Legit Reviews

I haven't changed my internet cables for a couple of years and I was wondering if these cables would make my internet a little faster. I have high speed internet @ 1.0 Gbps. I don't think that's what I am getting on my rig. I had the moden tested and all is good. Which would be best and what is the difference? Thanks in advance.

Highly doubt it would make it faster. Learned at vo-tech (networking) that cat 5e and cat 6 both support 1.0 Gbps.

CAT 6 uses 23 guage conductor wire as opposed to the slightly smaller 24 guage for CAT 5e. It also has a separator to handle crosstalk better.

I changed some CAT 5e cables from stranded wire to solid wire and noticed an improvement there. Solid cable has better electrical performance than stranded cable, so make sure to use it outside the walls rather than just inside. Most patch Cables are made of stranded copper conductors for flexibility, but I replaced all mine with solid wire patch cables.

My advice - CAT 6 with solid wire

CAT 7 is still expensive, hard to work with and pointless unless you have a 100 gigabits per second network at home. And if you do I'm coming over.

The way you worded your post makes it sound like your actual internet connection is a gigabit pipe.

What connection are you on?

Dan

I have time warner turbo package. It's 10 dollars more a month. My monitor reads that as well. When I ping my rig it's a little slower than 1 Gbps. It does vary though sometimes much slower. I have it hooked up to a D-Link dir-655 router.

Edit: I looked up time warner turbo speeds and it is 10.0 Mbps. I got my conversion wrong, sorry.

Then there definetly shouldn't be a difference, cause even the normal CAT 5 cables do 100 Mbits good. If your looking to get a gigabit network it doesn't matter wich classification ( 5e or 6), they both are shielded for gigabit speeds. What cables are you using right now?

if doing short runs stranded cat5e is fine. longer runs (IE: in wall) should use solid, but i wouldn't recommend solid for shorter runs as when you bend it, if you bend it often it damages the cables. this is why most patch cables are stranded. 10.0mpbs internet doesnt even need 100mbs network in your home, so changing calbes wont net you any performance. however something you might want to look into for good measure is make sure your cables arent rediculsly long for the run its doing. not very long ago i had all wrong cable lenghts at my desk (think 20 foot cables doing 2 foot runs) so i borrowed a crimper from work and bought some ends at homedepot and noticed a bit of performance increase.

vbironchef wrote:I have time warner turbo package. It's 10 dollars more a month. My monitor reads that as well. When I ping my rig it's a little slower than 1 Gbps. It does vary though sometimes much slower. I have it hooked up to a D-Link dir-655 router.

Edit: I looked up time warner turbo speeds and it is 10.0 Mbps. I got my conversion wrong, sorry.

GAH! I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE people who do that when they call me!

"My connection says it's 100mbps but my speed test only shows 1.45mbps".
"Sir, unless you have a gigaman circuit in your house, you don't have a 100mbps circuit."
"That's what it says on the little TV's."
"Sir, that's your ethernet LAN connection, between the computer and the modem. Not the modem and the internet."

ARGH!

I said I was sorry. I'm still confused over all these diferent cables. I was looking for cat 6e and now they say that cat 6a is better. Right now I think I am using cat 2 maybe cat 4.

vbironchef wrote:I said I was sorry. I'm still confused over all these diferent cables. I was looking for cat 6e and now they say that cat 6a is better. Right now I think I am using cat 2 maybe cat 4.

I know bro, that statement wasn't personal. Just more of a rant from a long days work. Sorry. bout that.

i sincerly doubt you are using cat2 or 4 cables. if you look at the cables, it will say what kind they are. if you have cat5e then theres no reason to bother getting new cables

I did take a look at the cables, none of them had any info that made any sense. Just model numbers and stuff. I went looking at a lot of sites to buy new cat 6 or cat 6e cables and to tell you the truth, I really don't want to pay more for shipping than the actual product.

Give me the numbers off the cable and I will cross ref them at work. If it's a few years old, it's likely Cat 3. Great for phone lines, not great for network.

I have Cat5e running through my network, and see gigabit transfer internally, but I'm still limited to the 3meg DSL for external (internet) connections.

DaIceMan wrote: I have Cat5e running through my network, and see gigabit transfer internally, but I'm still limited to the 3meg DSL for external (internet) connections.

Same here - 5e will do just fine for home networking even at gigabit speeds!

If you still have Cat3, I would definitely upgrade! Probably would go with 6 if I was starting out fresh.

Mike

compgeeks has 1000ft of cat5e for $60 and for me, shipping is $16 ground...network cable isnt light ;)
newegg has some for $80 and is $22 shipping for me

Check MonoPrice for all your cabling needs. I've used tons of thier stuff from Wii component video cables to HDMI cables. Everyone on AVS (myself included) swears by them. Shippings kinda slow, but thier value for money MORE than makes up for it.

KnightRid wrote:

DaIceMan wrote: I have Cat5e running through my network, and see gigabit transfer internally, but I'm still limited to the 3meg DSL for external (internet) connections.

Same here - 5e will do just fine for home networking even at gigabit speeds!

If you still have Cat3, I would definitely upgrade! Probably would go with 6 if I was starting out fresh.

Mike

compgeeks has 1000ft of cat5e for $60 and for me, shipping is $16 ground...network cable isnt light ;)
newegg has some for $80 and is $22 shipping for me

$76 is cheaper than I can buy it at my price and pick it up... of course, it's probably a lesser known brand, so the jacket is probably less flexible to work with, but if you are doing an install and leave it, that's no big deal. Jacket flexibility really only concerns me on cable that I'm using often, such as making patch cables.

if your not going to use that much cable, its cheaper to buy, say a 100ft patch cable and it cut it to lengths and crimp the ends

Placed order today for a 10ft Cat6a shielded patch cable and a 5ft Cat6a shielded patch cable from cablestogo. I hope this is what everyone was talking about. Did I buy the right cables?

only two cables?

Thats all that I thought that I needed. I only have one computer. Am I missing something that I don't know about? Please tell me what else to order. I thought I just needed cable from the modem to the router and a cable from the router to the computer.