Maximum PC

Hello Folks,

I blog today because I was stumped while shopping for a new Ethernet cable, and would like to know if there is a difference between Ethernet cables.

I have decided to purchase Ethernet cables from Newegg.com, do you (or if anyone else would like to comment, please do so) think this is a fair/good/money saving purchase (link provided below)?

Thank you for reading and have a pleasant day.

Sincerely,
Deckmaster

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-321-_-Product


Edit: Poll removed by hackman2007. Please do not start a flame war here.

Your link is dead.

n0b0dykn0ws

There are some standards with ethernet cables. The biggest question is where are you going to be using them?

Do you need them to be plenum rated? Shielded or unshielded?

Since your link doesn't work not sure at what you were looking at.

What I have read on the specs about the cabling for networks is this

CAT5 - this was for 10/100 networking and is going to be phased out

CAT5E - E stands for Enhanced, this cabling is still used and should be good for the some more years to come. This was also meant for 10/100, but it can handle, and this is big, to some degree 1000Gb.

CAT6 - This was rated for 1000Gb

Hope this helps

CAT5 is phased out. It has been taken out of all the building codes and other technical documents.

CAT5e is still good and does 1Gbps.

CAT6 does 1Gbps and if under 55 meters will do 10Gbps.

Fiber optics is really starting to replace cat5e.

Recently cat 6a has been out and is rated at 10gbps for short distances, but cat 7/7a are made for longer runs of 10gbps link. However, cat 7/7a are incredibly expensive at the moment due to the amount of copper, the thick shielding and a newer (but backwards compatible) connector called the GG45 connector.

Is cat 7 in the TIA/EIA standards yet? I thought it was still in draft, but had heard it was becoming popular in Europe.

Honestly if your just home networking, grab a Cat 5e cable and be done with it. As long as the cable is shielded it will be worth it.

shielded cat5/5e/6 isn't really necessary in a home install and often times is more expensive than just standard plenum or riser rated variants.

I've bought many packs of short ByTecc Cat6 patch cords on the cheap and all still work fine. Having different color cords really helps me figure out what goes where along with colored wall ports. Even for making runs if you're going to wire the house, they have 100' lengths you can chop up for about $16. The wall plugs and your elbow grease is the only real expensive part.

Fiber may be the next wave, but it's a bitch to terminate.

Another good place to look for lengths of cable at reasonable prices is deepsurplus. Pretty much everything except my switches and cable management has been purchased there. If you can tell how long your cables need to be I recommend buying premade (molded connector) type cables, though I do make my own, I have had several fail and molded cables are by far more reliable and longer lasting.