Should Network Cables Be Replaced?

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?"

Comments

Re:Overkill...

[Kintanon]

That's what happens when ELECTRICIANS run your data cable.
We came in behind an electrician that had taken every cable in the wiring closet, stripped the shielding off to about 1 foot from the wall, and neatly bundled each color of wire pairs together for about 100 cables. So we had a huge bundle of blue, then one of blue/white, then one of orange etc... pairs.
Same guy tried to run network jacks in serial the way you can do telephone cable or electrical.
Same guy would strip 4-6 inches of shielding off before punching down (incorrectly) at the jacks.

Electricians just see it as low voltage electrical. The master electrician running the crew might know the difference, but the apprentice who is actually doing the work has no clue.

So please, hire a real data wiring company to run your cables.