Cat5e or Cat6

[P1]

I am looking to purchase some new Cat5e or Cat6 cables. I read that good cables should be solid copper, and no CCA. Can someone recommend me some good ones? Thanks.

[zx10guy]

Is this part of your IP camera project?

In general, if you're running new cable, I would opt to do Cat6. Even better would be Cat6a. With each increase in Category rating brings increased frequency and bandwidth capacity. Running Cat6 allows you to support 10 GigE in the future at a maximum run of 55 meters. If you pull Cat6a, you'll be able to do the full Ethernet distance spec at 100 meters for 10 GigE. And who knows what the future will bring and you might be able to leverage the upcoming faster Ethernet speeds. 25 GigE is starting to hit the market. Not sure if 40 GigE will ever be adapted to run on twisted pair copper.

I ran a couple of drops of Cat6 to my home office from my...ahem...data center/server room. I didn't have time to order Cat6a online and had to settle with locally available Cat6. The area under my home office in my basement was being finished and I totally forgot about doing the cabling upgrade before my contractor closed up the walls under the home office. My intent with the two cable Cat6 cable runs is to light them up with one of my switches which as 10 GbaseT ports. The good news is the cabling is under the 55 meter distance.

[P1]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Is this part of your IP camera project?

In general, if you're running new cable, I would opt to do Cat6. Even better would be Cat6a. With each increase in Category rating brings increased frequency and bandwidth capacity. Running Cat6 allows you to support 10 GigE in the future at a maximum run of 55 meters. If you pull Cat6a, you'll be able to do the full Ethernet distance spec at 100 meters for 10 GigE. And who knows what the future will bring and you might be able to leverage the upcoming faster Ethernet speeds. 25 GigE is starting to hit the market. Not sure if 40 GigE will ever be adapted to run on twisted pair copper.

I ran a couple of drops of Cat6 to my home office from my...ahem...data center/server room. I didn't have time to order Cat6a online and had to settle with locally available Cat6. The area under my home office in my basement was being finished and I totally forgot about doing the cabling upgrade before my contractor closed up the walls under the home office. My intent with the two cable Cat6 cable runs is to light them up with one of my switches which as 10 GbaseT ports. The good news is the cabling is under the 55 meter distance.

Yes, these actually will be. I did some further research on the CCA vs. solid copper issue and found that for runs under 100 feet, it should not matter that much.

That being said, I saw your note too late and ordered two C2G 25 foot cat5e cables just so I can at least get the camera mounted in the garage.