Cat 6 question

[nickburns]

i was just wondering what the benefit of cat 6 networking cable is over cat 5 or cat 5e? is cat6 practical for home networks?

 

[shadow]

no it is not practical for home networks. cat5e and cat6 are for ghz operation.

 

[Russ]

Cat6 actually does not yet exist. Cat5e is cheap enough now, compared to Cat5, that it makes sense to go ahead and get it for new installations. 1000 foot rolls are $49.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Supergax]

Cat6 exists, you can find it at Cable Express, there is Cat6 solid bulk cable.

 

[shadow]

what Russ meant is that the Ca6 standard has not been ratified yet, all the cat6 vendors claim to meet the PROPOSED specifications. Russ is right, it's cheap enough to go ahead and use in house, but be warned, ghz is not guaranteed out of cat5e and depends highly on installation and termination to function properly.....

good luck

 

[nickburns]

thanks for the info guys, i went to home depot and noticed that there was no price difference between cat5 and enhanced so i guess i will go withthe cat 5e.

 

[Supergax]

MY BAD

 

[shadow]

 

[fargus]

there's more to it than just what kind of cable you use... CAT5, 5e, and 6 all have fairly rigorous installation standards that must be met for an installation to meet spec. This is normally only a real issue in commercial installations, though. For home use, you're probably going to be just fine using CAT5 without any special considerations, you'll be able to run 100BaseT OK.

Taking my Category 5/5e, 6, and fiber optic Technician and Designer Certification exams in a few weeks...

 

[nickburns]

oh yeah?, i will be a cert. fiber optics technician my april too.

 

[BigDady92]

just gimme cisco certs and i will have y'all lay the cable fer me!