Cat5e Patch and Cat5e Crossover

[williamkusumo]

I am setting up an ordinary cable network with router, and I need to buy ethernet cable and found these two types of cat5e, patch and crossover...what are their differences?

Thanks,
William

 

[williamkusumo]

Oo, and there is also Cat6 now...what's the difference? If I am a casual gamer (CS, Warcraft, BF1942) do I need to care about the quality?

Thanks,
William

 

[Macro2]

Patch is just a general name for a short ethernet cable. Can be category 3, 5, 6, fibre... whatever.
Actually the term comes from "patch panel" by don't worry about that.

Category 6 is a new standard but Cat5e will carry up to a gigabit internet.
So Cat5e is just fine.

If you are connecting two dissimilar devices like your router and a NIC card in a computer you want a STRAIGHT trough cable not a crossover. Crossover is for connecton two similar devices like two computers.

Sounds like you need STRAIGHT through cables to me. From cable modem to the router and from the router to the computer.

You can tell a straight through cable by holding up the same side of the two plugs in front of you (same orientation) and seeng they have the same color wire sequence. Crossover will be reversed.

 

[XplosiV]

Well ... speed is the difference with the cat5 / cat5e / cat6 - compatability is the difference with patch / crossover, letme elaberate a little

Cat5 will do you for 10/100, however cat5e will do you for gigabit ethernet as well, being 10/100/1000, so cat5e is only worth it if you have gigabit ethernet ports on all your kit, PC's and router. otherwise just stick with cat5. ( it might be cat5e that goes upto 10/100 and cat6 that goes upto gigabit, cant remember ) principle still applys though. for a router i believe you want patch cable, not crossover, not too sure exactly what the differences are i just know patch works with routers and gateways, most networks really, crossover is for other things ( more indirect like WAN i think ) so if your ethernet adapters are just 10/100 ... just get cat5e patch cable

 

[williamkusumo]

Thanks guys!
Okay, so crossover = bad, patch = good. I am gonna get 5e most probably (most stores sell that cat right now)

I have one more little question, what is Snagless?

Thanks,
William

 

[Macro2]

Read my post again. Just don't get crossover or rollover (rolled)http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/701/14.html#topic6
Just get a straight through cable if you are connecting a "router to your computer" , "the cable/dsl modem to the router" .
Snagless has to do with the vinyl cover/boot over the retaining clip on the plug. Actually they can be a pain in the ass sometimes but its generally ok. Most all patch cable come that way.

 

[vasdrakken]

ummm patch cable was called that as you bought it because you had to get two more feet and it was easier to put a patch in than recable what ever lenght the orignal cable was (or you didn't have the time to do it), patch panels used to be punch connectors all the way up to cat3 cable, once the connectors where sound enough, the patch panels you used to patch into the network switched over to rj45 connectors and all you had to carry was a crimping tool and a bag of connectors (and a testor but hey somedays you just crimped and said good enough). patch cable have one thing going for them above all else if they don't work it's someone else's fault, doesn't help you when your trying to figure out what's wrong...

edit: I almost missed this the big dif between 5 and 5e is shielding or lack of it, if your going to run ethernet cable near power lines the 5e may save you some serious banging your head agaist a wall trying to figure out why your connections so slow... 5 depends on the twists per inch to shield from cross talk, 5e has more twists per inch thus is sligthly more expensive (not really anymore) and some is shielded, cat 6 has heavy duty shielding and the same twists per inch as 5e which is why 5e works for gigabit networks...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: jiulemoigt
edit: I almost missed this the big dif between 5 and 5e is shielding or lack of it, if your going to run ethernet cable near power lines the 5e may save you some serious banging your head agaist a wall trying to figure out why your connections so slow... 5 depends on the twists per inch to shield from cross talk, 5e has more twists per inch thus is sligthly more expensive (not really anymore) and some is shielded, cat 6 has heavy duty shielding and the same twists per inch as 5e which is why 5e works for gigabit networks...

I thought that all cat 5, 5e, and 6, being discussed here, were "UTP", meaning unshielded twisted-pair. The difference is in the analog frequency bandwidth that the cables can carry. Am I wrong about this?