Cat 5e or Cat6

[Rekusu]

What ho one and all,

Will be getting fibre to the house in the near future and want the ONT in the loft. Have managed to get a CAT6 cable from the loft to the ground floor 'office' space and will plug the router into the wall plate.
Bandwidth and speed is not an issue as only the two of us using the internet, no gaming, films, etc. Currently getting 35 Mb/s with fibre to the pole via a BT master socket so assume FTTH will be an improvement.

I have a selection of CAT5e cables and wonder if there is likely to be an issue using CAT5e for the last 2-3 meters rather than CAT6?

Thanks and toodle pip

 

[Rodders53]

Cat5E is capable of 1Gbps at up to 100m.
Cat 6 is capable of 10Gbps up to 55m and 1 Gbps up to 100m.

FTTP from most ISPs can range from 74 Mbps to 900Mbps with 1Gbps occasionally. Most ISP routers are 1Gbps switches inside.

Unless the router/switches and connected devices are 2.5Gbps capable nothing will be gained by using cat6 anywhere.

No amateur is likely capable of terminating and testing Cat6 to the 10Gbps spec anyway.

Good luck with getting Openreach staff into your loft space.

 

[Rekusu]

Thanks. I know about the loft H&S business so am designating it as the second floor. As an FYI, attached is an image of my dangerous loft. Given that Openreach will have to attach the fibre to the roof apex at the front of the house, at around 9m high, I can fully understand why a loft is so dangerous!!!

 

[foxhole]

Couldn’t get ISP’s to fit new supply to my loft and it’s a bungalow, have you had any confirmation from installers?

 

[Rekusu]

I'm currently with Plusnet and my contact has ended. We want to keep the phone and Plusnet are not offering VoIP so have to move to EE who do. All are part of the BT group.

I've lost count but four or five orders have been created and then Openreach cancels. I have received three routers and now speaking with the BT Executive Complaints Team, who use all the correct, sympathetic language but still cannot get Openreach to stop cancelling the order.

So to answer your question, it is now a two month, on-going no confirmation.

 

[hllns]

A cat5e patchlead? Don't worry about it, it'll make no difference whatsoever. Like Rodders said Cat6 cable termination is more exacting in terms of twists all the way up to the IDC block etc for it to be "properly" within spec but it would need a cable tester to properly verify it.

Practically speaking it'll usually perform fine unless it's a right dog's breakfast.