Is Cat 6 and 7 Officially out. I know you can buy it, but is teh standard set.

[The Stigenator]

The last I checked it was still in draft mode. The reason we moved into a new building and the guys (from other departments as usual bypass IT department unless its necessary) went ahead and got Cat 6 or 7 cable instlaled all the way in and out. The company selling the service of cabling the place was pushing for it. Well its a good idea, but I hope things work that is all.

 

[Russ]

Cat6 isn't even finalized. Cat7?

Russ, NCNE

 

[spidey07]

Cat6 standard is due to be ratified 3rd/4th quarter of this year. This means don't buy anything that even rhymes with cat6.

All new installations are recommended cat 5e or cat5.

 

[The Stigenator]

well that is what I said to those guys. Oh well .. there goes another 40K+ down the drain.

I told them that, however who ever listens to the youngest guy in the company. Its like the IT dept is only approached when something they did to fix a problem didnt work. The problem is most of the time that is the problem.

Anyway I plan not to be there long, They cause me more problems than anything else, (I accept I am not happy the way they treat the IT guy) plus they dont respect the fact I am a full time student.

Once I am done tutoring the new guy I am out of there..

 

[spirites]

lol, old IT trick is not to argue too much, just keep things working as best as possible without the possibility of going nuts. If they pay you the big $, then maybe put in the effort and take a little abuse.

 

[The Stigenator]

well unfortunatly the pay scale is pretty low for the stuff that I have to deal with. 12/hr.
I work part time for a research group at UCLA and get paid close to 40/hr.

Lets put it this way, I designed and built something called the "Render Farm" to process massive 3dimages in a parallel mode under NT. They work like a Beowulf system under NT. I code the damn thing and got it working under a month(even though when I joined they didnt reallly believe something I was telling them was right. Only later they realised we needed a different server to file server).
Anyway the networking for it is pretty simple, all running to an isolated switch. However some idiot - read replacement guy (when I went on vacation this winter) replaced it with fiber optic for the server and ran the Cat5 cables all the way back to the cisco switch. Anyway they realised it wasnt working. So he puts it back as original, execpt now people were complaining about having dropped frames. In the mean time i came back and that guy suddenly dissppeared on vacation (or what ever the reason maybe). I was asked about it, guess what the nut put a HUB in there.
Come on they trust someone to do their IT stuff and if cant figure out teh difference between a hub and switch he shouldnt be doing network admin stuff.

Anyway I dont want to rant here about it, my friends here know all about the idiotc stuff I have to put up with. Since today was the first day we moved into the place, now all of a sudden I have to give everyone internet access from somewhere (and they didnt tell me when they were moving until 2 weeks back, so its been 2 weeks since I started the paper work for a transfer of broadband). Anyway I got the accounting system up (because they had to print checks), and I gave one machine modem access(the server has a modem for the software support from the accounting software makers). All of sudden I am supposed to allow everyone to access the internet on their machines. Heck I dont even know where the Cisco Switch is and let alone the cat6/7 cable not yet fully installed and tested by the company. Arrgh!

Its just a mess. I get pushed around, and lately that is why I have been resisting by snapping back at their demands. You can ask for the impossible when its just plain not possible.

 

[Bloodstainedboots]

Nothing wrong with cat6.
About 25% of allthe installs my company does is cat6.
Just because the standard is not out yet, does not mean it's money down the drain.
It is supported my venders for patch pannels and jacks, so what is the problem?
You are wrong when you say the threw money away.

 

[celeritas]

I've used Berktek LanMark-1000 CAT6 cable for awhile with good results. I've seen consistent ~1 Mbyte/sec improvement over CAT5/5e at the same locations.

 

[ScottMac]

As long as the cable meets Anixter's "Level 7" Spec, it should be jus' fine. The Level 7 stuff is as good (or better) than the Category 6...since the "Category" spec is based on Anixter's "Level" spec. As with any committee, they will typically reduce the spec to the lowest common denominator.

FWIW

Scott

 

[The Stigenator]

I looked at the cables last night they are cat 6.
As for the reason, its because they totally bipassed the IT people and got the cables. Its like I wasnt informed until it was too late.

At its worst it would be an expensive cat5 install, but we will see it in its glory when the whole network is setup. Last night we ran a few test (that they made us do (arrgh))and it seemed ok.
800 Mb one way 5minute 11seconds
800 Mb other way 4minutes 33 seconds
earlier we didnt have so much difference (especially running from two identical machines).
But I will try and figure that out.

 

[Akash]

yea we did a new install of a network and we ran all cat 6 networking.. i will get some tests for u all when its all up and running.. cat5e was supposed to be 6 i dont know why they just didnt rat cat6 instead of cat 5e

 

[celeritas]

Who/what is "Anixter?" Whenever I've seen "level" quoted about network cable it usually turned out to be some marketing ploy to confuse newbie buyers into believing that it's actually "category" rated/verified.

 

[spidey07]

exactly what anixter is doing. Marketing to fool the customer into buying very expensive cable that might not meet EIA/TIA standards.

Anixter is a communications wholesaler. They sell just about anything and everything having to do with communications from test equipment, to 10000 foot fiber spools, to cable trays, yes and even "level 7" cable.

 

[ZenOps]

They haven't finished finalizing the specs for Cat 6, but do not let that stop you from buying Category 6 or 7. So far, the Category 6 spec is mainly just category 5e with a plastic star shaped spacer seperating the twisted pairs to further reduce pair crosstalk interference. Belkins got a decent pic:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Product_Id=11667

It should only be a few cents/foot more than Cat 5 and well worth it when gigabit over copper becomes more popular:

http://www.3com.com/promotions/carjump.html

 

[celeritas]

I use similar cable. Great stuff!

 

[fargus]

CAT 7 is still a "proposed" standard. The cable is shielded, as are all of the jacks. You can't use CAT 5 or 6 jacks with it and maintain certification. We recently did a test on the stuff. It is extremely sensitive to installation proceedures, as is CAT 6 (meaning you've got to get it just right!) You're pretty much pushing the performance envelope of copper here. If you're considering CAT7.... take another look at fiber. Fiber Optic gives you much more expandability for the future than CAT 6 or 7, and will probably end up costing less.

 

[ScottMac]

Anixter "Levels" is the program that eventually became the "Category" ratings used by the EIA/TIA (with the usual downscaling on the "category" numbers to the lowest common denominator). Anixter is the father of the "Category" rating system.

This is more than a marketing thing. When Anixter orders cable products (including information outlets, panels, connectors, etc), they order them by specification. EVERY incoming batch of cable is randomly tested in their Lab for specification compliance. If the cable doesn't meet the spec, the ENTIRE batch is returned.

Anixter works closely with their suppliers. The suppliers occasionally use the Anixter Structured Cabling Lab (and services) for new product developement and standards verification. The EIA/TIA has done testing in Anixter's SC Lab. They are truely one of the "Big Guys" when it comes to Structured Cabling.

I do not work for Anixter, I'm not a contractor, I'm not related to anyone that works there, but I've been to the Lab, I've seen the testing and the documents produced relating to SC testing. The people there are the best in the business.

When you get SC products from Anixter, you are GUARANTEED performance up to specification (when properly installed). The Lab is now engaged in doing similiar studies for Fiber Optic cabling.

That being said, keep in mind that thre are no current networking protocols that require more than Category five UTP. When you install to a spec that's greater than Cat five, you do so to cover possible future infrastructure applications. Also keep in mind, the the focus of structured cabling is not JUST LAN data. The cabling infrastructure may include components to carry anything from RF (Lucent has a BALUN for TV frequencies) to baseband video, to terminal emulation (3270, 5250, RS232, etc).

Jus' so ya know....

Scott

 

[Akash]

well said.. knowing that i am bout to give anixter an order for hubble cat 6 jacks and patch pannels