Hi there, just wanted to ask what sort of affect having Cat 6 cables terminated to cat 5e wall plugs has on a small home network?
Would I notice a difference between this and cat 6 plugs?
Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 2May 25, 2012 8:50 am Further to this, I don't know for sure whether my cables are cat 6 yet.. If I have been given cat 5e over cat 6 in my house (16 points over 24sq house) is it worth the time and hassle to fight and get corrected.. I.e. will it make a difference to me to get cat 6 or is there a big price difference between the two to get some money back?? Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 5May 25, 2012 11:01 am techincally there isn't a problem it more down to lazyness of the installer/ where you billed for cat6 sockets? if so demend them or a refund in the price diference.. Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 6May 25, 2012 11:11 am Wateman, see link below; http://www.broadbandutopia.com/caandcaco.html Really the first few points will answer your question. The internet speeds I wouldnt worry too much about - Cat5e is meant to handle up to 1Gps connections so 100Mb wont be a drama (And at the speed of this Govt and NBN rollout, I would be surprised if im here to see the day we have 1Gps connections to the home - ill get off my soapbox now...) The Cat6 point though, personally, I would push if you intend on centralising your data (movies, TV, documents, etc) in the one location and you want to stream HD content around the house, it will mean you wont get the buffering during a movie. anything standard def shouldnt be an issue but as i said, if your going to have a theatre/media room and have/intend to stream HD movies, push for the cat 6 Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 7Jun 28, 2012 3:12 pm Nice link there for cat5e vs cat6 - did not realise there was a difference in the connector, but assume that's more the design of it? I've seen some cat6 ones with the same physical design as cat5e, and for the life of me cannot understand how a plastic plug with metal cable slots could make any real difference? As for streaming HD movies, the max bitrate of a bluray movie (1080p) is 40Mbps from memory? That means over a single cable 2 maxed out bluray streams would be fine on 100Mbps cable (cat5). Lots more for rips with better compression (prob more 10-20Mbps). Cat5e generally can do 1Gbps if connection is done ok (my home job with a $2 punch down tool over cheap cat5e cable and keystone jacks does 1Gbps fine). Buffering is usually an end device issue, not cables. Just my experience. Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 8Jun 28, 2012 9:37 pm It will have no meaningful affect in the short term unless you are trying to get 10Gb/s out of it, and at the moment 10Gb NICs and Switches are not affordable for residential deployments, and most home environments don't require that sort of bandwidth. Later if you need to upgrade, it's pretty easy to re-terminate the cables. It's 15 minutes to terminate a point. That said - the cost of a Cat6 keystone plug on monoprice is insignificant, so why not just terminate it with Cat 6 to start with. my house blog: http://sugarloafdrivebuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 9Jun 29, 2012 1:16 pm How very timely. Just this morning I had a quick consult for new home pre-wiring and we were discussing this exactly topic. This guy reckons there is very little advantage to go cat6 in terms of transmission rate/performance, yet the cost compared to cat5e (cables and the wall plugs) is significant with the cable costing twice as much and the wall plugs costing 3-4 times as much. As I would have no clue about this, could someone confirm/refute? Initially I was hoping to go cat6 for future proofing but not if he's correct about those $ figures. Yes I did read your article JMAP. To be honest it does seem like a bit of a marketing beat up (advantages of cat6) - is your every day residential home going to require this any time soon? I do get the logic ('Bandwidth precedes data rates just as highways come before traffic. Doubling the bandwidth is like adding twice the number of lanes on a highway') but maybe your highway won't ever see that kind of traffic anyway? If you get me. JMAP The Cat6 point though, personally, I would push if you intend on centralising your data (movies, TV, documents, etc) in the one location and you want to stream HD content around the house, it will mean you wont get the buffering during a movie. anything standard def shouldnt be an issue but as i said, if your going to have a theatre/media room and have/intend to stream HD movies, push for the cat 6 However this is EXACTLY what I want to be able to do, stream HD movies around the house from a central point. So you're saying cat5e would not suffice? This guy reckons he has his whole home done that way with no issues. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 10Jun 29, 2012 1:23 pm Very little difference now, as cat5e can do 1Gbps, and that's all you get in standard residential computers & networking equipment, so in some regards that's a fair statement. But the costs should be incremental only - check monoprice site as dsiroky mentioned and you can see how similar. But if it's 'better' then the markup is likely to be much higher it seems. Last 100m roll of cat6 I bought was ~$40, and that was 6 months ago at local MSY. Edit: cat5e is fine for streaming HD movies at home. Bluray video max bitrate is 40Mbps, usually ~20Mbps? A Rip/encode is prob closer to 12Mbps. Lots of those fit in a 100Mb link simultaneously, many more in 1Gb on decent cat5e link. Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 11Jun 29, 2012 1:45 pm cinder This guy reckons there is very little advantage to go cat6 in terms of transmission rate/performance, yet the cost compared to cat5e (cables and the wall plugs) is significant with the cable costing twice as much and the wall plugs costing 3-4 times as much. the above cost comparison is not correct. The cost of cable and inserts between CAT5e and CAT6 is not that great and compare with the cost of labour the diffirence is not significant at all. CAT6 is is pretty much a stadard these days. [url]ACMA registered cable, Government endorsed Antenna Installer[/url] Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 12Jun 29, 2012 1:59 pm Thanks to both of you for your responses. Yeah ... I'm sure I can 'make do' with cat5e but I'd rather go the extra mile - not for twice the price though. It's hard when the installer tells you one thing and then others say it's not the case - especially when you can't buy/install the cable yourself so you do have to rely on a professional. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 13Jun 29, 2012 5:24 pm cinder How very timely. Just this morning I had a quick consult for new home pre-wiring and we were discussing this exactly topic. This guy reckons there is very little advantage to go cat6 in terms of transmission rate/performance, yet the cost compared to cat5e (cables and the wall plugs) is significant with the cable costing twice as much and the wall plugs costing 3-4 times as much. As I would have no clue about this, could someone confirm/refute? Not sure where your installer is getting his figures from, but last time I looked, cost difference between Cat 5e and Cat 6, for a 305m roll, was about $30, and the plugs were at most $1 more a piece. Perhaps it's true, and he's using $30 rolls of Cat 5e cables, and $0.25 plugs, so can't comment, but most quality cables I've seen are $150 to $200 per 305m roll of Cat 6. So in an install like mine, with 24 data points, using his costing, would be an extra perhaps $54 in materials; unless his fees are very low, then the cost of the upgrade is insignificant. In my case, even using quality (and pricing toward the top end) supplies, the material cost was under 20% of the total cost, as labour cost was significantly more. Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 14Jun 29, 2012 8:46 pm Yeah. In fact hubby just told me they purchase cat6 at work and he knows for a fact it's not much more than cat5e (perhaps we should be communicating better!). Anyway I just checked out this guy as he was recommended by friends. Thanks for the info! My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 15Jul 02, 2012 4:23 pm cinder - your comment regarding 'is your every day residential home going to require this any time soon?' is very valid and the answer, imo, is no and probably for the next 5-15yr until this sort of technology with multiple screens and devices is NEEDED in every residential home to be used at the same time Im building my place (again - my desire and opinion) is to have up to 5 screens across the house be able to watch watch different Full HD content from each screen, independently and from the same hardware. I have also factored in wireless devices and adhoc uses (eg projector in the Ent. Area for Grand Final days). This is not your STD design but for me to achieve this and not have the buffering and contigency on the network, Cat6 was required IMO - Cat6 is now close enough to cost neutral when it comes to fitting out a house compared to Cat5e One of the added benefits of Cat6 is the upcoming introduction of POE (Power over Internet) devices which will allow you to power and have connectivity to small appliances (I have seen a report on a 32" LCD powered just from a Cat6) over a single cable. These devices are not far away. They do require a switch which is POE enabled (not cheap today but will come down as all technology does) For the small cost of installing this type of infrastructure it will, IMO, increase you resale value once these sort of appliance become mainstream and these sort of setup's become more common. I know that I may be seen to be stretching the 'resale' point but in 10 years from now, how many of you would consider Ethernet cabling a MUST rather than a NICE TO HAVE? Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 16Jul 02, 2012 5:00 pm Hi JMAP, thanks. Yes and as we are intending to stay in this house for a few decades, I would rather try and future proof it as much as possible. Buffering on the network would really annoy me. I hadn't considered PoE but you make a good point. Well, I'm convinced Besides from finding out hubby can get it from work at cost (cat 6 cable) so really it's a no brainer now! My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 17Jul 02, 2012 10:01 pm Great to hear you have it sorted! Cat6 is best if you can. Just don't expect to be buffer free just becaue you use cat6, as that's traffic control and hardware capability related as well as constricted bandwidth. Will add for anyone else reading though, that PoE is fine over cat5 also - you don't need cat6 for it to work. Can actually work on cat3 I believe ... and there are quite a few PoE products around now. Becomming more common for IP cameras to have them for ease of installation. Again cat6 is better though, as you could get more power through it. Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 18Jul 03, 2012 11:01 pm JMAP cinder - your comment regarding 'is your every day residential home going to require this any time soon?' is very valid and the answer, imo, is no and probably for the next 5-15yr until this sort of technology with multiple screens and devices is NEEDED in every residential home to be used at the same time They do require a switch which is POE enabled (not cheap today but will come down as all technology does) I think you have to consider the person who is asking such a question in this forum; they are not the everyday household. Most household do not have structured wiring at all. For someone to even consider wiring, it's foolhardy to even consider going Cat 5e, seeing the minimal cost difference, especially as compared to labour costs. I suspect within the next year or 2, we'll be going 10Gb as soon as costs come down for switches and computer hardware gets fast enough to saturate the link. WRT PoE, you can always buy an injector for that; quite a few IP cameras such as the Axis have that facility. Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 19Jul 04, 2012 8:16 am PHL JMAP cinder - your comment regarding 'is your every day residential home going to require this any time soon?' is very valid and the answer, imo, is no and probably for the next 5-15yr until this sort of technology with multiple screens and devices is NEEDED in every residential home to be used at the same time They do require a switch which is POE enabled (not cheap today but will come down as all technology does) I think you have to consider the person who is asking such a question in this forum; they are not the everyday household. Most household do not have structured wiring at all. For someone to even consider wiring, it's foolhardy to even consider going Cat 5e, seeing the minimal cost difference, especially as compared to labour costs. I suspect within the next year or 2, we'll be going 10Gb as soon as costs come down for switches and computer hardware gets fast enough to saturate the link. Couldn't agree more Re: Cat 6 cables, cat 5e plugs.. 20Jul 04, 2012 9:42 am You would have to be someone with some slight technical knowledge and I suppose have some sort of passion for a good home AV distribution set up. I know of 2 people who have just finished their home builds and the thought of structured wiring did not even enter their heads. Interestingly both of these people are in areas where the NBN is currently in progress and I did read somewhere that cat 6 is a requirement for the NBN (I don't know if that means all through the house or what though) My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 1 is free to air and the other 2 are for cable TV all of them completely useless in 2024 1 2266 |