Cat 5 or cat 6 network?

[Piff]

Currently have cat 5 network at home and don't use it to it's full potential.
Starting new home soon (refurb & extension of existing property).
Will install a network again and had assumed cat 5.
At county show recently got talking to a "home auto-motion" guy. He said that they only install cat 6 networks now - much better than cat 5!
Couple of questions:-
What is the advantage of cat 6 over cat 5?
Would all existing pc's, laptops, xbox, etc. need new network cards to work with cat 6?

 

[moonloops]

Currently have cat 5 network at home and don't use it to it's full potential.
Starting new home soon (refurb & extension of existing property).
Will install a network again and had assumed cat 5.
At county show recently got talking to a "home auto-motion" guy. He said that they only install cat 6 networks now - much better than cat 5!
Couple of questions:-
What is the advantage of cat 6 over cat 5?
Would all existing pc's, laptops, xbox, etc. need new network cards to work with cat 6?

stick with cat5(e) as it can do gigabit without the cost of cat6. IIRC cat6 needs a minimum bend radius so you can't mash it into small spaces

 

[grober]

As far as I know its just better quality cable and fully backward compatible. Category 6 cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[iscaboy]

Currently have cat 5 network at home and don't use it to it's full potential.
Starting new home soon (refurb & extension of existing property).
Will install a network again and had assumed cat 5.
At county show recently got talking to a "home auto-motion" guy. He said that they only install cat 6 networks now - much better than cat 5!
Couple of questions:-
What is the advantage of cat 6 over cat 5?
Would all existing pc's, laptops, xbox, etc. need new network cards to work with cat 6?

No such thing as a cat5/6 network really.

CATx where x is a number is basically the specification of the cable.

CAT5 will cover anything in any normal / mid / high automated home, but CAT6 / ^a etc costs more per metre, lovely money.

Basically never install cable, install cable ducts an leave a mouse in each one, then you can add anything at any time.

Don't forget that gigabit gear costs a lot more, and 16 mbit/sec is enough to stream very high quality 1080p, so 100 mbit PER CABLE is enough for anyone.

 

[Colin_b]

Cat5, certified to 100mb/s, will do 1gb if in perfect condition.
Cat5e, 1gb, different construction to cat5 (different wire interweave)
Cat 6, 1gb, as Cat5e + POE (power over ethernet), fatter conductors.

You don't need Cat6 unless you are using network powered devices like IP phones switches or routers.

If you have cat 5 and it works, leave it. If not, replace the patch leads then check connections perfect.

From new Cat5e, unless power needed,

Fibre is faster

 

[agatward]

With respect to Colin_b, the information about PoE is incorrect.

Both standard PoE (802.3af) and PoE+ (802.3at) are designed to run over CAT5 cable or better. As such they assume 24AWG wire and are limited to a maximum power delivery compatible with the losses and distances involved with that type of cable.

You can also run 10Gb Ethernet over CAT6 up to a distance of 33m or so, and over CAT6A cable up to 100m.

We are still running CAT5e everywhere at work, as we cannot justify the cost, and in the lifetime of the cable do not anticipate going above 1Gb/s data rate to the desktop. Even within our data centres we still use CAT5e, as anything above 1Gb/s we run on fibre optic cabling to avoid crosstalk issues.

I am surprised that your AV installer mentioned CAT6, as most AV installers are going for CAT6A now. This has slightly different construction to CAT6 in that it has mylar (I think) cores as well, which act to physically separate the pairs from each other within the cable. I also believe CAT6A is screened by default, so requires special termination and has an ever larger minimum bend radius.

Hope this helps,

Andy.

 

[Piff]

Thanks - all of the above replies useful.
When I said Cat 6, I may have mis-heard the AV man - he may have said cat 6A.
He was trying to sell a system to me to pipe audio around the house, using Sonos gear
However, from their display boards, I could see that they were also into whole house automation - lights/curtains/etc/etc.
I don't think I would ever want to go that far, but I would like to set up the network better in the next house - currently we only use it for PC's, laptops & game consoles.
It would be good to add audio/video, even if the basic network is installed first with the expensive control gear added at a later date.