what is cat 6


  #1  
Old 06-22-07, 05:28 PM
R
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2007
Location: California Central Sierras
Posts: 28
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Question what is cat 6

can someone tell me what cat 6e vs. cat 5e ?
Im getting ready to pull the structured for the new house.
I bought boxes of quad RG6, cat5e, #14 zip for speakers and good old 22-4 phone.
planning on having security video, satelite, phone and dsl for each room. I dont mind making up a bundle and pulling a bunch of home runs to the leviton panel, I just dont want to forget something before I rock the walls.
 
  #2  
Old 06-22-07, 06:18 PM
R
Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central New York State
Posts: 13,245
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Cat 6 is the next generation of Ethernet cable. You have no need for it. Cat-5e cable is fine.

By the way, why did you buy special telephone cable? You could have just used anther run of cat-5e.
 
  #3  
Old 06-23-07, 08:21 AM
R
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2007
Location: California Central Sierras
Posts: 28
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Smile

Yes I bought a spool of phone but its sealed so it can go back.

Looks like just doubling up on the cat5, coax and a single run of #14 zip should be enough.
I'll use flex "smurf" tube to get through any tight spots and through the plates to ease future pulling if the need arises.
Thanks
 
  #4  
Old 06-23-07, 11:01 AM
GregH's Avatar
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Manitoba
Posts: 9,500
Received 68 Upvotes on 62 Posts
The only advantage of using different cable for phone is you don't have to scratch your head when you have to sort out the cables.

I will use colored electrical tape to ident the same cable types in a box.
 
  #5  
Old 06-23-07, 11:48 AM
mango man's Avatar
Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Sw FL
Posts: 1,990
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
theres no advantage to using anything above cat 3 for voice .

the disadvantage of using cat5 for both is the higher cost and its more difficult to work ,
 
  #6  
Old 06-23-07, 07:06 PM
R
Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central New York State
Posts: 13,245
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
The advantage of using cat 5e for a voice line is that you can instead use it for a data line if you need to.

I recommend using only cat 5e, and running two together to most locations, sometimes more depending on the room in question.
 
  #7  
Old 06-23-07, 07:44 PM
mango man's Avatar
Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Sw FL
Posts: 1,990
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
I recommend running a cat5e and a cat 3


if you need a second data drop in the room you can add a switch .

since he said hes running smurf tube the idea of more than two is pointless waste of time and cable

the smurf tube for future makes a whole lot more sense than running a bunch of extra cable just in case
 
  #8  
Old 06-29-07, 08:18 AM
G
Member
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Pleasantville, NY
Posts: 494
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
[QUOTE=racraft;1193738]Cat 6 is the next generation of Ethernet cable. You have no need for it. Cat-5e cable is fine.QUOTE]

If cat 6 is next generation, why does it not make sense to prepare for that now while the walls are open? What's the advantages/disadvantages of cat6?

Thanks
 
  #9  
Old 06-29-07, 10:23 AM
R
Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Central New York State
Posts: 13,245
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
The disadvantage is cost.

Right now there is no advantage for residential users. There may never be.
 
  #10  
Old 07-02-07, 09:35 PM
O
Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 3
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Cat 6 or above are a waste of money unless you send huge amounts of data (gigabytes at a time) between drops in the house. So unless you have invested megabucks in equipment, you will not even notice the difference.

I would always opt for cat 5 (or above) instead of cat 3 for a phone. I am using asterisk and phones are network drops (needing the cat 5). This choice now allows this upgrade in the future without hardly any extra expense now (maybe $10). As someone above mentioned using different colors helps keep them seperate.
 
  #11  
Old 08-19-07, 04:10 PM
7
Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 68
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
cat5e is also easier to work with than the 6
 
  #12  
Old 08-21-07, 11:06 AM
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Kansas City Area
Posts: 224
Upvotes: 0
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
I was in your spot about 3 1/2 years ago myself. New house, no walls yet,contractor allowed me to pull my own phone, network & cable wiring.

I recommend pulling 2 Cat5e's or the Cat6. If pulled Cat6 because I found a supplier able to sell me full spools (1000') for not much more than the 5e. Someone on this forum convinced me to pull 2 of the higher Cat's because they said some will get damaged by the time the house was insulated, drywalled, and other accessories installed. Thus if one was damaged, you could most likely use it for phone and use the other for network.

Guess what, of the 26 home runs I made, 2 of the lines were damaged and would not work for computer networking. Iwas able to tell the 2 lines apart as I used different colors for phone & network (of course expect for those two damaged ones).

I also pulled seperate cables rather than spend big $$ for a single bundled cable. It worked very easy because I just made a cable cart out of scrape lumber / plywood at the site and a couple of cheap broom handles. That way all the spools pulled together and I had very few tangles. Taped all the cables together when I stared a pull, then started pulling & feeding.

FYI, pull from the top floor down, thereby letting gravity help your rather than wear you out. Good Luck
 
  #13  
Old 08-21-07, 08:03 PM
Integrator97's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NW Arkansas
Posts: 553
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
get rid of the 22/4. The old pots stuff has no twists, so you will get crosstalk on your phone lines if you have 2 lines.

Cat 3 will work fine, but I usually just use cat 5. You can get it in a myriad of colors, at the same price.

Cat 6, hmmm. 15 years ago you were lucky to find or need more than pots and rg59. So who's to say you'll never need it. Want to share HD from one source, maybe a media server? Probably work on cat 5. Definitly on cat 6. 28K, 56K, ISDN, DSL, Cable Modem, 10MB, 100MB, Gigabit. You see the progression. How far have we come in so short a time.

As far as damaged cables. Never seen it from the insulators. It's the drywallers. Here's a tip. Use nail plates. These are 4 to 6 inch long plates the width if a stud thickness (2 inch). You can find them by the box of 50 or 100 in the electrical or plumbing section. They have prongs on them and you nail them on the edge of the stud where you've drilled your holes through for wire. This way they can't run a drywall screw into your wire accidently. Use them, and you'll have much less chance of a problem.

Lastly, make sure that zip speaker wire is cl2/3 or cm2/3 rated, to be legal for in the walls. The pretty gold or silver stuff usually isn't.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description: