Is CAT 5 cable fast enough for fibre broadband?

[SonicHedgeHog]

We’re upgrading to full fibre at the end of the month with speeds up to 250mbps. We need a new master socket installed which gives us the opportunity to move it from its current inconvenient location. One solution involves using some Cat 5 cable already buried in the walls to allow the router to be located in the middle of the house, about 5 metres from the master socket. The question is, will we lose internet speed setting it up this way? Google says we should be fine up to 1000mbps but there’s always a caveat somewhere…..

[Funk]

CAT5 is technically rated to 100Mbps at 100Mhz but can often go faster over short distances. CAT5e is rated to 1000Mbps at 100Mhz up to 100m. CAT6 is rated for 1000Mbps at 250Mhz.

If it's CAT5 in the wall, you might possibly find it becomes a bottleneck with your FTTP depending on the length of the run but at just 5m I think you might find it's sufficient. Was the existing CAT5 put in conduits - ie. could you pull a run of CAT5e (or even CAT6 if there are no severe bend radii)?

Edited by Funk on Monday 15th January 18:40

[RizzoTheRat]

When you say buried in the walls, is it plastered in or in ducts? I used the old phone cables that were installed in ducts in my place to pull new Cat5e cables through. Cat5e is supposed to be good up to about 1 GB so I didn't think it was worth the hassle of trying to pull thicker, stiffer Cat6 or 7.

[SonicHedgeHog]

Thanks for that. Just tried to check the invoice from our 2007 rewire and there is no mention of what cable was used. Given cat5e came in in 2001 I reckon there is a fairly good chance that is what they used. So it sounds like we might be ok (he says crossing his fingers)

[SonicHedgeHog]

I don’t know if the cable is installed in ducting. Even if it is (I doubt it) it’s such an awkward route that there is a very good chance it would snag somewhere if I tried to change it. I’d rather think of an alternative solution than change the cable.

[xeny]

Temporarily plug a device with gigabit ethernet in to each end of the suspect run - check what speed the link comes up at.

[SonicHedgeHog]

xeny said:

Temporarily plug a device with gigabit ethernet in to each end of the suspect run - check what speed the link comes up at.

Like two laptops, one at each end? Not sure we have two devices that can do that.

[xeny]

SonicHedgeHog said:

Like two laptops, one at each end? Not sure we have two devices that can do that.

Laptop and the existing or an old router? You've not got a spare little gigabit switch around the house or that you can borrow overnight from work?

[Mr Pointy]

SonicHedgeHog said:

Thanks for that. Just tried to check the invoice from our 2007 rewire and there is no mention of what cable was used. Given cat5e came in in 2001 I reckon there is a fairly good chance that is what they used. So it sounds like we might be ok (he says crossing his fingers)

Can you see any of the jacket to see what is printed on it?

[Bikerjon]

Is any of the cable exposed? It should have Cat5 or Cat5e stamped on it.

[Sheets Tabuer]

If it were me I'd go for cat8 and a Cisco Nexus, wouldn't want to drop a frame watching iplayer.

[CharlesElliott]

I have CAT5 in my 20 year old house, and I can get 1Gb Full Duplex between devices without any issues. Runs are up to around 40m.

[Condi]

Does it really matter?

How often are you using any where near 100Mb/s let alone 250?

[SonicHedgeHog]

Thanks for all the replies. I’ll take a socket apart tomorrow and have a look for markings. In truth the most data we need is streaming an HD movie and that isn’t going to require 100mbps. We’ve only switched to get a more reliable connection at no extra cost.

I’ve also only just realised that the telephone needs to be plugged into the new router and not a telephone socket so that means making more cables and power sockets work. Things are never as simple as they first appear with this kind of stuff….

[Condi]

With 100Mb/s you could stream 4 4K movies at once. I wouldn't stress about it, and certainly wouldn't be taking apart the house for it!

[dickymint]

Condi said:

With 100Mb/s you could stream 4 4K movies at once. I wouldn't stress about it, and certainly wouldn't be taking apart the house for it!

This ^^^

[andybracing]

i have 30 whatevers, and never had a problem, had and was paying through the nose for 90, reduced it and not noticed the difference, films stream ok etc, admit not a heavy user tho, and no kids in the house

[xeny]

andybracing said:

i have 30 whatevers, and never had a problem, had and was paying through the nose for 90, reduced it and not noticed the difference, films stream ok etc, admit not a heavy user tho, and no kids in the house

Discussing bandwidth use around the office, we concluded the biggest real use for very fast broadband was downloading games/game updates reasonably quickly.

If nobody in the house games or WFH with large volumes of data then 30-40Mbit for each potential HD video stream is enough.

[Baldchap]

If it went in in 07 I'm willing to bet my hair it's 5e.

[SonicHedgeHog]

So there isn’t enough cable in the socket to determine what it is. If it’s only cat 5 I can live with it although I agree it is most likely to be cat 5e. We’ve only gone for such a high speed because there was no price difference between that and a lower speed and it’s still cheaper than our regular broadband.

It’ll be interesting to see where the engineer is prepared to put the new master socket. I’m guessing it’ll have to be on an external wall which does limit options somewhat. It’s never straightforward is it?