Gigabit ethernet

azezil

Hey just a quick question about gigabit ethernet connections, what kind of cabling does that require, would plain old Cat5 do the job or does it require a higher standard of copper / other?

Cheers

Stephen

Cat5e should be sufficient (most cat5 these days is cat5e). Note that gigabit over copper will use all 4 pairs in the cat5 cable, so if you have some real cheapo cable with only 2 pairs in it you're shagged.

fatherdougalmag

And you should probably be using it in conjunction with PCI-Express as standard PCI bus isn't fast enough to get the full throughput.

azezil

Well its built into the mobo I've just purchased, only reason I was looking into it

Dilbert75

I thought you needed Cat6 for gigabit? One part of our building has Cat6 cabling (installed by a previous lessee) but I doubt it reaches gigabit, even if the hardware were installed at either end. The standard of installation was shocking, particularly from a large electrical contractor. Cables run in large quantities over sharp edges of cable trays, broken cables, miswired pairs, everywhere. Be careful who installs it for you - might be worth getting it tested afterwards if you really need to verify the speeds (testing is expensive though...)

darraghrogan

A good analagy for cat5 vs cat6 is driving at 100mph in a mini vs a premium saloon - both will do 100 but the saloon in much stabler.

The device network testers use is called a Fluke DTX - http://www.flukenetworks.com/us/Solutions/Copper+Test+Solutions/Products.htm

I've used something similar to the top two - these things will tell you how far along the cable you errors are - very sophisticated.

The Irish distributor is Temple Sales in Tallaght.

When installing CAT cables the things to remember are to avoid bending the cable, don't pull it too hard (they stretch...) and maintain the twist in it when terminating.

Also, don't forget to use CAT 6 termination blocks, patch panels and leads!

Darragh