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[Cliff]

Most of my PC's are fairly close to the switch. I am currently using cat 5e cable everywhere, but some people have told me I will see a throughput improvement if I go cat 6.

Is this true? Has anyone done any comparison between cat 5e and cat 6?
Thanks in advance.

[bigclaw]

My limited experience is that you won't see any throughput improvement at all.

[fordem]

Tell "some people" to go do their homework.

Here's wikipedia on CAT5/Cate5e cabling - please note that both support gigabit ethernet, which is the fastest that your DNS-323 can accomodate.

What this means is that it you had a gigabit network, you could run it over CAT5 cable, you don't even need CAT5e, and you certainly don't need CAT6

[hilaireg]

Ideally, ensure that you're using CAT5e cable as CAT5 shielding tends to be sub-standard.  Additionally, you should look to ensure that:

1) Your switches are CAT5e compliant
2) Your cabling is 568A or 568B - preferably not a mix of both


CAT6 introduced more twists and better shielding - all-in-all, probably something you won't need for a home network ... until of course, it becomes the only cable type one can purchase.

Cheers,

[Cliff]

I am using a dlink d008d switch. So, if I replace the one ft cable from the dns-323 and the one to my main PC, at 15 ft with Cat 6, I won't see any improvement.

From what I'm reading, cat 6's benefit is less degradation over distance and outside interference, rather than throughput.

[fordem]

CAT5/5e/6 are what are called UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair - there is no "shielding", unless you specifiy that you want STP.

UTP cable achieves noise reduction or elimination through the use of the "twists" - yes CAT6 will give you less degradation and interference over distance, but, for the networks speeds being used here, you won't see any benefits.

Both degradation (loss of signal strength or attenuation) and interference can create situations where throughput is reduced, due to errors being introduced in to the transmissions to the point where the link fails completely, but as I mentioned before, for the network speeds being used here you won't see any benefits.

Perhaps more important than switching to CAT6 cable, would be ensuring that the network cables are properly terminated (the plugs/jacks fitted correctly) so as to avoid a condition known as "split pairs", which allows increased levels of interference.

These networks, up to gigabit ethernet, were designed to run on CAT5, which has been superseded by CAT5e, CAT6 will allow up to 10 gigabit ethernet, which you are not likely to find outside of a data center any time soon.

Hilaireg - I've never seen a switch specified as CAT5e compliant - and that includes my gigabit switches, in fact, the only time "Category n" is mentioned in the specification, is specifying the cables required, and that is Category 5

Cliff - I could not find any D-Link D008D switch listed - but a glance at the specsheet for the D-Link DGS2208, which ia an 8-port unmanaged gigabit switch also specifies CAT5 as the minimum requirements.

Assuming that the 1ft & 15ft cables you mention are "factory made" or at the least correctly terminated, you will see NO improvement in performance going from CAT5, or CAT5e to CAT6 - and - at those lengths, even if the cables were incorrectly assembled, I doubt that you would detect any improvement.

[hilaireg]

Hi Fordem,

As you've pointed out, there's two types of CAT5e cabling STP & UTP.

I should probably been more specific in my statement; for example, if you look at the specs for:

http://www.dlink.com/products/resource.asp?pid=495&rid=1894&sec=1


... the Standards, Network Data Transfer Rate, & Interface Options 'suggest' a minimum cable standard. 

Conversly, using a switch that supports less than those standards will yield unpredictable results as endpoints are typically configured to match the cabling infrastructure.

Cheers,

[fordem]

None of the areas you call out list a "cable" standard perse, under standards the first three (802.3, 802.3u & 802.3ab) deal with the different ethernet speeds, the last three deal with auto negotiation etc. and can be ignored for the purpose of this discussion.

If you look at the individual standards, you will find that CAT5 cable is acceptable for IEEE802.3ab (along with 5e & 6) which is the point I am making - CAT5, although obsolete, is perfectly adequate for a gigabit LAN.

As far as I'm aware, CAT5 cable is no longer offered on the market, so if you were cabling a new installation your choices would be CAT5e or CAT6, CAT5e will be adequate for most installations, if it was a corporate data center I would go with CAT6 (or CAT6a) from a future proofing standpoint.

Back to the original question - in a consumer environment, there will be no discernable improvement to be had from switching out CAT5e for CAT6 - I am currently running gigabit over CAT5 with no performance issues whatsoever.

[hilaireg]

Appreciate the clarification,

Typically, users will look to improve their cabling standards in the hopes of enabling additional features on their endpoints (ex: gigabit, QoS, etc.) and forget to ensure that the switch can support the added demand.

I've encountered too many situations where the switch turned out to be source of the problem.  As a rule, I review all switch specifications to ensure that all endpoint requirements will be supported.  IMHO, I find that most low-cost (unmanaged) switches tend to be problematic as a result of limited Layer support and/or firmware issues therefore nullifying the use of better cabling such as CAT6.

So in short, I agree that CAT6 would yield little to no discernable improvement in a consumer environment when low-cost switches are in use.

Cheers,

[Cliff]

Sorry fordem. My switches are DGS-1008d and DGS-1005d.

[fordem]

A quick glance at your switch spec shows that D-Link suggests CAT5 or CAT5e when running 100 or 1000 mbps connections - which corresponds with what I was saying earlier - it will work just fine with CAT5 if that is what you have, CAT5e can also be used, CAT6 is not required.

On a side note - they mention CAT3, 4 or 5 for 10 mbps connections - I've been pulling cable since the late 80's - I've worked with RG58 (thin ethernet), RG59 (Orchid's PCNet), RG62 (ARCNet), CAT3, Twinax, Type 1 STP (Token Ring), CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6 and fibre and in almost twenty years, I have never, ever, seen CAT4 cable.

[bspvette86]

On a side note - they mention CAT3, 4 or 5 for 10 mbps connections - I've been pulling cable since the late 80's - I've worked with RG58 (thin ethernet), RG59 (Orchid's PCNet), RG62 (ARCNet), CAT3, Twinax, Type 1 STP (Token Ring), CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6 and fibre and in almost twenty years, I have never, ever, seen CAT4 cable.

Are you kidding?  I could send you some 3 and 4 cables from my junk pile.  (not sure why they are still in there)
)

[Lucid]

This has got to to be the most informative and useful topic. Props to all for the helpful advice. I hope I don't hijack this topic but I feel this is somewhat relevant. I wired CAT6 throughout my house...it was available (free). Instead of terminating using male jacks (excuse the lack on jargon knowledge), I made female outlets and used 3ft cabling to route various rooms to my router.

I am having a major speed issues with data transfers from DNS-323 to PC after upgrading from XP-Vista. At around the same time I wired my home as indicated above. I feel that this is more a OS issue but I still would like to test the cables. Whats the cheapest way to test for improper termination? I must say it was brainless hooking up the outlets but you never know!

TIA

Lucid

[fordem]

The remarks on termination are equally applicable to jacks (by the way - saying female jacks is being redundant, the female is the jack, the male is the plug), and possibly more important - the jacks also need to be on the correct "CAT rating", and so do the patch cords.

Where did you get your jacks from?
Are they "screw style" (you strip the wires and screw them down) or "punch down" style (the wires fit into a slotted contact)?

The screw style ones should not be used with anything later than CAT3 (and I would not even use them for that)

The only real way to test for proper termination is with a cable tester than can check for cross talk - there are simpler testers that light LEDs for each contact in the connector, but these will not detect a condition known as "split pairs" which occurs when the correct wire is not connected to the correct contact - very common when the termination is done by an inexperienced person.

Google TIA-568B and you should get any number of hits that show which color wire should connect to which contact, including a couple at wikipedia.

I use a Fluke DTX-LT - which is pro-grade certification equipment, there is less expensive stuff available, and you may be able to rent something - it might be cheaper to have an installer who owns the necessary equipment do it for you - but before you take that step, check the color coding against the wikipedia site.

[jswashburn]

Code: [Select]

These networks, up to gigabit ethernet, were designed to run on CAT5, which has been superseded by CAT5e, CAT6 will allow up to 10 gigabit ethernet, which you are not likely to find outside of a data center any time soon.
In a corporate environment, you will want to ensure the entire floor is wired for CAT5e if the employees will be working with large datasets (CAD drawings..etc). In a DC however, a CAT6 run might be ideal for a NAS supporting iSCSI. None of this is required, but ideal none the less.