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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?"
Just like any cable, cables will break. So, yes, they do get old.
Also, there is cat6 cables out with better specs and can handle at least up 10gb/sec.
For best performance, replace it with a genuine high performance cable like this: http://www.usa.denon.com/productdetails/3429.asp
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Should I have a plumber re-run copper all over my house?
maybe if your new sink is capable of 1000 gpm (gallons per minute) and the pipes can only provide 100 gpm. but that's only if you care about using your new sink to its full potential.
You should replace your tired old CAT5 with brand new, all-gold Monster-CAT6+++++++!
Only $1000 a foot, starting in 10 foot increments!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I am responsible for a 17 location VPN base WAN for a retail chain. We use Cat5e for everything, but in the end, it hardly matters, because Cat3 at 10 mbps is still over four times faster than the T-1 that it talks to the outside world with.
But we don't work with large files internally, even here in the corporate office. If one is working with gigabyte sized files on a regular basis, on a local network, it would matter.
Obligatory:
When it was installed, your old cable had to run signals uphill through the snow, both directions. They didn't have electrons back then, they had to nake do with quarks. Time hadn't been invented yet, so the direction and speed of network traffic was hard to estimate.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I'm not sure what would "get old" exactly. It's insulated copper, so I think it should be good so long as they aren't damaged. If anyone knows better, feel free to correct me.
If you want to be sure, though, test them. Transfer files over your network. If the connection is bad, you can try replacing the cable and see if that works. But the fact that Cat6 is out doesn't mean you have to rush out and replace all your CAT5e cables, especially if you're only dealing with normal 100mbps connections. But I use CAT5e for 1gbps connections, and that seems to work fine.
These people should be able to help you.
Seriously though, what strange question. Either the cable works and you're happy with the bandwidth it provides, or it stops working and you replace it, or you want to upgrade it. What's the complication here?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It's not pipes. It's a series of tubes.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
If you do not, then cracks will appear and bits will start to drip from it. Soon, that drip will become bigger and you will have bytes dropping out. Cheaper to replace them now, then to lose all those bytes. I can be over there next week to replace them all for a low low price.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
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.
maybe if your new sink is capable of 1000 gpm (gallons per minute) and the pipes can only provide 100 gpm. but that's only if you care about using your new sink to its full potential.
The bathroom stalls where I work are always full. There's not enough toilets for the number of butts. They could certainly benefit from upgraded bathroom bandwidth.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
its the interfaces, not the bandwidth
rewriting history since 2109
"If it ain't broke, don't replace it with Cat6."
Seriously, replacing cable is gigantic pain in the ass, when you could be doing better things with your time. Not to mention, it's expensive if you have a large enough installation-- this is why people are spending so much to keep Cat5e creaking along.
If it's working, and you're happy with it, keep it. If you need something faster, or it doesn't work anymore, or you need to meet new fire codes, well, that answers your question.
Remember, wires are solid state electronics. There's not much to go wrong there unless you're in extreme environments.
The bathroom stalls where I work are always full. There's not enough toilets for the number of butts. They could certainly benefit from upgraded bathroom bandwidth.
yeah, I'm sure the bandwidth (drain pipe) is large enough for all the shit. It sounds more like they need to increase the number of connections allowed.
We replaced all of our Type 1 cabling at my company after the tokens started falling out.
"What the hell is an aluminum falcon?"
Cables don't get "old" by themselves, but they might have been installed incorrectly from the start (too tight bending, swapped pairs/cables, twisted pairs separated for a longer distance, shields not connected properly, grounding done wrong). Furthermore mechanical stress (too much work being done on a patch panel over the course of several years, cables pulled hard while moving racks, ...) might have damaged parts of the cabling.
To cut a long story short: Properly done CAT5 should be good enough for Gigabit, but often what's called CAT5 works well for 100 Mbit networks even though it doesn't meet the specs.
Get a decent LAN tester (not just two computers, using "ping") that prints out attenuation, crosstalk and all the other things... and preferably tells you what "category" your cabling still is compatible with. Replace all the stuff that's out of spec. Then you have hard numbers you can rely on should you ever ponder if your local network infrastructure can handle 100M/1G/10G bit/s. Everything else is guesswork.
I kind of took this article more to be suggesting that we should be looking at newer data transmission technologies and materials - not so much continuing in a line, all involving copper.
There are some recent reports released stating that *really* common elements used in technology are about to become exhausted resources - most in the next 10 years, but some as soon as 4 years from now.
For instance, at our current rate of consumption, Indium will be exhausted in four years. Indium is used for current generation LCD displays, among other things.
Gold and copper are in the same boat. The US already has closed down most of its gold mines, and all of its copper mines because they're not economically viable to mine for anymore. Predictions put gold and copper at exhausted in around 10 years.
And none of these projections take into account population growth or new technology demands. It's only at "current consumption rates".
In other words:
Should we be looking to upgrade cabling to fiber optics or other mediums for transmission of data, so that we can begin reclaiming copper to be used in more essential capacities?
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 :)
OF WHAT?! Ewww...
Instead of increasing bandwidth, what about using traffic-shaping instead? I'm not sure if this is something that could be automated, or if it would need to be done manually [shudder].
Obviously, to anyone familiar with overselling is aware of, the problem is not the number of users for the bandwidth assigned. The problem is likely that 2% of your poopers consume (bad word choice, I know) 98% of your bandwidth, resulting in a logjam of epic proportions just after lunch. They key would be to cap their usage, so that everyone else can use the bandwidth in moderate amounts.
Most likely, your excessive users are illegally logsharing anyway. There can't be any legitimate reason for someone to spend 4 hours a workday on the crapper, can there?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Yes, but make sure all the connectors are gold plated - it helps to improve the quality of the water.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
"Should I make work for myself on a complicated, invasive, lengthy, and hard to stop project so I can continue to justify my job in a recession?"
No.
If you're going to do anything, upgrade to fiber.
--
$tar -xvf
***Copper pipes actually do lose capacity in normal use, at least with hard water. So I'd replace those cables if you've been running hard bits through them.*** In order to avoid problems like this in the future, we recommend that you install a Scamcraft 357A Bit Softener on each network port that operates at speeds greater than 10Mbps.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
It isn't as though higher grade materials really cost that much more. There are better grades of the materials that go in to a cable. That is the difference between some cheap wire from a hardware store and something like, say, a professional Belden cable. However you'll discover that the cost difference between the two isn't a whole lot. Cheap RG-59 might run you $0.10/foot and Belden 1694A might run you $0.50/foot.
So yes, they'll often use good materials, because they don't come anywhere near the sales price. For $500 I imagine I could make you a Cat-5 cable using silver conductors if you wanted (silver wire isn't nearly as expensive as people seem to think).
The markup on "audiophile" cable is so insane they can afford to do things well.
Any category of "cat" can certainly help with that...
Over time, UV and ozone in the atmosphere attack the plasticiser in PVC cables. This makes the outer jacket stiff and prone to cracking. Long before the cracks are large enough to be visible, they can be letting surprisingly large amounts of ether escape from your ethernet. Quite often you can regas the cables with a bottle of ether and a special adaptor, but ultimately you will still need to replace them.
No, you don't get it. This is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your shit in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, ENORMOUS amounts of material.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Yeah, the cables too do not get old. They just get clogged.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Play one of those halloween scary sound CD's on repeat, very loud, all day. It's not so much scary as it is unsettling, and people will avoid spending time in there unless it's an emergency.
Alternate titles:
pigs being slaughtered
Jokes, except the punchline is cut out
one cat, in heat, wailing and meowing to be let out
classical out of one speaker, the sound of crazed laughter out the other
the sound of two balloons being rubbed together
random gunshots spaced 30 sec-90 sec apart. LOUD.
highly amplified signal coming from a microphone near the occupant's toilet
ticking clock that randomly speeds up and slows down
the soundtrack from zombo.com
I don't know. I think my idea would work.
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
Do you think Sherlock Holmes would have solved so many cases if he smoked a tube? No, Watson, he fucking well wouldn't.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Well, oddly enough I did IT work for a plumbing company. One of the things they did was "repipes" of residences. Usually they were done due to recurrence of leaks. Copper pipe corrodes from the inside because of chemicals in the water (like chlorine). Sometimes it was done where there was minimal water flow, when corrosion or sediment didn't wash away, but built up.
So, if you got a new sink because you were changing the rusty faucets and then you found your water flow wasn't improved, you may be a candidate for repiping part or all of your home. It could just be buildup in the shutoff valve too.
But to stay on topic......
I've seen people run network cables over or under their carpet. They start getting degraded service as people walk on it. Yes, those need to be changed. Properly run network cables (in the walls, with no rat infestations to eat the cables) don't generally need to be changed, unless something else happened. And I have seen network cards that handle regular CAT5 at speeds over 100Mb/s with 1000baseTX interfaces. Sometimes you can just reterminate the cables because the "spare" 2 pairs were never wired right, assuming those extra wires are ok (i.e., the installer didn't yank the cable through and bugger it up.
But, realize (to the OP) that there are limitations to GigE on a computer. Most of the time in the real world, you won't see 1000Mb/s. It's dependent on the switching hardware, PCI/PCIe bus, hard drives being read from/to, etc, etc, etc....
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Coming this fall from MONSTER PLUMBING...
And I have seen network cards that handle regular CAT5 at speeds over 100Mb/s with 1000baseTX interfaces.
I got a leftover cable spool from a friend and didn't really check it when I laid it in for my 100mbit network. I switched to gigabit, and a year or two after that I looked at the spool and noticed it was CAT5; the only time I'd ever had any trouble with it was with a bad crimp or two that hadn't been exposed on 100mbit.
CAT5e should be good for 100 meters of GigE; that Cat5 can handle GigE over the more common shorter distances isn't really that strange. Upgrade any long distance cable and ignore the rest unless there's a problem.
Now, for 10GBaseT or 40GBaseT it'll be time to look things over, Cat6a through Cat7a provide performance for 500-1000MHz compared to the 100MHz of the Cat5 offerings.
I read "Should Network Cables Be Replaced" and thought maybe I could learn something and gain some insight. Instead I'm treated to the most bizarre toilet analogy of epic proportions.
This may be the best reply thread in the history of /. IMHO.
THANKYOU /.'ers for making my day! :D
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.
Maybe they should just add a wireless hotspot and allow anonymous connections!
I think Monster sells those. With gold plated connectors. $150000 each.
I just looked inside my cables to see if they were clogged. Turns out they were. Every one of my vinyl data conduits was all plugged up with copper.
Slashdot, should I get new intertubes?
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Oh sure, blame the content providers!
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Not only can your gear affect your speeds, but conflicts with speed auto-sensing can wreak havoc.
We recently swapped out some older edge switches in one site for a beautiful new CISCO core switch. Within days, the help desk had reports that some users' network performance had gone from fine to terrible. (Not our intent.)
As it turns out, a boatload of older NICs were mishandled by the new switch which downgraded speeds, communicated in half-duplex, and even then continually reset the connection.
Had the users not complained, we never would have known there was a problem.
As it turns out, each port on the core switch can be manually set to a fixed 100mb full duplex (and ignore auto-sensing) which then operates just fine.
So much for plug-n-pray.
Live Long and Prosper - Thanks Leonard. You are missed.
I'm sure you meant to use this link for the best price - the comments here will fill you in on the AWESOMENESS of these cables.
Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable:
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/
~hylas
This may be one instance where REDUCING the amount of fibre in the network may help ease the load.