quickie

fatchance

What is CAT5 and CAT6 wire I have read about relating to house electrical wiring? Is this a higher grade wire or better quality wire?

Also will standard tv co-axial cable carry satellite tv like sky? The end fixing is different and thats as much as I know!

Don't want to sound like a twit when I approach sparkie, sooner be a twit among'st you lovely people here!!!!

Thanks Fatchance

quazzy

You can get some great information using wikipedia.org

Check these links out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAT6

You could also try the Home Entertainment Forum ( under the Tech heading)

Q

Stoner

Cat 6 cable carries more information (its faster) than cat 5, cat 5 is gone now, you are most likely being quoted for cat 5 e, cat 6 is about 4 times faster than cat 5e (as far as i remember) cat 6 e/cat a is 10 times faster than cat 6

You'd need a CT100 double Screened Co Ax cable for sat signals

r3nu4l

Stoner wrote:

Cat 6 cable carries more information (its faster) than cat 5, cat 5 is gone now, you are most likely being quoted for cat 5 e, cat 6 is about 4 times faster than cat 5e (as far as i remember) cat 6 e/cat a is 10 times faster than cat 6

/head spins

Don't mean to hijack the thread here, it is relevant:
So if someone quotes me for some CAT5 cable are they just trying to off-load what they've got on an unsuspecting punter or is there still any use for CAT5?

What should CAT5 not be hooked up to?

Stoner

CAT5 is fine, just slow, I doubt if anyone has a big stash of it to tell you the truth, the difference in price between cat 5 and cat 5e is/was small, but there is about a 60% speed difference

Cat 5 can do everything that cat5e can do , just slower.

However if you want to run a little PC network in your house cat5 and cat5e cables wont make the most of 10/100/1000 network cards and switches etc, ie they will restrict the max speed the pcs can communicate at.

Cat 6a (aka cat 6e , cat 7) unsure what they have settled on namewise but its speed is 10GB anyway so it can handle sending decent quality digital TV cable signals (not the HD signal from a sky box though) So if you want to do this you need Cat 6a cable for best results

r3nu4l

Nice one Stoner! I've just bought a house and will be doing some cabling in the next year or so...as Arnie might say...I'll be back (to you with questions at some stage)

Stoner

no probs, pm me if i miss the thread