Have an old Ethernet Cable, time to replace it

[Romer]

When we moved in to this house in 2008, I ran an ethernet cable through the wall to my wife's study

Last week she was telling me how her Internet is slow at times when she is multi tasking. So I did a speed test and she had a max rate of 87 MBS. That didn't seem right so I ran the same test on my computer and got 747 MBS.

I swapped her position on the router and got the same thing

I noticed her Ethernet cable was thinner than mine and so I looked up what was available in 2008 and it was CAT 5 with a top speed of 100 MBS

I ordered a new CAT 8 cable and her internet is now just as fast as mine

Just thought I would share

 

[RetiredAt49]

https://www.learnabhi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ethernet-cable-min-1280x720.jpg

 

[RunningBum]

The surprising thing here is that she noticed 87 Mbps as slow. Probably not too many households see a difference in 1Gbps over 100M but yours is one. Mine isn't. Just an observation. And that is a good tip to share.

 

[Romer]

The surprising thing here is that she noticed 87 Mbps as slow. Probably not too many households see a difference in 1Gbps over 100M but yours is one. Mine isn't. Just an observation. And that is a good tip to share.

Yeah, when she asked me to look at it, I didn't think it was slow. I ran the speed test and since our service is supposed to be 1GB, it didn't seem right.

She does like to have multiple windows open one with a video and an online game in another and sometimes even other stuff in a third all running at the same time.

she said she has noticed it is much faster. Who am I to argue with my wife being happy at something I did. Those are moments to be savored

 

[Sunset]

Thanks OP and RetiredAt49

I never would think to check this out, but the cable in the house from where the cable company connects has been in place for many years.

If it's a CAT 5, I'll have to replace it before the next upgrade as getting 100 Mbs is almost the minimum offered around here

 

[Major Tom]

I have 10GBps service, but "only" get 1GBps, as that is all my ethernet cable and ethernet ports are rated for. In reality, I get about 930Mbps. It's a tough life!

Good point, that these days, the speeds we achieve in practice can be limited by our hardware, as opposed to our internet service.

 

[frank]

talking about internet speed with the cat cables, what speed are you getting with the wireless on your laptops and other devices?

 

[Romer]

talking about internet speed with the cat cables, what speed are you getting with the wireless on your laptops and other devices?

I Have a Surface 7+ and an Orbi whole house wifi system

Running the test back to back on my Desktop with Ethernet and then my Surface on wifi I get

Desktop - 753Mbps Ethernet
Surface - 484 Mbps Wifi

Both pretty fast and will do anything you want

Most of my TVs stream via wifi using an Amazon Firestick. I still have Cable and use the firestick with the Xfinity app to save money on the monthly box rentals. Wifi speeds are never a problem streaming anywhere in the house

I suppose I could get rid of the Ethernet and run the desktops off of wifi. Maybe next generation of technology.

 

[JoeWras]

Cat 5 old? Nah. This is old ethernet.

 

[jimbee]

I just ran speedtest.net on my main desktop machine, connected via the cat 5 cable I installed twenty three years ago and measured 366 Mbps down. Since my ISP service is rated at 300 Mbps, I'm happy with that.

Running speedtest.net on my Pixelbook connected via 5 Ghz wifi, I measured 350 Mbps down.

 

[JoeWras]

I have no problem with my cat 5 cabling I did in the aughts. 100Mbps and more, all I need. It "overclocks" very easily, but really, I don't typically need it.

OP may have had a damaged cable or connector. That will really set you back.

For the majority of us, we don't have to rip out all our cat 5 -- yet.

 

[eytonxav]

My house has Cat5e which is plenty fast as it gives me full 500mb throughput which is what my interest service is supposed to deliver.

 

[target2019]

About a month ago I replaced CAT 5 run from newer wifi router to my office switch. I also replaced an old fast ethernet switch for gigabit in the office. Along the way I found many CAT 5 patch cables. So a roll of CAT 6 and 10 patch cables replaced shortcomings I didn't really notice. <g>

The newer connectors were expensive.

An interesting find was the new TP Link 12-port switch uses far less power than the old Dell monstrosity I had for over ten years.

 

[Romer]

Cat 5 old? Nah. This is old ethernet.

Lol when my previous house was being built I went in and prewired the whole house with those cables. Two years later that was obsolete.

@JoeWras - It may have been a damaged cable

Since my study and my wifes study are next to each other, it is easy to replace the cable through the small hole I drilled that is behind a bookcase. For the rest of the house and many other components, the whole house Orbi wifi is just fine

I know this really is a non problem. the under 100 Mbps performance she was having is fine for most anything you do.

I am an engineer and build our computers and was surprised at the difference between older Ethernet cables and current standard. I hadn't kept up with that.

I can see for many this is , Meh! I mean that with good humor

I figure My internet provider gives 1Gbps service, I should make sure I am taking full advantage of that

 

[target2019]

Made money from the CAT 3 runs. Made money with the updated CAT 5 runs...

 

[easysurfer]

Years back I bought a 100ft ethernet cable for a friend. She had spotty wifi so I went the hard wired route. I still have some of that cable and when need a cable of various lengths, end up making my own. Nice to have the cables of tailored lengths.

 

[skyking1]

I did a lot of wiring over the years and rented a high priced testing rig to certify the runs on the last big one.
They have come down in price, this will do the same thing as the $9000 certification tester would do.
https://www.tequipment.net/TREND-Networks/SignalTEK-10GPRO/Network-Testers-and-Analyzers/?Source=googleshopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces-across-google&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmN2iBhCrARIsAG_G2i7LHR5HCeGEknpfbTI2qr-i-PiYrxpiR7DroPEkNNgr6JAK-3lymUkaAr8KEALw_wcB

I learned that even a small booboo in termination will fail a 10 GB test, or a 1Gb test. Just a small discrepancy in length out past the center spline of CAT6 does it.
Cat 5 will do 1Gb over the full hundred meters.
Cat6 will do 10Gb over 55 meters at the most.
It is also unforgiving of sloppy termination. Just plugging in a the cheap blinking light tester and having all the lights working is not enough.

 

[skyking1]

Made money from the CAT 3 runs. Made money with the updated CAT 5 runs...

In the old buildings we worked on, we called that the seismic reinforcing program.
Nobody wrecked out the old wire and we kept weaving new copper through there.
That nursing home that I last worked for had 25 pair phone cable to each telephone. When I updated to a digital system I used 1 pair for that.

 

[gauss]

Cat 5 old? Nah. This is old ethernet.

Thicknet!

Thanks for the memories

-gauss

 

[harley]

When we built in 2008 I had Cat 5e and coax run to all the rooms from a central box. Now, 16 years later, we don't use a single ethernet cable and only one coax (from outside to the router). It's all wifi. What a waste.

 

[mpeirce]

When we built in 2008 I had Cat 5e and coax run to all the rooms from a central box. Now, 16 years later, we don't use a single ethernet cable and only one coax (from outside to the router). It's all wifi. What a waste.

My previous house had Cat-5 (circa 1999) to all rooms from the utility room (hub). That was very useful at the time.

In our current place, we only ran ethernet from the hub (a closet where the internet comes into the building) to the two TVs. We put mesh routers there and hook the Apple TV’s ethernet to them.

So we’re hardwired to two spots (which just happen to have TVs) giving a central WiFi router and two satellite mesh routers. The best of both worlds.

The current cat-5e wiring runs gigabit just fine. I’m not running a business so that's way more bandwidth than we need at this point.

 

[JoeWras]

Years back I bought a 100ft ethernet cable for a friend. She had spotty wifi so I went the hard wired route. I still have some of that cable and when need a cable of various lengths, end up making my own. Nice to have the cables of tailored lengths.

What standard is it?

For all, the whole "category" thing: cat 5, 5e, 6, 6a, etc. ... Know that the difference is in the way the cable is built. Cables of a higher standard have more twists. I almost failed fields theory in electrical engineering class, but I remember something about induction. The idea is more twists throw off the geometry of induced current, so there is less "cross talk.". More twists means more copper and more money. There are other differences too in shielding and other details.

Quality cat 5 with good terminations will way out perform 100mb.

BTW, "punch down" connectors vary in quality wildly. Bad terminations will kill the speed of good wiring. I think this reiterates what was said above by skyking.

We had a lot of homemade cables in our lab. One tech made gold cables, the other made cables only good for ligature runs by the mafia. They couldn't pass a signal past 10 mbps. Sloppy terminations.

 

[skyking1]

the new house will get a run of RG-6 quad shield and a couple of CAT 6 drops to each logical TV location. I won't terminate any of it until it gets called for.
I won't even cut in the low voltage box. It will all wait patiently behind the sheet rock.
I will put it in some smurf tube. I could pull in fiber or dilithium proof plasma conduit or whatever the next standard is.
The cable is leftovers from jobs. I have at least 5 part boxes of cat5e and cat6 and a couple partials of the RG-6.
I have a method, I run the smurf up the stud bay where the TV may wall mount, cut it at 12" for a low plate, and then on up to behind the wall tv mount.
Drag the cables to the top. Take a picture and a tape measure, put it on a wire plant map and then cover it up.
If I use just one it is priceless, and I have all the material that others paid for.
You learn to get lots of boxes when dragging in a job. Pull all the drops through an area all at once so you don't try to drag another cable by and burn through a jacket.

Behind a wall mount TV is not a bad spot to hide an AP.
I also don't care for mesh systems. I would always use POE AP's on a wire.

 

[easysurfer]

What standard is it?

For all, the whole "category" thing: cat 5, 5e, 6, 6a, etc. ... Know that the difference is in the way the cable is built. Cables of a higher standard have more twists. I almost failed fields theory in electrical engineering class, but I remember something about induction. The idea is more twists throw off the geometry of induced current, so there is less "cross talk.". More twists means more copper and more money. There are other differences too in shielding and other details.

Quality cat 5 with good terminations will way out perform 100mb.

BTW, "punch down" connectors vary in quality wildly. Bad terminations will kill the speed of good wiring. I think this reiterates what was said above by skyking.

We had a lot of homemade cables in our lab. One tech made gold cables, the other made cables only good for ligature runs by the mafia. They couldn't pass a signal past 10 mbps. Sloppy terminations.

The cables I've made with the 100 ft cable is cat 5e. Just so happens that was the cat I bought at the time. If you are going to run various hard wired cables, probably more economical the make you own than buy separately. If you have to patience and like to fiddle a bit with the necessary tools like crimper. I also have a tester (not speed test but that wire does transfer) to make sure the cables are good and not a dud.

 

[O2Bfree]

Made money from the CAT 3 runs. Made money with the updated CAT 5 runs...

Same here, as the company I w*rked for makes network cable testers. The need for speed makes for some great businesses!