location
Llaneirwg
Looking for some help with my choice of network cable.

i want to buy a 20m+ real
from what i gather cat5e is fine and easiest to work with
i want to terminate the cables myself so i can get the ideal lenghts

main questions are
does shielding make a difference?
also is getting a known brand advised?

Runs will all be sub 10m

Thanks
 
You'll just need UTP. The chances that you'd get any benefit from screened cable are so slight they're not worth worrying about.

Cat5e will be fine. In a domestic environment the only reason to use Cat6 would be for video senders.

If you're installing faceplates get solid core cable. If you're attaching plugs to to ends get stranded cable. You'll then need a punch down tool or crimper as appropriate.

A cable tester will make fault finding easier, but you don't actually need one. Some of the better computer network adapters have connection testing options in their support utilities.

Try to get copper cable rather than copper clad aluminium (CCA).
 
Last edited:
Terminating cat5e is an absolute breeze. Follow a wiring diagram and you should be fine. If you do plug in and it doesn't work check each end, cut and reterminate. Easy stuff with the right sort of tools. Seems a bit of a waste to buy a tester for a couple of cables.

STP can complicate installations and can make things worse if you don't install and terminated the shield properly, that being said I used some STP and never had any issues on a pretty long run.

UTP will tend to be cheaper and will work to gigabit well beyond the 10M you need.
 
The cables i will will be making will all just be basic male to male rj45 plugs. so no solid core required.

The one reason i was thinking about shielding is that the htpc cable will be in amongst a lot of plugs and electrical cabling. Again, i dont know if this matters or not.

ive located what i think is a decent crimper (ratchet) cutter and stripper. If im getting one i may as well get a decent one

The networks biggest demand will be streaming blu ray quality MKVs. is cat5e still sufficient? consensus seems to indicate it will be. If cat6 is advantageous i doubt it will cost much extra for the length of cable i need.

Thanks so far guys. looking to order everything tonite
 
You'll be fine with UTP and Cat5e.

You'd see no advantage from using Cat6.

Both Cat5e and Cat6 support Gigabit at 100m. At the lengths you're talking about they'd both support 10 Gigabit.
 
bremen1874 said:
You'll be fine with UTP and Cat5e.

You'd see no advantage from using Cat6.

Both Cat5e and Cat6 support Gigabit at 100m. At the lengths you're talking about they'd both support 10 Gigabit.
Click to expand...

Ive noticed you have replied to a lot of my recent network posts so thanks.

will any cat5e standard cable be ok or is a brand like belkin etc preferred. i dont want to end up with something not as described basically.
 
Anything that's labelled as Cat5e should be fine. I'd prefer copper over CCA, but not for any definite reason, I just don't like the idea.

If you can't get hold of stranded cable you can use solid core. Just make sure the plugs are sold as suitable for solid core rather than just stranded cable.
 
thanks. going to go for 50m at 9.99 cat5e digiflex

im guessing any rj45 connectors will do for this?
 
Last edited:
It's suspiciously cheap, but at that price it's worth a punt. I'd be interested in what the cable is actually like when the ends are chopped off. For reference it's about half what you'd pay for bulk stranded copper.
 
Last edited:
bremen1874 said:
It's suspiciously cheap, but at that price it's worth a punt. I'd be interested in what the cable is actually like when the ends are chopped off. For reference it's about half what you'd pay for bulk stranded copper.
Click to expand...

I thought it was almost too cheap myself. I havent ordered yet
 
As others have said 5e is easy to do and does the job :)

I put ours in about 6-8 years ago for 100mbit as my first attempt at doing cat5 at all, and it's proving to be fine with gigabit, you just need to make sure you do the connections properly and follow the wiring conventions:).
It's worth getting a proper crimp tool (they start at about a tenner) and if doing wall boxes a metal punch down tool (starting at about a fiver).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom