What's the difference between CAT 5e and CAT 6?

I'm surprised the amount of discussion.

I like the RJ45EZ. https://www.graybar.com/ez-rj45174-cat-6-connector-8-position/p/25574834 Look at the spec sheet.

You insert the cable so the wires extend. The crimper also cuts the wires flush. Really neat.

==

There are Keystone jacks (couplers) that terminate into RJ45 jacks on both sides.

==

Then there is that nagging question: TIA568A or TIA568B. I've decided to use the one that keeps two pairs the same as telco.

I'll be using RJ45 jacks for both telco and ethernet with CAT6. l-com makes an insert that converts an RJ45 to telco.

I have not decided how I want to do the patch side yet.
1. RJ45 straight thru - color coded for telco.
2. RJ11/RJ14 with home made cables with the inserts
3. RJ11/RJ14 silver satin cables with the inserts

My telco patch will consist of 12 paralleled jacks at least for part of the house. I do have to connect quad cable to these jacks indirectly. I'll likely put one isolating jumper. Unfortunately, there is another part of the house where telco enters.

many locations have both modular and 4-prong jacks "side-by-side".

When I painted a room, I did mount a dual low-voltage plate, drilled the joist hole, but did not run any wires. Probably 2 RG-6's and 2-3 CAT6 at least.

I bought two colors of CAT6.

One room has two sets of dual plates and partially wired. One is by the TV and one by the head of the bed.

Cobwebs inside have been the biggest problem with jacks. I do have a Tempo tester, but when you have a bunch of phone locations paralleled with quad wire, it makes it tough to isolate.

DSL has a splitter at the NID. I used a pre-made CAT5 RJ11/RJ14 cable to connect the modem.
I used pair 4 for DSL.

There is a plan in the works to put an Electrostandards three unit A/B switch, so the DSL and WAN lines can be swapped between two modems. One wired in bridge and one wired stand-alone.
I always need to go stand-alone to troubleshoot.

The third A/B switch might be wired so it either is connected to a port where a laptop can be connected easily. The other side might go directly to my bedroom.

because my modem is mounted in the rafters, I knocked my laptop on the floor by pulling on the cable. Not good.

The A/B switch is done using latching relays and is certified for Gigabit. It also has an RS232 control
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
solid or stranded.
CORRECTION: Solid wire, not stranded. I've finished running CAT 5e and am about to attempt my second time ever terminating cables. I won't be able to test it for two reasons, first, I don't have a test box (although I could test for continuity and shorts); second, the other end is 100 cable feet away, in the basement. I'll just have to do the best I can and make sure everything works when I plug stuff in.
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
Next critical question: How do I wire the plugs? I've seen a number of different configurations, so I'm imagining that it depends on what I'm doing. Well, here's what I'm doing: Xfinity Modem connects to Netgear Nighthawk router. Do both ends get terminated the same way?

White/Blue
Blue

White/Orange
Orange

White/Green
Green

White/Red
Red

Or: https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...f882b3145c368a90416d96fdac66.jpg&action=click
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
Have a good look at the colors:
Believe it or not - I've made my living as an electronics inspector; having to identify resistor color codes AND I'm partially color blind. In many cases red and brown have been hard to distinguish for me. Also red and green can be challenging (red-green deficient). Orange and yellow have been easy for me but blue and purple was the other one I ran into trouble with. As long as there was enough light and enough of the color (i.e. magnifying glass or microscope) I cold see enough of the color to determine which is which. But blue and purple - - - I'd have to look intently at the blue to see if there was any red in it. If I could detect red in the blue then I knew it was purple.

Anyway, the crimping is done. Now to see what happens.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Check the Netgear manual. I’d expect that to indicate a wiring, cable or termination problem. I.e., a bad cable! Depending on your project, since your manually making cables, you might want to invest in a cable tester.

Or the two devices are incompatible. Their firmware may depend on a signal not provided by the other piece of gear.
 

zophas

Joined Jul 16, 2021
165
Check the Netgear manual. I’d expect that to indicate a wiring, cable or termination problem. I.e., a bad cable! Depending on your project, since your manually making cables, you might want to invest in a cable tester.

Or the two devices are incompatible. Their firmware may depend on a signal not provided by the other piece of gear.
Part of Murphy's Law: Your first few attempts at making network cables, will fail. Lol.
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
the two devices are incompatible.
For years they have worked together. Even yesterday, before my terminating my 100' cable it was working. The problem with that was that it was far away from the house and signal inside was very very weak. Now I have strong internet. But my smart TV is still trying to get signal from the modem (upstairs in the garage). It's working, but it's very slow due to distance.
you might want to invest in a cable tester.
Even if I had a tester, one end is upstairs in the detached garage and the other end is down in the basement of the house. Unless the tester has VERY long test cables - it's not going to be of use. And I'm not making lots of cables, just the one.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
For years they have worked together. Even yesterday, before my terminating my 100' cable it was working. The problem with that was that it was far away from the house and signal inside was very very weak. Now I have strong internet. But my smart TV is still trying to get signal from the modem (upstairs in the garage). It's working, but it's very slow due to distance.

Even if I had a tester, one end is upstairs in the detached garage and the other end is down in the basement of the house. Unless the tester has VERY long test cables - it's not going to be of use. And I'm not making lots of cables, just the one.
It's only 100 feet, it should be working at full speed 1GB for that distance with a good cable.
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
Found the error. Crossed wires. Wouldn't' you know?! Oh, wait - yes - you DID know. A blue/white got crossed with a green. Needed my "Super-Eye" to spot that. A 10x magnifier backed onto a 7x. Focal length about an inch. Gets a good close look; probably on the order of 25x. But that's just a guess. It's certainly more than 7x or 10x.

Got the blue light. Or is it green? I can never tell.
 
I have two testers. This https://www.wikihow.com/Test-an-Ethernet-Cable one seems to be the most promoted because it can detect crossed pairs. You can put one at the other end of a cable. I think I've seen this one for like $5.00.

There is another tester, I also like. It has bi-color LED's for the pairs. A dip switch to isolate the ends and a row of machine pin sockets on each side of the switch.

When you do have access to both ends of a cable, you can measure which connection/wire is bad.

What the other tester cannot do is detect opens that happen when the end of the cable is flexed. This one can.

One tidbit:

Gigabit cross-over cables are supposed to cross only pairs 1 and 2. By definition, gigabit is Auto-MDIX.

The next step is either a cable qualifier and/or a TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer).
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
All's great and well except my smart TV won't connect to the internet. I've tried the reset button on the router with power and without. Just not getting everything I had before the big move (when I moved the modem from the wife's office upstairs to my woodshop. Also, for some reason the wife's LAN connected printer won't print. MUST be something to do with all that. There MUST be a single answer to this whole thing. Still researching it.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
For years they have worked together. Even yesterday, before my terminating my 100' cable it was working. The problem with that was that it was far away from the house and signal inside was very very weak. Now I have strong internet. But my smart TV is still trying to get signal from the modem (upstairs in the garage). It's working, but it's very slow due to distance.

Even if I had a tester, one end is upstairs in the detached garage and the other end is down in the basement of the house. Unless the tester has VERY long test cables - it's not going to be of use. And I'm not making lots of cables, just the one.
Network cable testers are meant to test over long distances, across multiple rooms and floors. Search Amazon for “cat 6 cable tester”.

They come with a dongle for the remote end and the main tester is used at the other cable end.

This one is $10…

CA5DFBBD-1025-4EBF-8467-B954231E3114.png
 

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
Thanks. But I don't think I'll be making anymore cables. At least not for another 16 years. I took a class back then. Don't remember a damned thing, and I haven't used anything I learned in that class since then.
 
All's great and well except my smart TV won't connect to the internet.
Wireless or wired? I have issues with a Samsung that it doesn't like repeaters and/or two or more networks with the same name.

Turn all of the network stuff off totally and then turn them back on starting at the modem.

On the machines do an ipconfig /refresh, I think to refresh the ARP table.

Ping the individual devices.

If you have a bad cable and it's on a hub and not a switch, it can mess everything up. I had an issue where I could ping the printer and access the http page. but the darn thing would not print. I put a new cable in.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
You mean terminate to mounted "wall plate" type jack or patch panel jack.
I doubt 10G will work very long on a mobil 100ft copper cable laying on the floor.
A few things there.

10G over CAT 7 is meant to work I think to 33 m,

Yes you are right,
its best to have the majority of the cable fixe din place,
with sockets at the ends, fixed to / in the wall is normal.
Then use patch cables, for the shorter bits from the wall sockets to your equipment,

The cables used in patch cables and that used "in walls" are very different,
The wall ones just do not flex, and will easil break if you do flex .
the patch ones are very flexible by comparison, but will degrade with flexing,
but the idea is they are "sacrificial" as they are short / cheap and easy to purchase in pre made lengths.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
I'm surprised the amount of discussion.

I like the RJ45EZ. https://www.graybar.com/ez-rj45174-cat-6-connector-8-position/p/25574834 Look at the spec sheet.

You insert the cable so the wires extend. The crimper also cuts the wires flush. Really neat.

==

There are Keystone jacks (couplers) that terminate into RJ45 jacks on both sides.

==

Then there is that nagging question: TIA568A or TIA568B. I've decided to use the one that keeps two pairs the same as telco.

I'll be using RJ45 jacks for both telco and ethernet with CAT6. l-com makes an insert that converts an RJ45 to telco.

I have not decided how I want to do the patch side yet.
1. RJ45 straight thru - color coded for telco.
2. RJ11/RJ14 with home made cables with the inserts
3. RJ11/RJ14 silver satin cables with the inserts

My telco patch will consist of 12 paralleled jacks at least for part of the house. I do have to connect quad cable to these jacks indirectly. I'll likely put one isolating jumper. Unfortunately, there is another part of the house where telco enters.

many locations have both modular and 4-prong jacks "side-by-side".

When I painted a room, I did mount a dual low-voltage plate, drilled the joist hole, but did not run any wires. Probably 2 RG-6's and 2-3 CAT6 at least.

I bought two colors of CAT6.

One room has two sets of dual plates and partially wired. One is by the TV and one by the head of the bed.

Cobwebs inside have been the biggest problem with jacks. I do have a Tempo tester, but when you have a bunch of phone locations paralleled with quad wire, it makes it tough to isolate.

DSL has a splitter at the NID. I used a pre-made CAT5 RJ11/RJ14 cable to connect the modem.
I used pair 4 for DSL.

There is a plan in the works to put an Electrostandards three unit A/B switch, so the DSL and WAN lines can be swapped between two modems. One wired in bridge and one wired stand-alone.
I always need to go stand-alone to troubleshoot.

The third A/B switch might be wired so it either is connected to a port where a laptop can be connected easily. The other side might go directly to my bedroom.

because my modem is mounted in the rafters, I knocked my laptop on the floor by pulling on the cable. Not good.

The A/B switch is done using latching relays and is certified for Gigabit. It also has an RS232 control

TIA568A or TIA568B

US tends to use TIA568A,
Europe seems to use TIA568B

Two cultures, separated by the same ,,

And to clarify

Provided both ends of the cable are terminated the same , either A or B,
the same cable will work in all ethernet systems
For some un imaginable reason, there are just two wiring colour codes...

As for the plugs,
do not fix plugs onto cable designed to be fixed in place, only fix plugs to patch cable.
 
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