What network cable should you buy? - Overview of Ethernet cables (cat 5e vs cat 6 vs cat 8)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- People often go onto Amazon when they need a new ethernet cable and simply purchase the highest rated cable that there is, currently CAT8, however that is completely unnecessary as there is currently not a device on the market that can use CAT8. Currently there are really just three types of ethernet cable that you should look at: CAT 5e, CAT6 and CAT6A and the choice between them is simple:
Do you need 1GbE: CAT 5e
Do you need 10GbE less than 55m: CAT6
Do you need 10GbE greater than 55m: CAT6A.
CAT 7 really does not have a use case what so ever and CAT8 will be able to run the 40GbE standard when it does come out.
#CAT8 #CAT6 #10GbE #Networking #HomeLab
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I have been the lead product designer for 3 different low voltage cable companies over the past 20 years. Cat 8 is nice because it can handle the 40GB fiber speeds, but is backwards compatible with legacy equipment. So it handles the past and the future. If you are prewiring a house, this is a nice feature. It also supports POE, which fiber doesn’t. Also, I would have recommended a shielded cable for long runs as the cable is going to intersect high voltage lines and can interact with various lighting types.
There is nothing that can transmit 25GBASE-T or 40GBASE-T -- even limited to the standard 30m -- and there likely won't be anything at all. Cat 8 is a waste of time and $ unless you cannot at _all_ run fiber. Not to mention that Cat 8.2 needs a weird TERA connector which, again, nothing has.
@@thenimbo2 but higher cat also means better shielding from emf interference, that too must be a consideration not to be forgotten.
@@diaman_d No, because that shielding needs grounding too, cat 7 for instance uses special connectors due to this, any cat 7 cable with an RJ45 connector isn’t true cat 7 standard, cat 8 sounds like it’s the same.
@@thenimbo2 I have a 300ft underground run in my main chase directly along side my 200amp service cable. Cat8 is absolutely the way to go in my situation to future proof (i wont be pulling in that conduit ever again) as well as minimize any signal degredation.
Thanks for the tip, Bob. Also, I love your music
Considering how much work it takes to run the cables and the moderate price for the cables, even the price for cat 7 or cat 8 isnt much in my opinion, then I would anytime take the highest standard available. -If not for anything else, then to avoid changing the cables in 10-15 years!
Cat 6A is 10 Gigs, Cat 8 is 40 Gigs, Cat 8 costs 4 times more. There are barely any 10 G routers nowadays. Most of 10 G routers starts at $299+. So, 40 G routers will be around $499+. Diffrence between 2,5 Gigs and 10 Gigs in gaming is zero. Cuz most game can’t download faster than 300 mbs. Steam example, can download only 50 mbs.
@@kvetinky these fast speeds would usually be used in LAN and not over internet. E.g. to/from a nas. Theres lots og 10gbit switches.
@@kvetinky this is simply not correct. i have gigabit internet and i assure you i download from steam faster than 50mbps. ive actually broken into 7-800mbps with them briefly before my hard drive had to catch its breath
The plain CAT5, not even 5e, has been in my condo for about 25 years and is still working fine.
if you're just running ethernet cable for LAN, then you should use Cat6a. 6a is probably okay for most PoE devices too. However, if you're like me, and plan on making 4 - 8 runs to each room, then you'll most likely have a mixture of different categories of ethernet cabling. I'm running 10Gb LAN with redundancy to each room in my home. Half of the rooms will also be getting two runs of Cat8 double-shielded because I'm going to be running 4k/120 with HDCP and eARC support over ethernet. Cat6a won't/can't (in my experience) support more than 1080p/30. You stated and made a case for using fiber instead, however that doesn't work for my application as I'm not stripping all my walls down to the studs. For new construction, I would agree with the assessment of using fiber instead. You also mention that "Cat8 is difficult to work with" (like hard to punch down, etc) - you might be using the wrong tools and the wrong terminations. Cat8 typically will not work with cat6 terminations as the wires are normally a larger gauge. IE: I have grounded field termination keystones and RJ45 connectors for my Cat8 cable because the cat6 ones just won't work with the thicker wires.
Running video over Ethernet is the only use case that I have found for cables above cat6a so if you are doing this 100% go for it.
Out of curiosity how well have you found this to work? I have heard sometimes it can be hit or miss.
Well, that problem with CAT8 lies typically not with the cable, but the connectors. They also have to pass the very stringent shielding requirements. So initially they developed some type of new connector for CAT 7, but that was not adopted by the market at all - to CAT8 will be similar to RJ45 again. In 99% of the home applications CAT6a should be enough. We run CAT8 with special connectors from Dätwyler at our lab, but it is for some very specific Matrix KVM system, pretty expensive.
Cat 8 is only useful in datacenter environments running 40 gig networks. If you want to future proof go with Cat6a otherwise Cat 6 is perfect.
One other thing, you have to differentiate between patch cabling and structural cabling (no idea if that term is correct, you use it for permanent runs). The CAT 6A and 5E cable you have shown is patch cabling therefore quite flexible, any structural cabling will be stiff, even CAT 5E cabling. And if the CAT 6A one has stranded wire, it might be patch cabling too, just with a bit more shielding than the CAT 6. Structural cabling usually has solid conductors that's also a part of why it's stiffer than patch cabling.
Patch cords should be stranded cable. Structured cablings solid.
For those who got excited when he popped up "high interference environments" on the lower third when talking about CAT8: CAT6 and CAT6A come in the STP (shielded twisted pairs) flavor. While the shielding will still offer a little more of a nuisance if you're terminating your own cables, it should be considerably easier and less costly than CAT8, while maintaining compatibility with your existing ports.
I have a small home network, basically everything wired under my giant desk, plus the wiring POE to my AC.
I updated everything to CAT8 two years ago for about $250 (exposed by hidden, nothing in the walls). These cables need an alligator jaw to twist and turn. If I only knew...
But my entire network is now future proofed for the next 15 years.
Was thankful to be able to add CAT6a to my condo a few years ago. Managed to go from basement to 1st (4ports), 2nd (2ports), and 3rd floor (4ports) because I was doing some soundproofing work.
The differences in those cables are much bigger than one can think and in the end one should buy what better fits his needs, something that can depend from different factors. The type of the shielding, the bandwidth (MHz), the distance to cover, the number of the machines connected, the internet speed provided by the ISP, if someone is running a server, if the cables have to pass inside the walls, if the person is planning to stay in that house for many years to come or for few years, etc. Everyone is different and has different needs.
So, people have to inform themselves and think carefully what is best suited for their needs, now and in the long term.
Cat 6A and Cat 8 may be rigid and difficult to pass through walls, but that's not a problem: the tubing where they have to pass can be large enough and with the help of some lubricant you will do it.
The bandwidth is the speed at which the data is pushed inside the cable: the higher it is, the earlier it will reach destination. This can translate in less latency and in a more stable connection. So, for example, the cable that connects the modem to the ONT (optical network terminal) is better to be Cat 6A or 8, in my opinion.
Yeah 100% I agree with some of these comments but also agree with points made in the video. If you are going for a new home install I would just do cat8 so you are future proofing the house even if it's 10- 20 years that'll be a very nice thing to have instead of having to rewire the house later. I'm having to rewire things now and it's a total P.I.T.A!!! Also it's crazy how fast time flies! If you just need a cable right now to connect a device to like a router or whatever I would say cat8 is overkill 100%. I also agree with liking the POE option over fibre as this is great for security cameras etc.
im building my house right now, im using cat 6a for 70 % percent of the house, and the rest is cat 8. i hate messing with drywall so yeah.. your comment is on point
You can get cameras that are wireless and charge over solar power
Just finished upgrading my cat5e to 6a, and you are absolutely correct it is much harder to work with. That being said if you are going to go through the trouble of doing it I figure might as well do it right.
@@wojtek-33 We do not know what speeds they will support in 10 years. In 10 years Cat 6a may support 40 Gbps or higher.
@@TurboSpeedWiFi your cat 6a speed is already capped and will never, and I repeat, NEVER reach 40gb! It is max rated at 10gb off the factory line and unless you found the only cat cable made of magically growing wire diameters and sturdiness you my friend are what we here in PA call SOL! Before posting illogical statements in the future you need to take a brief moment and think 'is what I'm saying a fact, an opinion, or just a guess I came up with when I threw a handful of s**t at the wall and had to decide between 2 statements that it stuck to which hold no merit whatsoever?'! If the world worked by your logic then 10 years from now my 3,200 square feet home will actually become 5,500 square feet in size without me ever having to lift a finger or put any additional rooms on the house. Since your cat 6a cable is apparently a living organism that feeds and grows in physical size I guess my house is too! Hey, maybe bank accounts will work in the same fashion and our $100 savings will be $100 million ones in 10 years with no further deposits and 0% interest returns! Halle-f**i9ng-lujah no need to earn money ever again folks!
@@wojtek-33 Fiber is cheap. The components to use with fiber are expensive. The termination of fiber is also much more difficult.
@@wojtek-33 Yes, I suppose pre terminated cable is a work around.
I put cat6 solid in my house. It was no more difficult than running any other cable/wire thru the wall. The only issue I ran into was not the cable itself, but fire blocks on the first floor. I have a two story house and every room (including the kitchen and dinning room has ethernet). If you are wiring up your house, get cat6 solid wire. It's easy to run, terminate, and offers great future proofing.
Oooffff I am really glad I did not have fire blocks. Did you drill through them from above?
@@SpaceRexWill it seemed like the fire blocks were only on walls without an outer brick covering. In the areas that had them, I used the existing tv cables as pull ropes which allowed me to run the ethernet thru the existing staples and holes; however, you can only run two cables thru the staples/holes at a time. once the ethernet was in the attic, I pulled the tv cables back down to their original locations so there are both ethernet and tv cable per box in the wall. If I could share my ethernet setup, I would...quite proud of my work.
Great guide. I'm using Cat 5e, and Cat 6 for longer runs. All of this in my living room, with the cables just run round.
I would go for CAT6A :) price difference is negligible compared to cat5e and CAT6. Also CAT6A is shielded by default. Complexity isn't much higher either. Looked at specs of some CAT7 cables and they were no different than CAT6A only more expensive. Agree, CAT8 doesn't make a ton of sense. It costs a lot more with not a lot of benefits. SFP+ and SFP28 makes more sense than CAT8. Fiber uses less energy on high speeds. DACs have lowest latency, fiber latency is lower than Ethernet but the difference is so small that it won't matter for most. Energy Efficient Ethernet can negotiate speed down to 10Mbps to save power when not used actively.
I'm an AT&T Fiber tech, we have 5 Gbps plan and most devices can only handhle 1000 Mbps. 😂We use CAT6 only
Regarding installation in walls, all these choices seem incredibly short sighted. My house is over 80 years old and I’m not planning to tear it down soon. Thinking about the next 10 or 15 years is not enough. I assure you the Ethernet standards that were available when my house was new are not sufficient for my needs now.
I would install conduits in any new construction. Then you can easily change whatever technology you use every 10 years easily.
I guess if I was installing cables myself cat 8 would be harder, but since I’d hire a pro to do the job I’m not concerned about how flexible the wire is.
Haha when they charge you 4x a drop to put them in you might
It's nice to see a presentation about Ethernet cable that doesn't talk nonsense. Incidentally, Gb Ethernet was designed to run up to 100M over plain CAT5 cable and predates 5e. In my condo, I have plain CAT5 and it was installed in the late 90s. I have worked with both CAT5e and CAT6 in my work, and there's not much difference in working with them. I have also installed fibre in data centres.
Bottom line, as you said, 5e is fine for Gb and perhaps higher, though I haven't used it with anything above 1 Gb. But if I was putting in new cabling today, I'd likely go with CAT6.
Our family will be downsizing to a new home soon as we are at that point in our lives. Being the network nerd I am, I am thinking of just going ahead and running fiber to the drops. Not that many of the drops need that speed but if your going to run network cable I am thinking you cannot go wrong with fiber. I plan to just buy patch cables and use keystone jacks. No plans to try to terminate any fiber cables.
Another factor in my decision has to do with lightning surges. Over the last few years I have lost several switches (twice) right after a nearby lightning strike. I have done all I know to do to add in surge protection and UPSs. And, I even have fiber right to the home, so it cannot come in via the cable. And, it still got me. I am sure it ran right down the network cables. There was no other way. So, I am thinking running fiber between the nodes / drop equipment would help electrically isolate all of the equipment.
I already have a 10GbE aggregation switch and my office machines inter-connected. Not all of the equipment is 10GbE but at some point it probably will be and the infrastructure will be there. I have spent a ton of money replacing networking equipment. If the fiber isolates the lightning damage it will be well worth the cost.
Ok, I gotta put some statements in here for everyone that is NOT from the US or Canada:
1. From numerous videos we all know how easy it is to re-cable, your North American wood-framed houses, but that does not apply for the rest of the world that is mainly relying on solid walls. In the old world, you have to plan ahead at least 25-30 years, because it is a huge cost-factor to actually open walls and put new cables into it. The "this will not get you something within the next 10 years"-argument does not cut it, if you are failing to take the next speed-bump in 11 years.
As an example, my father in law renovated his house 20 years ago and put some Cat.7 cables which was the hot new stuff 20 years ago, but never used them. Now that I'm actually putting a proper network into his home this means we do not have to open the walls in an entire floor and just top-up some rooms and as he wants 10g, it would have been depressing if he fell for a "this will do the job" argument and had installed 5e instead. It ALWAYS makes sense to go for an up-to-date cable for the time which you will profit from later on.
2. You should not use patch cables for a demonstration that is about installation cables with solid cores. Also, you should have mentioned the difference between the shielded and unshielded versions.
3. Here in central Europe, Cat.7 was and is the industry standard for quite some time, and the private sector pretty much adapted that. The reason is, that the cost difference is minimal, but you can pretty much skip the next cabling job, which makes you come out cheaper in the end. Also, the argument about "but the connectors for Cat.7 are so much more expensive" does not count, as you can exchange just the ones you need for high speeds later on and you have an upgraded connection without having to do any re-cabling at all.
4. The argument about shielding "that sometimes does more harm than it helps" (your comment) is yet to be explained. Shielding does nothing if you don't connect it, it just makes the cable stiffer, which is bad for the cabling comfort, but good to protect the cables from kinking. If you connect the shielding properly to ground, it ALWAYS helps. There is simply no scenario where shielding makes things worse.
5. "The cables will not fit into your connectors"? What connectors are you guys using? The best cables I typically use is Draka 1500MHz Cat.7a cable. That is AWG22 and pretty much has the same shielding as Cat.8. They are about 1.5x to twice as thick and stiff as your typical Cat.6a/Cat.7 cables, and I NEVER had any problems stamping them in or terminating them with a keystone. Maybe you might run into problems trying to crimp some random RJ45 connectors onto it, but... well... that is bad practice anyway =)
Do I recommend Cat.8? No.
But I definitely don't recommend Cat.6 either.
The difference between between Cat.6a and Cat.7 is minimal, but as they also cost just as much, I always recommend going for Cat.7. They might even be good enough to do very high speeds >10g later on for short runs and are just best practice.
For enthusiasts, I always recommend a good Cat.7a cable that uses AWG22 and is certified for 1500MHz. Not only will these do 40Gb/s without a problem without the additional cost of Cat.8, but they are also ready for all the nice and new PoE standards supporting 60W+ going forward and if not needed for LAN, you can basically use them for anything, even KNX or other bus or direct steering systems.
Just don't ever use unshielded cables. Just... don't... if you ever happen to get your hands on a proper Fluke or other certification tool, you will understand where I'm coming from.
However, I fully agree on the fiber part. If you are enthusiast and you have open walls: Put OM4/OS2 into it. Just leave it there and be happy later on.
I live in an apartment and the noise levels here frequently cause issues with my Cat6 cables. All of them. Our computer’s frequently lose connection for several seconds at a time. Just long enough to lose whatever game or feed you were using. So I will be upgrading most of my Ethernet cables to Cat8 for this reason. If it doesn’t help, I’ll come back here and let ya know. However I’m pretty sure it will help with all the extra shielding.
You actually would want to just get shielded cables. You only should get this drop if you are running cables right next to high voltage lines.
From my experience its more likely then not that your current cables are frayed and thats why. Replacing the cable should help
I actually use Cat8 in my house. As for the ends I place 'pass-through' keystone jacks into the wall boxes so I don't have to 'punch down' the individual wires. I also use Cat8 because of the shielding. EMI can cause packet loss or sometimes a lot of 'noise' that affects the transmission of data. So for me I prefer Cat8 but Cat6a is a very good standard for most people. Use what your comfortable with. :)
While “to each their own” regular homes don’t have enough EMI (unless you run by a high voltage line which is against code) to cause any issue. Also if you want shielding cat 5e, 6, and 6a all have shielded options
Correct me if I am wrong but I thought any shielded option is really only relevant for commercial installs, that tend to bundle many cables together in trays over distance. Your typical household shouldn't see even a fraction of the EMI you encounter in commercial premises. Having said that, I just ran Cat6 shielded on an outside run, as it was the only option in a toughened cable!
So are you also going to buy a $4,000 rack mount router and switch to be able to use it?
@@TomTKK You don't have to buy it now, but if you put cat6 and need to upgrade to cat 8 in the future you will get the 4k bill just because you wanted to saved 40cts/meter of cable...
Hey East Coast Modz, I'm the same. This guy is basically repeating what reddit trolls say online. Cat8 is superior for shielding, PoE, and low resistance lines that can span alot longer than cat6. Also it's super easy to ground shielded cat 8, you either attach to ground plug from the power line, or you can ground the keystone panels. Nothing about this is hard unless your a total noob. Also, if you knew anything about AWG, you'd realize that cat 8 is thicker and less flexible because CMR riser cable is solid, not stranded, and is designed to last longer than flexible cables that a home user might replace every few years. I hope someday people will stop spreading misinformation about cat8 and use their brain for once. lol
Cat6 is fine for 99.99% of home users.. But if you are an online gamer you will want the best ping/lowest jitter/better shielding possible, and for like 4$ a meter more, cat8 is worth it. Although finding GOOD cat8 is harder than finding good cat6.
This is in no way based in reality.
Ethernet is digital, not analog. for gamers, CAT6 and CAT8 will literally have the exact same packets, with the exact same timings. There will be no difference
No offense, but for the few dollars more I did use Cat8 over a year ago in my house. All the runs were under 75 Feet (switch to garage connections). I didn't have any of the problems with the end connectors that you mention.* I seriously looked at fiber but despite living near Chicago I am isolated enough that my ISP has no plans for FTTH/FTTP in the next five years. Since I'm in my sixties I'm pretty sure the CAT8 connections are more future proof than I am. Unlike many I have no need for wireless to my devices and it was relatively easy to use a cable stapler to punch down the wires to studs.
* I have a Nighthawk CM2000 modem, Synology DS1821+ NAS, and Mikrotek Switch, with all computers using ASUS 10g NIcs. None of these had issues with the connectors on the cat8, neither did my old HP laserjet. Not sure where you are seeing connector issues on the CAT8. I did all (20) CAT8 runs in the house for under $100.
The biggest thing is cutting all of the foil on the twisted pairs, making sure everything is properly grounded so the shielding is not going to form a giant antenna, then the cable is just so thick and ridged.
Good to know you our case was not horrible
The honesty. I don’t really have the work flow for that, I just want to. Not the actual quote, but basically what I tell my wife for every project
simple answer :
it depends on your router, you're using typical 100/1000 mbps router, even CAT 5E is already enough, if your farthest device from your router are under 100 meters, you don't even need anything more than CAT 6 ethernet cable.
Cannot agree with this video. For the tiny little difference in price, just go for cat8. Much more future proof!
Future proof? Like 10 to 15 years down the road maybe? Also standard gaming consoles can not even hold 10 gigs lol. The cable isn’t expensive either so just buy it when the time comes. Otherwise it’s just over kill for standard homes. (Cat 8)
@@sadams_1100if you're wiring your whole house permanently you should use the best available. It's not worth trying to do it again in the future once your cable is outdated
@@sadams_1100build a house and ask again in 15 years, rerunning 1-2 cables to each room is a massive pain
@@sadams_1100that’s why PC is superior.
@@sadams_1100someone who’s looking to upgrade to cat 8 isn’t thinking about gaming consoles. My workstation rn has 10Gbps Nic (both SFP+ and RJ45) and my ISP provides 10Gbps business lines and 2 Gbps home lines RIGHT NOW in 10-15 years I expect at the very least 40Gbps. Game consoles are for children, they are essentially glorified toys but to get real work done you need serious hardware.
They are up to CAT 15 now. Thickness of a garden hose and can do 100g for 25 miles.
I used cat8 flat cable to my computer and xbox for my connection to the router and haven't had any issues. sure I has to open up the hole a bit more in the wire box but that's cuz theres already 3 other network cables going through the box. Wouldn't cat8 allow for future proofing of your network? even though they are trying to make wireless the main thing of the future.
I have CAT6 100ft run and it will not handle 10gb, Most I can get was 5gb. I switched that run to 6A and no problem. For most of the house CAT6 was just fine.
Install both fiber and cat6A since 1gig is fast becoming the norm and will soon go past 10gig easily.
Also consider interference with deciding which category you are using not only the speed and distance higher cat are shielded
The best and clearest explanation I've found, thank you!
CAT6A is shielded. You have to remove upto 3 layers before you can crimp an connector on it. There is CAT7 as well.
You can buy pretty much any ethernet cable shielded or not shielded
Has your opinion about this changed over the last 2 years? I recently bought a house and now face the decision of what cable to run. Obviously being as future proof as possible is a concern, especially because I'm a videographer and need to frequently run huge amounts of data around the place..
Great video. I need 3 cables to go from the router to the PC/Laptops and I think I'll go with 6 just for increased flexibility.
Yeah if you are buying cables today CAT6 is easy to recommend. Pretty much the same price as CAT5E with the ability to go 10GbE for any normal run. Plus fewer sketchy amazon cables that are horrible quality that I have seen with CAT 8 on amazon
@@SpaceRexWill seeing Cat8 is out now is why I looked up the video. Last I bought cables cat 6a was just being talked about
welcome to Huntsville. I've been here for about 4 years now. Moved from Philadelphia. You'll love this town.
Yeah it’s been really nice so far! I pass the rocket every day on the way to work!
@@SpaceRexWill I do too. Never get tired of the sight. Once they’re done refurbishing the space shuttle and put it back on the SRB and the tank, it looks awesome
Thank you. I was on Amazon and saw cat 8. Did research and saw your video. Awesome 👌
I am planning to use a CAT-6 100 ft cable for 5 gig transmission from my T-Mobile gateway box to the router in my office. I get 5 bars of 5 GB reception at the box and really fast down and up load speeds in the area near my box using my Asus Chromebook. However, in my office (where I have two desktop PC units located) the speed is slower. Hopefully running the CAT-6 cable from the T-mobile box to the office router will speed things up.
Huh? Cat8 is the best choice if you are doing a new install. The price is not really that much considering and it is future proof.
The slowest denominator in networking can be anything. It could be the A.) The ISP, B.) The router, C.) the cables involved, D.) The environment of the network.
When computer to computer via ethernet, CAT 8.
To have the fastest internet, the fastest equipment and best environment is required.
A radio signal rich environment would be dismal for wireless devices.
Good video, however, I'd like to also add that if you're running all new cabling, then CAT6 is where you want to be. On the point of CAT8, there is one main reason why you actually want to use CAT8, and that's if your internet is provided using a copper cable and your modem is a distance from your switch/router. CAT8 is more shielded than CAT6/5/5e and less prone to interference &/or noise, hence why it is thicker. A cable company's cable is a haven for line noise and is the #1 killer of internet speed. But, if you are lucky to have fiber, then CAT6 is all you'll need.
Thanks I was about to drop double the money for a cat8 cable. Got my self a cat6 cable instead
I am in total agreement on everything you said but I am still going with cat6A.
Lol to each their own
Hey if you got the funds to waste my dude waste away
@@balla2172 I get that but the different in price between cat6 and cat6A is really not that much and I think that's a better choice for future proofing imo
@@balla2172 Not much difference in cost.
Cat6 has a distance for 150m and cat6a 100m and cat7 40m and cat 8 only 30m
Looking at the comments everyone has there favorite CAT design, I personally went with 8 because it was the most expensive because I didn't know any better.
Perfect timing for this video, I'm moving in two weeks, and need to wire the house. You probably should have mentioned the 100% copper core Vs CCA, and UTP Vs FTP imho.
I would never buy CCA as it’s just a fire hazard waiting to happen if someone sets up POE thinking it’s a normal run.
As for shielding: don’t shield unless you know you need to and if you do shield make sure to do it right or you can make it worse. Shielding is only needed when you might get crazy emf interference from running by a high voltage line, which building codes generally prohibit anyway. If you are in a factory where there are other causes of interference then you would want to get them shielded
Shielded is only really used on cat6a to prevent crosstalk and power sum from other cables or on cat6 in sensitive av settings or av cabling specifically
@@SpaceRexWill In my case my builder ran the UTP right alongside or at least parallel and within a few inches of 120V electrical cable for 20ft in some places. I wish I'd run it all myself.
Thanks for the pragmatic overview.
I think we actually still have non-5e cables at home, lol.
Guys that keep saying don't get Cat8 just go with Cat 6 are the same type of guys that said, "You'll never need more than 32MB of ram" in the late 90s.
to Simplify :
Cat 6 or Cat 5e = if you know its not forever home and you are in a budget
Cat 6a = if you are building your forever home and use it all over it
cat8 = for devices that you know will use that in the future for your forever home .. like AV appliances and computer areas
I actually would wait for a cable standard that can do 100 gig (cat 8 can only do 25 gig) if you really want to go all out for a room as 10 gig (cat 6) -> 25 gig (cat 8) really is not that big of a jump to be guessing what you will need in 20 years
@@SpaceRexWillDoesn’t Cat 8 reach 40gbps?
If you work in an industrial environment, Cat7 and Cat8 may make sense in only the shortest of runs. All cables with shielding and copper are antennas and will pick up RF interference, unless they have a proper drain wire grounded. Use fiber in these environments. It is far easier to run fiber to a media converter, and then patch into your devices on very short runs on Cat6 in this case.
Having installs on a radio tower, Cat7/8 is useful, but still usually not good enough without custom ferrites and additional shielding sleeves. Not all shielding is the same, and not all cables that claim to be Cat6/7/8 are up to the real spec. Make your own if you are already in this category.
Haha installation on a radio tower is 100% a good reason to have crazy shielding!
And the trick is ground the rack and don't connect the shield on the client side to the rj45 jack.
For what it is worth from a homeowner, I use CAT8 in the AV rack from the switch out to the A/V gear. Other than that, CAT6 everywhere else.
10G is overkill?? We have an ISP in Switzerland that provides 25G FTTH service... and many do 10G just as easily. 10G in today's view is certainly not overkill, and any new network that gets built should adhere to the 10G standard. Proper CAT 6A wiring is where it's at, yes running fiber in your home is probably a bit too much though. But I'd honestly go fiber before installing CAT 8, it's just more flexible (not as in physically flexible but you can run different protocols and more speeds with it.)
Yeah, we have a fiber company here that is providing an 8G subscription, and they have plans to make it so you can run all that speed through a single connection AND to eventually upgrade to a 25G fiber-network. At this point getting the fastest cables available is really not overkill. The future might move faster than we anticipate.
You can feel happy. In Germany the highest available fibre speed is 1 Gbit down 200 Mbit Upload. (For business use 1 Gbit symmetric is available, but it costs over 700 Euros.)That is pretty much enough for private use. For 99.9% of all it is overkill. I booked a 100 Mbit connection. More than enough for my purposes. Installed Cat7 cabelling at home and grounded the patch panel . Cat7 should be future proof in my life. 10 G switches are expensive and consume more energy. How about downloading servers. Do servers have 10 Gbit downloads in the real world?
I’m wondering what Ethernet cables I have inside my walls. House was built in 2007 and the electrician cabled the entire house and I think he said Cat 6. That’s always stuck in my mind but I can’t get inside the walls to check. The cables from wall to devices (TV, desktop PC etc) are all Cat6 or Cat6E so I’m guessing Cat 6 was the standard all those 16yrs ago
So your telling US not the buy cat 7 or cat 8 than you turn around and install Fiber in your home..... right....
Good video, although I'm somewhat amused by this debate. While I would have preferred my home be wired with CAT 6, it wasn't. But then again, virtually everything in my home is served wirelessly. And this is increasing. My laptops don't even have an ethernet port. My devices all run HD Video wirelessly without any issues. I'm dubious the future is wired.
2 factors most people who "disavow" cat 7/8 cable don't take into consideration:
Better shielding: both of these improve upon the default shielding, which is minimal to nonexistent in previous versions but standard and improved in these specs. With the ever increasing wireless devices-routers, phones, TVs, microwaves, smart devices, cell towers, and so on that get more numerous by the day, interference and noise is becoming more of an issue.
This is also compounded by people running these wires next to other wires, who most likely also don't have shielding, and often times are bundled together as compact as possible and hidden away out of sight-causing a lot of bleed through and additional noise and potentially heat. Especially with multiple power cables, and especially through noisy environments like server racks, etc.
The second is velocity factor. While this might not be a consideration for most people, this is something that can impact time sensitive/low latency applications especially over long distances. As the specification evolves, the better build quality and new techniques allow the cables to push the data through them faster-resulting in less overall latency in the cable. This has multiple implications, for niche applications or for just gaming.
Both of these may seem minor but can be large issues, and even if not it is still something people never consider.
As long as the line from the road to your house is new and up to spec, there's only so much power you have to improve your network performance. The line from the road to the ISP is much better built, using thicker, higher quality cables and techniques-resulting in much lower interference and much higher velocity.
That leaves the line from the road to your modem/ONT, and the line from that to your router-devices as the ones in your control, and typically the ones that have the most issues. The slowest and weakest link in the chain.
I do not recommend using shielded cables unless you actually know what you are doing and have a need for it. If you plug a shielded cable into a jack that is not shielded (not grounded) then you have just made your entire cable an antenna, and you are actually going to get interference.
Wifi will never cause interference with an ethernet cable. Its just not going to happen. interference only happens when you have really high power lines (like power cables to a washing machine) running parallel to your runs. Other ethernet cables do not interfere from one to the other.
Also no clue what you are taking about with velocity factor. The maximum distance you can run an ethernet cable is 100m. The speed of light is 2.99e8 m/s. This means that if you had a 10% difference in velocity factor between two cables your maximum change in ping time over that 100m run would be 0.000066 ms (round trip) [and yes that is milliseconds]. There is no application on the planet, running over coper ethernet that can measure sub nanosecond ping times. 'fast' servers that have sub 5ms ping times will have over a million times more latency then what is caused by this velocity factor shift. Your slow down is on that really long cable connecting your house to your ISP, then your ISP to whatever server you are going to.
Hey great video but not accurate for a lot of use cases. I live outside of the US so our houses don’t have the same limitations as wooden houses in the US so routing cables isn’t an issue. That being said I live in a very large house around 24,600 sq ft with over 200 devices at any given time. For my use case I have a lot of ground to cover and I need at minimum 10Gbps speed all throughout. Going with CAT8 just makes sense for me even over fiber because.
1. PoE (PoE+/PoE++) for WiFi 6E/7 APs
2. Upto 40Gbps will future proof my house. If my ISP can do 10Gbps rn in the future they can do way more.
For a slight increase in cost and difficulty we get to future proof our large property and well as reduce clutter and costs over not having PoE and having a bunch of transceivers.
You need to understand the impairments that cause cable to underperform. The hardest one to encounter is distant end non-correlated foreign cross talk. That happens in very long cables bundled with short cables at the far end. Most homes are not 300 feet in distance, they don't have large bundles 50+,so they will never encounter this. That's the usage case for Cat 8. Cat 5e works great at 50 feet at 10G. Cat 6 is all you need in a home if you don't live in Hearst Castle. The Cat 6 shield solves most of the distant end problems. Use fibre above 10G. Plastic fibre works great in a home. Use glass at a distance greater than 3,000 feet. Read the comments from IEEE 802.3 on cabling.
Wow... 10gigs plus speed for a house? how much that cost per month? In Indonesia 100mpbs cost 60-90$/month
I'm just plugging the ethernet cable from my pc straight to my gateway modem. It doesn't have to move around much either. I current have only 1gb fiber so it's probably a waste but some say the extra protection is worth it. That, and if I ever upgraded my plan I wouldn't need to get a better cat cable.
I got a bunch of cat8 cables when I bought a lot of computer stuff, even though my entire network is 1gbit, I use what I got, Cat6 to my 1gbit swtich, and cat 8 to both my PC's. Plus its the only black cables I own, I got a dozen of cat5e cables, but they are either blue, white or yellow....
Amazing vid, would add a little bit about the shielded and non cables because sometimes people buys them and then because they dont have a ground they have poor connection and then they think the cable is bad, do you have a vid about it?
Yeah the only thing with cat 6 is that when networking device will evolve. You will have to replace all the cable in the house. I prefer to put 7A or 8 and never have to put new cable again.
The thing is the cat 7A can’t run the 25 gig standard whenever it’s actually available. For networking purposes the max speed for both 7A and 6A are 10 gig at 100m and neither can do the 25 gig standard
I actually brought 8 cat wore and works really good
My whole house was wired with Cat6 and Cat5e unshielded cable when it was built four years ago. I am finishing my basement and am wondering what I should use. What is the benefit of using Cat6a over Cat6 if it’s a short enough distance to ensure 10gbps with just the Cat6 cable? Also, will there be an issue using shielded Cat6a or even Cat8 cabling within this already established system? Will I need different ports installed?
I spent last summer ripping out OG Cat5 from the 90s, replaced it with Cat8 simply because I don't wanna crawl under my house ever again. Yes it doesn't make any sense right now, but in 10-20 years it will be for sure.
And then those bloody rats will put their teeth into it...
One word...conduit with pull string in it.
You should mention bandwidth differences between cables. Which is why I’d go higher
When the fastest switch on the market (for RJ45) is 10GbE the bandwidth does not matter. CAT6 and CAT8 can both do the same 10GbE
@@SpaceRexWill the fastest switch now, what you're going to do if you want to upgrade later? pay 5k to rewire your home because you wanted to save 80 buck ?
Can you show how you run these through existing walls and floors?
Just subscribed! Huntsville Alabama born and raised lol good info thanks.
I've noticed all of the cat 6a cables are using smaller gauge wire (26 awg - 28 awg) than the cat 6 (24 awg - 23 awg). What's up with that? Shouldn't thicker wires drop less voltage than the thinner ones over long distance?
What a wonderfully informative and honest video. I loved it . Thanks Cat6 it is then 🙂
Maybe release an up to date video? ISPs are now providing 5Gbps speeds for residential spaces. 10Gbps for businesses. There's also word that 10Gbps for residential spaces is being introduced as soon as next year.
All of this can be done by CAT6
@@SpaceRexWill Cat6A has a max speed of 10Gbps. While it's true that the max speed matches the upcoming 10Gbps, it has always been advised to have cables that provide overhead.
go fibre if you need to future proof or CAT.6A for POE. Let's see about WiFi 7 if there are any AP's that can reach 20 - 40GBit than maybe CAT.8 (or maybe in the first run 2*CAT.6A). Haven't seen any apliances that have a 40GBase-T connector "yet". If you've seen some please let me know.
I wired my house last year with cat 6. Im running one run at 10gbe with no issues and it's running from the basement up to the 2nd floor office.
Yeah 55m is a really long distance. I don’t think many people at all reach that
@@SpaceRexWill Yep I almost went with cat 6a but decided cat 6 would be sufficient. Im also glad I decided not to because the pre-existing holes between the first floor and the second floor were only so big and I wouldn't have been able to fit all 6 runs of 6a + a rg6 coax through it like I did with cat 6.
I was going to wrap my house with CAT 6 but CAT8 was only a few $$$ more. I purchased 3 runs, one 60 ft, 80 ft, and 100 ft all premade. Cables are external grade. If you are wrapping the house CAT 8 is not too bad. 🙂
Have the prices settled? I remember cat 8 going a tad expensive this past summer
@@GeneralCondom in europe it's 130€/100m tax included, cat 6 is 60€/100m, not a noticeable difference when you're wiring a home
Where did you purchase your CAT8?
@@Peteb218 Amazon 😁
Thanks I was just about to buy a Cat 8 cable and will go with cat 5e or 6, I have a question, my ISP has provided me with a cat 5e cable if I buy an additional cat 6 would I come across an issue? Also I am planning on plugging one cable into a gigabit switch and another cable into a console could experience additional issues with WI-FI and the two connections.
Thanks
As you saved me some money I thought I would pay you something back.
Cheers.
Hey thanks! Good to see you as always!
i wired all my internet devices with cat 8 cables when i was on a 67MB fibre deal. no complaints. super fast fibre come to my area and ive gone with 500mb, using the same cat 8 cables and power lines im getting speeds ranging from 14 to 45mb. i spoke to BT customer service and theyve told me to pull out my cat 8 and replace it with cat 5e or cat 6e cables. does this make any logical sense? it doesnt to me but im not a professional i guess.
Hi your saying you got lower speeds on cat 8? Did you ever find out why?
@TheDawahCenter hi pal, yeah. Cat 8 cables are faster over shorter lengths, as I was using power lines and the cabling in the house it was disastrous, funily enough I've just ordered 100m of cat 7. I'll let you know how I get on.
@@miguelhedley5583 ok thanks, hope it goes well. I'm getting gigabit soon so will test cat8, I know cat8 is overkill but because it's future proof it's good :D
First invest in conduit. Get those blue low voltage tubes from Home Depot and once you put it in you can pull anything that comes up in the future through it. Inexpensive and you can run anything anywhere later.
I have been meaning to go through and get some for my fiber as its the only thing that I am really worried about
I used to live in Huntsville approx 10ys ago L😀L you gotta be square peg round hole for those parts
Maybe Huntsville’s changed 🤷…..
& thanks for the vid , I found myself here “tryin ta learn myself” about power over ip
I clicked to find out how fast the data transfer was not how thick the cable is.. I just need it to worm
If money isn't an issue why would you install anything but the best/ cat8?
Cat 8 isn't better, it's just rated for a faster speed
I was thinking of taking a small half-metre cat 8 cable to put it between my routher and the modem from the ISP. I am on fiber.
Is it completely overkill? Absolutely zero benefit?
Absolutely zero benefit.
From my experience you will probably get a worse constructed cable then if you got a cat6
@@SpaceRexWill What do you mean by "worse constructed"? I mean I found a 1m cat8 cable with 2000mhz, that says it supports 40gbps, the cable also looks braided and looks pretty high quality.
The ideea is that I intend to put it between the modem (from the ISP) and my own router.
Disagree if you are going in fresh, no brainer to future proof for minimal extra cost with cat 8. Also considering most residiental runs will be less than the 75-100' 40G max.
now if someone already has 5e or 6 installed, then yea leave it alone. unlikely to be all that useful in residentual for some time.
pulling cat 8 is no worse than romex. the terminations are worse, but you will do so many fewer of them than mains voltage runs.
Thanks Rex
@SpaceRex I am very curious when you said too much shielding can do more harm than good. Can you elaborate please?
If your cable is shielded but your keystones are not on both ends then it turns into an antenna, making your situation worse
I have a 300ft underground run in my main chase directly along side my 200amp service cable. Cat8 is absolutely the way to go in my situation to future proof (i wont be pulling in that conduit ever again) as well as minimize any signal degredation/EM interference at 10gbs.
Now that is absolutely a different story and a good reason to go cat8. But just make sure to use properly shielded keystones on both sides because if you dont you now just have a Giant antenna
@@SpaceRexWill absolutely. Any shielded cable needs proper grounding on both ends.
Get a lavalier mic for these videos. It will make a huge difference with the audio.
Welcome to southeast. Hope you like it here.
I grew up in NC so I am very happy to be back and close to family
Frankly, if I'm going to spend the time and effort to run ethernet in a wall, for PoE or whatever, which fiber can't do, or I just want a port for a computer without a transceiver on it, it's going to be CAT 8. It's still cheap enough the difference doesn't really matter.
Doesn't Cat 8 cables have much higher shielding compared to other cables and running at a higher frequency to avoid others signals from interfering with the signal?
Not more than a shield cat 6 cable.
so i have 2gbps coming in, but it tested at 2.24 on the installers test tool. What type of cable should i get?
oh yeah, short distance too like 6 feet.
Can you mix Cat 6 cables with a Cat 5E network?
yes
I wanted a 3 meter Ethernet cable in the store and I left from the store with a 5 meter cat 7 cable 🤔 I wonder if I was an idiot....
I recently upgraded to 400mbp download speed and 30mbp upload speed, I'm looking for a cable that's good for 60 or50 feet length im not sure which cat cable to get , any recommendations good reliable brands?
haha if that's your requirement a cat 5e cable would work just fine
@@SpaceRexWill I'm going to be gaming and doing school work
cat 5e will do fine. If you want something fancier go cat 6
@@SpaceRexWill awesome i just spoke with spectrum and they also recommended me cat 6
You've just saved me alot of money, Thank you!
cat 5e they say will do 10gb-t , but only upto about 45m
Yeah a ton of stuff will work out of spec. Would I recommend buying a cat5e cable to go 10 gig no, but if your house is already wired then no harm in trying
for the vast majority of people and businesses, cat5e for the front end is fine 99% of the time. the backbone on larger copper networks where you have 10 Gig, cat 6 / 6A would do in most cases. longer cable runs you would need to switch to fibre anyway.
10Gig is expensive, requires a much higher standard of cable, and for home use, not much supports 10gig, 2.5gig is starting to become more of a thing, so the vast majority of places cat 6 would do.
if you are running network cable around power cables, get FTP it costs more, but there is less noise in the data transmission and allows you to keep the higher speeds. you also need a good earth with FTP.
my home network I have 10 gig to the switch and NAS, 2.5 gig to main PCs and 1gig to everything else. most things are running on cat5e only the 10 gig and 2.5 gig are running on better cable.
if you don't intend on going any faster than 1 gig to the end point, just run whichever is the cheapest, cat 5e or cat 6. cat 6 is starting to become cheaper as it is more prevalent now. but only use pure copper not CCA, especially as more things now you can use POE with, CCA is terrible with POE and the cable lengths are much shorter.
if you are not using POE, and the cable runs are less than 50M and you are not going over 1Gig, then CCA is OK, but copper will always be better and gives you more options once it is in.
Heh. Fibre... Yes - I put fibre between my house and shed. 600M of SMOF... 12 cores of awesome. Standard cat-5, can run 100M of gigabit Ethernet. It's a 35 year old technology that just works.
Standard cat-6 is extremely useful and will work forever..
Standard cat-5 can't run 100 meters of gigabit - you'll get lots of packet loss - beleive me - I've tried ;)
Cat 7 is useful with existing KVMs that transmit 4k/60 or 1080p/120 HDMI or DP over ethernet... it won't be really useful until a device uses HDbaseT 3.0 though, as I think the current standard is sub 10GB/s.