Is upgrading to Cat6 worth it?

I'm thinking of changing my network to cat6 as the whole of the house is
being decorated and it would be easy to do at present.

Does Cat6 cable make a big difference to the speed of the network compared
to Cat5e?

Do the terminals make a big difference?

I have 2 PCs (another 2 being added shortly) connected through a Draytek
Vigor Router. Would the router bring the network speed down even if I had
cat6 and Gigabit LAN cards in each PC.

Cheers

--
Steven
Don't give me any cheek if personally replying ;o)

Steven Campbell wrote:
> Does Cat6 cable make a big difference to the speed of the network compared
> to Cat5e?

No. Unless you're running huge lengths of Cat5 in a single run (i.e.
more than three hundred feet between nodes) you'll notice no difference
'twix Cat5e and Cat6.

> Do the terminals make a big difference?

So long as they're properly terminated, no. If you are in an area with
a great deal of EMI/RFI (a machine workshop with high-powered DC motors,
for example) a sheilded terminal is good (as is sheilded cabling), but
again you'll see no difference between Cat5 STP and Cat6 STP.

> I have 2 PCs (another 2 being added shortly) connected through a Draytek
> Vigor Router. Would the router bring the network speed down even if I had
> cat6 and Gigabit LAN cards in each PC.

Assuming you're using the switch built in to the Vigor, then yes; the
switch is a 10/100 model meaning it has a maximum throughput of 100Mb/s
(200Mb/s full duplex, if supported) on any given port. Thus a gigabit
(1000Mb/s) card will autoneg down to 100Mb/s, rendering the gigabit card
an expensive 100Mb card.

Save your money and (if you really want gigabit everywhere) spend it on
a gigabit switch instead.

--
-Gareth Halfacree
http://gareth.halfacree.co.uk

On 23 Aug 2005 15:20, "Steven Campbell" wrote:

> Would the router bring the network speed down even if I had cat6 and
> Gigabit LAN cards in each PC.

Yes, like any connection from A to B, the limit on speed is the slowest
intermediate connection. In my case I have 10/100 cards in most PCs but
rarely need 100 Mbps, let alone anything faster.

I have a 4-port 100 Mbps unit which I put at the centre point of my LAN,
with 2 links to one floor and 2 to another (different rooms, of course).

But with internet traffic to homes still (generally) being below 10 Mbps
I'd say it may be a while until there's a need for many households to go
over 100 Mbps. Your needs may be different - if you were to be working
on a film for example, then a 90 minute feature will take a fair amount
of disk space, and you may only be working on a few minutes of it at a
time, so would pull a chunk, work on it, store that version, get more...

> On 23 Aug 2005 15:20, "Steven Campbell" wrote:
>
> > Would the router bring the network speed down even if I had cat6 and
> > Gigabit LAN cards in each PC.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
Looks like the consensus is cat 6 and the various terminals doesn't make a
considerable amount of difference and the router will indeed bring the speed
down .
I need a new switch so will probably get a gigabit one and connect all the
PC's through this with an uplink to the router.

Cheers again

Steven.

In article <430b30b0$0$17469$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Steven Campbell says...

> Does Cat6 cable make a big difference to the speed of the network compared
> to Cat5e?
>
Non whatsoever.

--
Conor

The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb. - Pink Floyd