Maximum Cable Lengths

[Pinkeyes]

I have decided to give up attempt to pass WiFi through 3 floors of my house, and start putting network cables in, and move the Access point to a middle floor.

I read the Network FAQ but it doesnt go into this in too much detail.

What would be the best type of cable to fit for future proofing ?
I would imagine gigabit support would be the way to go, would you suggest Cat5e or Cat6 ? and does anyone know the maximum lengths for these cable ?

I also have decided to run Co-ax cables in at the same time, for these new LED security cameras carefully added to point to my car / shed etc.
Does anyone have knowledge of maximum lengths for these ?

Your help is appreciated.
Pinkeyes

 

[Black_Widow]

Cat x

I'm sure i read somewhere the max length for Cat 5e & 6 is 250 - 300 Feet before it needs to be patched

needs double checking tho

 

[Captain Fizz]

Cat5e is theoretically 100m.
But can go above that in general use.

I would use Cat6.
If you are going to the effort of wiring the house - It would be a shame to use Cat5e even though you can still run gigabit through them.

Cat6 IMHO.

Co-Ax - No idea on max length - Check on google for "cable standards".

 

[Musashi]

Dont bother with CAT6 unless you know what you are doing. Terminating it is a bitch and it is ultrasensative to being bent. Run decent CAT5e in (maximum run length 100m), keep away from running it parallel to mains cables (140mm separation), If you have to cross mains cables do it at right angles. When terminating the cables try to have no more than 20mm of cable unsheathed.

My advice is invest in a cyclops cutter and a decent punchdown tool and practice wiring a faceplate a few times. If you take your time, you dont bend your cables and you dont strain them when pulling you should quite easily get close to gigabit (providing your hardware supports jumbo frames).

Again I wouldnt bother with coax - either use IP CCTV cameras or use a balun to convert Coax to CAT5e amd run CAT5e cabling.

As for future proofing - CAT5e will be more than adequate for domestic uses for the now and the foreseeable future. Gigabit handles the media from my media server to my MCE machine flawlessly (that is with 3 other PCs hanging off the network). I bought some Netgear GS608 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switches (NW-102-NG) from overclockers to replace my aging 3Com Superstack2 and upgraded the NIC in my server to a Gigabit one (Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Network Card) and I never see a hickup.

 

[Pinkeyes]

Thanks for all the replies.

Musashi - I agree about the Cat6, been reading up on that.

Carefully installed Cat5e it is, agree with the faceplates too - may as well make it a proper job.

About the coax. You suggest using the IP cameras, which is what I was going to do - any idea where I can get a balun ? - would that be better ? my garden shed is only probably around 30 - 35 metres from my PC. You think Cat5e would be better than running Co-as over that distance, any reason ?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[tom_e]

running them over cat5e will probably work out cheaper as you can just buy it in bulk reels

 

[J.B]

cat5e: 1000 Mb/s upto 25 metres, then 100Mb/s for 100m.

cat6: 1000Mb/s upto 100m

i think coax is 500m

 

[Musashi]

cat5e: 1000 Mb/s upto 25 metres, then 100Mb/s for 100m.

cat6: 1000Mb/s upto 100m

i think coax is 500m

This isnt quite correct

Cat5e will support 1000BaseT over 100m it only supports 1000Base-CX over 25m

As we are talking 1000BaseT cat5e will support Gigabit over 100m

Cat6 will be overkill