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Should Network Cables Be Replaced?

Posted by timothy on from the depends-where-you-work dept.

Jyms writes "As technology changes, so hubs routers and switches are upgraded, but does the cabling need replacing, and if so, how often? Coax gave way to CAT 5 and CAT 5e replaced that. If you are running a 100Mbit/s network on old CAT 5, can that affect performance? Do CAT 5(e) cables get old?"

4 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. No by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do not replace network cables just to do it. That is a waste of time and money Replace them in two situations:

    1) You are moving to a faster signaling speed and need better cabling. 10mbps requires Cat-3, 100mbps requires Cat-5, 1000mbps requires Cat-5e. Do not run higher speeds on lower standards, it works sometimes but often it "works" in that you get link but there's all kind of errors.

    2) A cable has a fault. Sometimes they will break because of strain. In this case, you need to replace them to make them work.

    Barring that, keep the cable you have. No reason to replace it just for fun. Also no reason to upgrade to new standards without a reason. It isn't as though it makes shit work better. 10mbps is 10mbps no matter if it is on Cat-3 or Cat-6. Also sometimes you get standards that aren't useful. Cat-6 is likley to never be useful for anything. 1gbps only needs Cat-5e, and 10gbps is likley to require Cat-6a. So if you upgraded a Cat-5e network to Cat-6 to prepare for faster speeds, well then you probably wasted your money and will have to upgrade again to Cat-6a if you want 10gbps.

  2. Overkill... by volxdragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bull - you can do Gig-E (IEEE 802.3ab) perfectly fine up to the 100 meter spec over regular old CAT-5 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_ethernet. You don't need CAT-5e or CAT-6 unless you have incredibly shitty cable, splices, runs approaching max length, or too many patch panels along the route (IE, a crappy install in the first place).

    Now, I personally use shielded CAT-6 for everything, but I believe in overkill :)

    1. Re:Overkill... by wilby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Please don't blame "Electricians".

      Whoever did your cabling was unqualified to do the work he was hired to do. (Usually the the fault of whoever hired them.)

      There are several electrical contractors who are qualified to do data work.

  3. Re:Cat6 by atamido · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, transfer speeds can vary greatly depending on the hardware being using, including the Ethernet controller, bus, CPU, drivers, etc.

    No, transfer speeds will NOT vary for two cables with the same 1000BASE-T link and no Ethernet transmission errors. I'd suggest you get some hardware that lets you monitor for Ethernet transmission errors (not TCP/IP errors) and run your test again.

    A 100M Cat5e cable will transfer at the same rate as a 100M Cat6 cable IF there are no transmission errors. In my experience, a well terminated Cat5e cable does not get regular Ethernet transmission errors with a 1000BASE-T link.