Home wiring - what kind?

Colonel Claptrap

Hi,

My home is wired with Ethernet points in most rooms.

How can I tell what type of cable is used?
Visually, is there a difference between CAT3 or CAT6 for example?

Thanks

Johnboy1951

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Hi,

My home is wired with Ethernet points in most rooms.

How can I tell what type of cable is used?
Visually, is there a difference between CAT3 or CAT6 for example?

Thanks

You think you might have Cat3? Wow!

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/differences-between-ethernet-cables/

Colonel Claptrap

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You think you might have Cat3? Wow!

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/differences-between-ethernet-cables/

Haha I'm hoping I don't!

Thanks for the article, but I'm still stumped. Is there any way to visually know by looking at the outlet?

To clarify, I'm trying to buy appropriate cables to connect to devices. There's no point buying super fast CAT6 if there's a CAT5 bottleneck in the wall.

Broadband services have not yet been switched on by my provider so I can't run a speed test yet.

Cheers

Johnboy1951

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Haha I'm hoping I don't!

Thanks for the article, but I'm still stumped. Is there any way to visually know by looking at the outlet?

To clarify, I'm trying to buy appropriate cables to connect to devices. There's no point buying super fast CAT6 if there's a CAT5 bottleneck in the wall.

Broadband services have not yet been switched on by my provider so I can't run a speed test yet.

Cheers

Between wall and device is usually a fairly short run so Cat5e is as good as you need.
If you wanted to go longer distances then Cat6 might be appropriate, or if you wanted to future proof a commercial install then you might want to make allowance for 10Gb/s by using Cat6.

Cat5e will give 1Gb/s which is plenty IMO.
Cat6, although it is not shown in that link, has a centre plastic core in an X shape and the wires are divided in the four parts of the X. This makes it very difficult to handle in some circumstances and its turn radius is limited because of the centre piece.



Cat6 is also probably better for 'noisy' environments.

heroics

Colonel Claptrap wrote: »

Haha I'm hoping I don't!

Thanks for the article, but I'm still stumped. Is there any way to visually know by looking at the outlet?

To clarify, I'm trying to buy appropriate cables to connect to devices. There's no point buying super fast CAT6 if there's a CAT5 bottleneck in the wall.

Broadband services have not yet been switched on by my provider so I can't run a speed test yet.

Cheers

Take a faceplate off it's usually its written on the cable.

TBH Cat5e is fine for 1GB/s at 100 metres so will be fine for patch leads in the home.

heroics

Beaten to it by Johnboy