# Cat 5, 5e, 6, or 6e cable - Does it matter?



## digger16309 (Sep 21, 2007)

It's been awhile since I setup my home network and Cat5 cabling works just fine.

Now that I am about to network my HR20, the cable choices have changed.

Does it matter which cable I use, 5, 5e, 6, or 6e?

Thanks


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

Doesn't really matter. Cat6 is rated for higher speeds than Cat5, but your DVR's ethernet interface won't take advantage of it anyway.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

At $4.80 for a 25' Cat 6 cable vs. $3.92 for a 25' Cat 5E cable (monoprice.com) why would you install a lesser cable? You may not need the capacity now, but at some point...


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## Shawn Parr (Feb 4, 2008)

As already mentioned, the higher the cat rating, the higher the theoretical speeds can be used. Anything above cat5e can easily do Gigabit ethernet, which it is unlikely the D* boxes are using.

One should also be aware that the cat6 and above specifications are a bit more delicate than the cat5 specifications, and if you don't treat your cable right, you basically 'downgrade' it to cat5 or cat5e. cat6 is rated for such high speed transfer and requires such low noise and reflection characteristics that if you have a sharp enough bend in the cable it causes the reflection rating to go out of spec and any equipment using it will only be able to do cat5e type speeds on it anyway. Of course it is all moot since we don't have a lot of 10Gb equipment, however if you are concerned about price or price/longevity be aware that you do need to treat cat6 more gently than you do cat5.

FYI, I'm trained but not certified for cat6 installation and termination.


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## BobZ (Feb 20, 2007)

Shawn Parr said:


> As already mentioned, the higher the cat rating, the higher the theoretical speeds can be used. Anything above cat5e can easily do Gigabit ethernet, which it is unlikely the D* boxes are using.
> 
> One should also be aware that the cat6 and above specifications are a bit more delicate than the cat5 specifications, and if you don't treat your cable right, you basically 'downgrade' it to cat5 or cat5e. cat6 is rated for such high speed transfer and requires such low noise and reflection characteristics that if you have a sharp enough bend in the cable it causes the reflection rating to go out of spec and any equipment using it will only be able to do cat5e type speeds on it anyway. Of course it is all moot since we don't have a lot of 10Gb equipment, however if you are concerned about price or price/longevity be aware that you do need to treat cat6 more gently than you do cat5.
> 
> FYI, I'm trained but not certified for cat6 installation and termination.


Cat 5 supports traditional 10/100 MB Ethernet 2 pair applications using pair 1,2 and 3,6. Gigabit Ethernet uses all 4 pair to transmit and receive simultaneously which Cat 5 was not really designed to do. The major reason that Cat 5e was developed was for support of Gigabit Ethernet. Cat 5e is fully capable of supporting Gigabit Ethernet to a full 100 meters. Cat 6 has a higher bandwidth (200 MHz compared to 100 MHz for Cat 5e) and may possibly support 10GBE to a limited distance, no more than 37 meters.

There is soon to be released a new higher bandwidth cabling system, Augmented Cat 6 (Cat 6A) that has a bandwidth of 500 MHz and was specifically developed to support 10GBE to 100 meters. The same installation guidelines apply for Cat 5e, Cat 6, and Cat 6A with respect to bend radius, pulling tension, etc. Both Cat 6 and Cat 6A are much more robust systems than Cat 5e.


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## bhaasie (Jan 17, 2008)

For the speeds your DVR is pulling through the network. Cat5e will do you just fine. No need to spend the money of cat6 unless you want to future proof (for a while that is)


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## digger16309 (Sep 21, 2007)

Thanks for all the information and advice. I went with 5e.


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## Scrapper (Feb 13, 2004)

litzdog911 said:


> Doesn't really matter. Cat6 is rated for higher speeds than Cat5, but your DVR's ethernet interface won't take advantage of it anyway.


Does anyone know what the Ethernet Interface in the HR20 is capable of? Is it limited to 100Mb, or even just 10Mb? I have looked around at some of the specs on this site and have not found what speed it can handle. Thanks in advance.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

Earl has said it's a 100/10Mbps NIC. I've seen it insert into my network at 100/full duplex.


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## badpacket (Feb 15, 2008)

CAT5e is more than enough. The ethernet interface is 100Mb. We ran a large enterprise entirely on Beldon DataTwist 350, with GigE to 55,000 network drops.
This cable plant was reinstalled 1999-2001, and we virtually eliminated the physical layers trouble tickets that rained in to the service desk on a daily basis.

Going to CAT6 or better when its ratified is probably more effort than it is worth. To actually get the benefits of the cable, it has to be installed properly, and to EIA/TIA/BICSI specs, which are challenging, and then needs to be tested. If you have 30K for test equipment, fine.
Otherwise, when the 800 or 900 series comes out that may have GigE ports, the 5e will work just fine.

Heck, if you want to future proof yourself, pull some multi-mode fiber, and slap a couple of fiber transceivers on each end....

www
worldofcables.com/oscatalog/CablesProductList/Fiber,%20LCLC,%20Duplex%20Multimode.htm


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