Ethernet Cable

[phorce]

Hello,

I'm going to be laying ethernet around my house, now, I'm just wondering which is the fastest? I've been looking at this "CAT5e RJ45 Ethernet Network LAN " type of Ethernet cabling, would this be fast?

Thanks.

[rch1231]

You want cat5e if at all possible, especially if you plan on having gigabit Ethernet switches or NICs. And here is why:

The Simple Answer:
CAT-5 is rated to 100M
CAT-5e is rated to 350M
CAT-6 and CAT6e is rated to 550M or 1000M depending on your source
CAT-7 is supposedly rated to 700M or presumably 1000M

Today there is no approved CAT-6 or CAT-7. While some folks are selling products they call Level 6 or 7, there aren't even specs for them, making CAT-5e the best available option. CAT-6 cable is being made with 23 guage conductor wire as opposed to the slightly smaller 24 guage for CAT-5e and also has a separator to handle crosstalk better.

CAT-5e components were designed with high-speed gigabit Ethernet in mind. While CAT-5 components may function to some degree in a gigabit Ethernet, they perform below standard during high-data transfer scenarios. CAT-5e cables work with ATM and gigabit speed products. Simply, if you are using a 100Mbps switch, get CAT-5e cable instead of CAT-5.

[phorce]

Thank you :)

Another question, I have multiple Computers in my room, and, they all require internet at the same time.
Now, I thought about getting a switch, but, when I went into the store today they said that only one computer can connect to the internet at one time when using a switch, is this correct?

Also can you recommend any gigabit ethernet ethernet switches?

[jingda]

Yes, what they say is true. With switch, only one computer can connect to the internet at one time. If you want to enable all computer to have internet access at the same time, you can use a router.

[phorce]

Hey,

You cannot use two routers in a network, can you? Would this work...

- A router down stairs
- An ethernet cable running upstairs
- The Ethernet cable connects to a router in my room
- Separate Ethernet cables run to all my devices

Would this work?

[orwell84]

Routers separate networks -- if you were to do this, you would technically have two different networks. While this is perfectly fine (especially if it suits your needs), a switch would work perfectly well. The entire purpose of a switch is to allow multiple devices simultaneous access to the network. Yes, a switch does technically allow only one connection between two nodes at a time, giving them the full bandwidth of the network, but it SWITCHES which computers are connected so that all nodes share the network.

So, put a router wherever your modem is, then use a switch wherever you need multiple devices.

[phorce]

Thanks for your reply,

I have decided to invest into an Airport extreme, connect it to my router downstairs and then run multiple Ethernet cables to my devices.

Another question (sorry ;)) do you have any idea how I would go about setting the Airport extreme to not require a password, but, when the someone connects to it, opens a browser it asks for a username and password (Kinda like they do in internet cafes and on trains or universities etc)

I want to allow multiple people to access the network, but, not sharing the same password to connect to the network. Make sense?

[orwell84]

(1) That will be wicked slow, not just because it's wireless but also because you have multiple devices. That shouldn't be a huge factor unless you get up to 20-30 devices, but still. Wireless.
(2) Why the hell do you need an internet-cafe style authentication system when all the computers are yours?

[phorce]

1) Can you recommend any other alternatives? A switch would not work, simply because I have a server which requires internet connection 24/7.

2) It'd be cool, I can offer other people internet access if they come 'round without having to tell them the password etc.. :) Would I need to port forward 80?

[orwell84]

Like I said, the switch would allow the server to be connected all the time -- unless I am very much mistaken, the switching process takes place so blazingly fast that it's just like sharing the network. And if I'm wrong, just hook the server up directly to the router, then run a switch off another port. Most home routers (like Linksys) have a 4-port switch anyway, so that your devices are actually on the same network.

Also, if you just get a linksys wireless router, you'll have a wireless network (with which you can probably provide limited no-password access, but I'm not sure) as well as the wired one. And yes, you would need to forward port 80 traffic to the IP address of the server.

[phorce]

Yes, that would work, and be cheaper..

But, my router is downstairs and therefore I cannot have the server downstairs because of my flat mates. That wouldn't work. I really don't want wireless because it's just generally slow and I've found that ethernet works well.

I still think connecting another router would be more effective rather than a switch. I can pick up a router for very cheap (not as cheap as a switch) but if it meant that all my devices had unlimited access to the internet without switching, then it would work more effectively.

Also, do you have any idea why (if I have port forward port 22) and can ssh on my local network but still can't ssh from another network?

[smferoz]

Hi,

Cat5 is the Cable and RJ45 is the Jack where climping of Cat5 cable is done for connection between peers.And for similar devices the cabling sequence is cross cabling and for dissimilar devices the cabling is straight cabling.And in todays world market one can get OFC (optical Fibre Cabling ) which is a very fast.If you dont want to go with Cat5 or 6 or 7 cabling.