I always forget the speed differences (and other specs) for ethernet cables. I can find what I need from various sources, but I haven’t been able to find a good chart with the info I want to print out at work. Most likely I’ll create my own, but I’m curious what’s already out there.

Looks like we’re up to CAT8 now, with limit of 30meters, whereas CAT7 and lower are all 100m at their base speeds. Here’s my basic cheatsheet:

CAT5 - 100Mbps, 100 Mhz

5e - 1Gbps

6 - 1Gbps (10Gbps < 55meters), 250 Mhz

6a - 10Gbps, 500 Mhz

[2nd attempt at posting. Timed out earlier.]

  • Nollij
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    1 year ago

    You can run 10gbps over wire coat hangers, if the connection is short enough and external factors are small enough. The longer it is and the more interference, the less likely that becomes.

    It looks like generally speaking, 37-55 meters (120-180 feet) is the common limit where this becomes infeasible. Will it work beyond that? Maybe. Or maybe it’ll work some of the time. Or it’ll always say 10G, but you get a lot of lost packets.

    If you’re wiring new, go Cat6a. Better yet, run conduit. That way you can easily run cat6a now, and later replace it with cat8 or fiber or whatever becomes the standard.