This is something I am contemplating at work. We have had 90 plus new cable runs and points installed during lockdown as our cabling infrastructure was way over 10 years old and in horrific condition. These are all Cat 6 runs of various lengths, some pushing within 10 metres of the Cat 5e 100m limit. This all goes back to Cat 6 patch panels in the main cab. I would like to use the old Cat 5e patch panel leads (all less than 3 years old) to the switches though as there are so many of them and Cat 5e is so much slimmer and bends really easily for cable management. I can't imagine doing it with Cat 6 cables, the thought scares me. Also, the end users all have Cat 5e patch leads. What should I do?
Cat 6 install with Cat 5e patch leads?
- Thread starter HAL9000.
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2008
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- 12,082
The 100m limit includes the patch cords at both ends, although it's obviously possible to have overall runs longer than that. The 100m is a minimum it needs to work at to be compliant, not a maximum it will work at.
Assuming you're running Gigabit I'd try the patch cords you have now (for non-critical stuff anyway). Replace them if/when you need to.
Assuming you're running Gigabit I'd try the patch cords you have now (for non-critical stuff anyway). Replace them if/when you need to.
Thanks, yes it's gigabit with Cisco Catalyst switches. Hopefully the longer Cat 6 runs will give better resilience. It's desktop PC's and printers mainly although we have 3 workstations that run graphic design, one is a Mac and there can be some large files thrown around the network shares with these.
