Solved CAT 7 or CAT 8?

I was just cleaning up a bit and took a look at my CAT cable. It's about 12 or 14 years old and a CAT 6.

My question , would a CAT 7 or CAT 8 bring any improvement to my internet experience ?
The darn thing is just yellowed out and not very nice to look at.

Here are a few I was looking at::




All your comments and knowledge will be appreciated.

Zero benefit at all. Cat 7 might be useful if you are doing 10 Gbps Ethernet on your internal network. Cat 8 is good if you are going outdoors at high speed.

But for "slow" Internet access (and I include even 2 Gbps Internet when I say "slow") cat 7 or 8 will make zero difference whatsoever over 5e or 6.

Note: For 2 Gbps Internet, you would want a minimum of 2.5 Gbps Ethernet to keep up. Many 2.5 Gbps Ethernet adapters / switches / routers / access points are fine with cat 5e at that speed but some may suggest cat 6.

Flashorn said:

My question , would a CAT 7 or CAT 8 bring any improvement to my internet experience ?

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No. Replace the old one with a new Cat 6 or 6a. But if you feel better with a higher Cat, buy it.

hsehestedt said:

Zero benefit at all. Cat 7 might be useful if you are doing 10 Gbps Ethernet on your internal network. Cat 8 is good if you are going outdoors at high speed.

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Thanks for that. I am only on a 1Gig network (home) and not doing anything special.
I was just looking at new cables and saw that it was up to Cat 8 so, I thought it might
be an improved protocol.

Are there any requirements for a home setup to run a Cat 7 or 8 cable? if I were to replace mine
with one?

Anibor_11 said:

But if you feel better with a higher Cat, buy it.

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Very funny. It wasn't a feeling it's just that I wasn't aware of any of the newer ones.
But, thanks for making me laugh.

And with that, my question is answered.

Thank you both for clarifying.

Easy Peasy .

My cables are 5e I believe, I had them run throughout the entire house when I had the house networked on build 14 years ago. They will need replacing. It’s going to be very expensive. Very…

antspants said:

They will need replacing.

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Well, if you go by the answers already given, you most likely won't need too.

I bought the house as is and only have one computer room. I am not looking
at extending the cabling now that I have BT peripherals which I did not even use
before this month. I am on my own since about 18 years ago when my Daughter
bought her condo after Uni. At least her Mom got to see her graduate.

Flashorn said:

Well, if you go by the answers already given, you most likely won't need too.

I bought the house as is and only have one computer room. I am not looking
at extending the cabling now that I have BT peripherals which I did not even use
before this month. I am on my own since about 18 years ago when my Daughter
bought her condo after Uni. At least her Mom got to see her graduate.

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I’d only replace them because I believe they are old. 14 years is a long time, and they might even be cat 5. I am expecting a fibre upgrade soon which will be offering an attainable 1000/1000Mbps. Plus, the house is surrounded by bushland, all sorts of animals get around in my ceiling area. I hear them getting around at night, snakes, probably possums and due to the way we built, rodents more than likely. I’d be surprised if they haven’t had a nibble. But obviously, an inspection will be needed. Due to the snakes, I wont be doing it.

You can always use powerline adapters to avoid dealing with cat cables.

TairikuOkami said:

You can always use powerline adapters to avoid dealing with cat cables.

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Back when I first seen this, apart from being amazed, I believe (at least for me) this wan’t available in Australia. Perhaps the Tech has improved.

TairikuOkami said:

You can always use powerline adapters to avoid dealing with cat cables.

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Need help and advice on broadband? Our guides provide simple, clear information to help you make informed decisions.

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Thanks for the info .
I just skimmed through and what comes out is the interference from other household items
connected to the mains.
I think to get the most out of this alternative would be to, have a separate line from the main box
or breaker to a new wall socket that is on it's own.
A different idea none the less.

TairikuOkami said:

You can always use powerline adapters to avoid dealing with cat cables.

Broadband Guides | Expert & Impartial Advice from Cable.co.uk

Need help and advice on broadband? Our guides provide simple, clear information to help you make informed decisions.

www.cable.co.uk

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I HATE powerline adapters with a passion. Over the years I think that I have had about 10 different models of powerline adapters and never ever even once did I have anything resembling even half decent performance. Don't get me wrong, they did work, but they were probably no better than one quarter of the speed claimed, and that's on a really good day three feet apart.

At least that was my experience.

antspants said:

I’d only replace them because I believe they are old. 14 years is a long time, and they might even be cat 5. I am expecting a fibre upgrade soon which will be offering an attainable 1000/1000Mbps. Plus, the house is surrounded by bushland, all sorts of animals get around in my ceiling area. I hear them getting around at night, snakes, probably possums and due to the way we built, rodents more than likely. I’d be surprised if they haven’t had a nibble. But obviously, an inspection will be needed. Due to the snakes, I wont be doing it.

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If they are 5e, Gigabit Ethernet will work perfectly fine, at least up to ~30 m lengths / runs.

I have a 3 story home, 2 stories above ground and a basement below. I have my fiber coming in to the basement, and all of the main networking down there (ONT, Residential Gateway, Primary Messh router base unit acting as an Access Point.

I ran a few Cat 6a cables where I could (from basement to main floor, and within the basement itself) but my lines to the second floor are all cat 5e. The one to my office has to be at least 20 meters in totality, as I was not present the one day they ran all the low voltage runs, and the builder let the electrician run them - so they are stapled to wall studs and make 90 degree bends, to boot. Yes, I cringed when I found direct evidence of this.

Still, I used my cable tested and verified that the one to my office, the my bedroom, and a side bedroom worked from their long run from the basement to the top floor. And now I'm running those as mesh satellite wired lines, turning my mesh system in to APs instead.

And not a single problem achieving full speeds when I connect directly, as my PC does with 3 NICs going into a gigabit switch and then to the AP.

I will say that I made all my own cables for stuff not in the walls, and I bought a small spool of Cat 6a (~100 m), so that could be part of the reason, but the cables in the walls in my home are all 5e with the notable exceptions in the basement (unfinished, so no walls lol) and the 2 runs from the basement to the main floor (barely 10 m each).

As long as the cables in the walls test out fine, 5e should not be a problem for your gigabit Ethernet connections.

Yeah, I’m cool with 5e, I just can’t remember what I bought and can’t find the receipt in my household expenses files. I bought a spool of 1000 meters from a friend but 14 years ago, it could of been Cat5. I have to call the guy that helped me and signed off on it (laws here require a professional electrician)

When I upgraded to Gigabit Internet my download speeds were bad. I thought it was the cable so I replaced the Cat 5/5e cables with Cat 6 cables. That made no difference. It turned out the problem was with my ISP and the modems configuration. Some of my computers still have Cat 5/5e cables. I see no speed difference between the computers with Cat 5/5e cables and Cat 6 cables. If I had had known I could have saved money and not bought the Cat 6 cables.

antspants said:

require a professional electrician)

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For data cabling? Time to move.

Here in Ontario CA, you need an accredited electrician for the firewire but, you can also do the
work inside yourself but is not recommended and if something should happen like a electrical fire
, from what I understand, your on your own. No coverage but, not for plumbing. Go figure.
In Quebec, it's the opposite. Once the electrical devices are attached to the exterior of the house
by the electrical company, you can do the interior yourself again with restrictions but, you need a
Real plumber for the plumbing.

MisterEd said:

When I upgraded to Gigabit Internet my download speeds were bad. I thought it was the cable so I replaced the Cat 5/5e cables with Cat 6 cables. That made no difference. It turned out the problem was with my ISP and the modems configuration. Some of my computers still have Cat 5/5e cables. I see no speed difference between the computers with Cat 5/5e cables and Cat 6 cables. If I had had known I could have saved money and not bought the Cat 6 cables.

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Try this :

Flashorn said:

Real plumber for the plumbing.

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Can I recommend my brother in law in Canada? He does plumbing for the rich and famous. That titbit aside, apparently his innovations in plumbing have caused quite a stir, we’re very proud of him.
But yeah, you need a pro here in Australia for anything electrical related, you can’t touch it, it has to be an electrician. Also, for insurance purposes, receipts/records are needed. And for networking, you actually need a cabling expert, but most of them are electricians anyway. Any cabling inside the house itself is fair game, just nothing in the ceiling, walls or under floorboards. By chance, my wifes building company built my home So I cheated.

I agree with the Powerline adapters having poor performance and it's more expensive than buying the wiring so you can change it out if it doesn't meet the speeds. I don't use your everyday CAT5 or whatever cables but Belden MediaTwist 1872A which I bought in I think 1999 in a 500ft or 1000ft spool. When I bought it, it was labeled as being able to handle gigabit and CAT 5 but the same cable is now CAT 6+:

It's also not round but crescent shaped so you need a special stripping tool to prepare the cable and it's also marketed as multimedia.



@antspants - I have heard that Australia has like dangerous and poisonous things like spiders but snakes too?!?!