Cat5 was designed for 100Mbit, yes you can install a Cat5e cable in a 1Gbit network, and it will most likely be detected as a full 1Gbit network, where they will work fine for some usage.. but when reaching 200Mbit or so capacity load the link will most likely fail and the port will switch to 100Mbit mode..
That is if the switch supports individual port speeds, else you might bump the whole switch down to 100mbit, with everyones connection failing at the mode change..
Quote from: kregoron;271053Cat5 was designed for 100Mbit, yes you can install a Cat5e cable in a 1Gbit network, and it will most likely be detected as a full 1Gbit network, where they will work fine for some usage.. but when reaching 200Mbit or so capacity load the link will most likely fail and the port will switch to 100Mbit mode..
Sorry Kreg, but you're wrong :) There is a significant difference between the 2 specs cat5 (category 5) and cat5e (category 5 extended/enhanced). Any modern network cable you get will be cat5e, which is rated up to 1gbps. Only the original cat5 stuff is only rated for 100mbps. We've got exchange mail servers, huge file servers and web proxies/caches here at the Uni uplinked on cat5e all the way at 1gbps. They regularly push/pull 700-800mbps for hours at a time (our students love their YouTube) with absolutely no problems whatsoever. We've also got fibre and copper testing kit we use to forcefully overload network kit with too much data to see how it copes. 1 of those at each end of a cat5e cable at 95m ran fine until about 980mbps. The spec for gigabit ethernet does not mention cat6 as necessary. You don't need to start thinking about cat6 unless you're considering gigabit speeds in combination with power over ethernet, at which point some seriously funky stuff gets done, or considering trying to push more than gigabit speeds (HDMI over 2x network cables, for example, overloads the cat5e spec as it's actually getting 2.5gbps down 2 cables, but that's not actually ethernet, it's just using the wires). If you've got a gigabit switch, NIC, and cat5e cable and it's not linking at a gig at < 90m or so of cable i'd look at one of the 3 being under-spec, to to honest.
Cat6e doesn't actually exist :) Yet. We're still on base cat6.
Quote from: Carr0t;271058Sorry Kreg, but you're wrong :) There is a significant difference between the 2 specs cat5 (category 5) and cat5e (category 5 extended/enhanced). Any modern network cable you get will be cat5e, which is rated up to 1gbps. Only the original cat5 stuff is only rated for 100mbps. We've got exchange mail servers, huge file servers and web proxies/caches here at the Uni uplinked on cat5e all the way at 1gbps. They regularly push/pull 700-800mbps for hours at a time (our students love their YouTube) with absolutely no problems whatsoever. We've also got fibre and copper testing kit we use to forcefully overload network kit with too much data to see how it copes. 1 of those at each end of a cat5e cable at 95m ran fine until about 980mbps. The spec for gigabit ethernet does not mention cat6 as necessary. You don't need to start thinking about cat6 unless you're considering gigabit speeds in combination with power over ethernet, at which point some seriously funky stuff gets done. If you've got a gigabit switch, NIC, and cat5e cable and it's not linking at a gig at < 90m or so of cable i'd look at one of the 3 being under-spec, to to honest.
Cat6e doesn't actually exist :) Yet. We're still on base cat6.
Nah not really, yes cat5e can be used for 1Gbit, but wasnt designed for it.. if you buy the really good shield cat5e it isnt really a prop, but most buy the cheap ones, which cannot cope with 1Gbit sustained data trafic..
If you use cat5e quality cables for a 1Gbit network, you should try running a diagnostic on em to see the rate of corrupt data packages cause by crosstalk within the cables.. you force the cat5e to operate at a frequency it really wasnt meant for.. and if you go further then 10m with a cat5e on a 1Gbit network your really pushing it..
the main difference on cat5e and cat6 is the variations in twists within the data cable, bigger variation in twists creates less crosstalk.
And there actually is more then 1 cat6 type
Cat5e operation frequency 100mhz
Cat6 minimum frequency 250mhz
Cat6a minimum frequency 500mhz
I used to be network guy at the local lan called The party with around 3500-4500 people, we ran a long series of tests to see how well the different cables managed crosstalk.. and i work as a freelance network/cable guy for IBM's data center in Ã...rhus denmark, so i do know a little bit about network cables :)