Need some Ethernet Cable

sansnom · 10 Mar 2008 at 18:16

There's patch cabling, crossover cabling, CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT5 colour coding...

Wtf? Can someone please point me to just standard ethernet cabling for home networking that's 10-20 metres long?

clv101 · 10 Mar 2008 at 18:28

Take a trip to B&Q.

m_cozzy · 11 Mar 2008 at 07:54

clv101 said:
Take a trip to B&Q.

competitor

Buy a straight ethernet cable. I would probably look for cat 5e but it doesn't really matter, cat6 will cost more, and choose whatever colour you want.

hamesy · 11 Mar 2008 at 08:57

Ok mate here's a quick run down:

Patch cable (straight-through) used to connect devices such as PCs to switches or routers to switches. Basically, if the devices are different ie a switch to a PC then this is the cable you use.

Crossover used to connect similar devices such as switches to switches, or a PC to PC. So basically, if you want to connect a PC to a PC without any other networking devices involved, then this is the cable to use

Now depending on your networking equipment will depend on what cat cable you want, ie Cat5 or Cat6.

Cat5 can transmit data upto 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet). Cat5e and Cat6 can transmit data upto 1000Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet). Personally I think its overkill having Gigabit ethernet at home, so I would get just Cat5 cable (Fast ethernet).

sansnom · 11 Mar 2008 at 10:31

hamesy said:
Ok mate here's a quick run down:

Patch cable (straight-through) used to connect devices such as PCs to switches or routers to switches. Basically, if the devices are different ie a switch to a PC then this is the cable you use.

Crossover used to connect similar devices such as switches to switches, or a PC to PC. So basically, if you want to connect a PC to a PC without any other networking devices involved, then this is the cable to use

Now depending on your networking equipment will depend on what cat cable you want, ie Cat5 or Cat6.

Cat5 can transmit data upto 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet). Cat5e and Cat6 can transmit data upto 1000Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet). Personally I think its overkill having Gigabit ethernet at home, so I would get just Cat5 cable (Fast ethernet).

Thanks a lot. I'll be connecting a Netgear Wireless Router to a netgear Wireless Access Point (to increase range) so i'm assuming I'll need the crossover cable, is that right?

bledd · 11 Mar 2008 at 10:39

i don't think it matters nowadays what type of cable (as in straight or crossover), i think the network ports work it out themselves

cat5e i'd go for

hamesy · 11 Mar 2008 at 11:08

sansnom said:
Thanks a lot. I'll be connecting a Netgear Wireless Router to a netgear Wireless Access Point (to increase range) so i'm assuming I'll need the crossover cable, is that right?

bledd. said:
i don't think it matters nowadays what type of cable (as in straight or crossover), i think the network ports work it out themselves

cat5e i'd go for

Pretty much most network equipment auto-negotiates their ports now so you should be able to get by using a straight-through cable.

Antar Bolaeisk · 11 Mar 2008 at 11:36

Also, if you're planning on using wall sockets then I think the ones you're looking for are RJ45 sockets though maybe someone else could confirm this as I'm not entirely sure. After that it's easy enough, well for me anyways as the sockets I got were colour coded so my hard work and effort spent looking up diagrams was wasted.

tolien · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:22

Proper Cat5's pretty much disappeared - it might not be advertised as such, but you'll probably get Cat5e. It's pretty stupid to get cable that won't do GigE though - the difference in price between (actual) Cat5 and Cat5e is tiny unless you're buying a million metres' worth, and gigabit kit's already pretty cheap.