Here's a website about making LAN cables.

[DrNomis_44]

Thought I would start this new thread just in case any of you might find this website useful, anyway, here's the link to it:

http://www.groundcontrol.com/galileo/ch5-ethernet.htm

[dave.king1]

Out of desperation I've made more than my fair share of Cat5 over the years when I've been in the middle of a cutover/upgrade and find the cablers have forgotten something, personally I'd rather spend the few cents extra to buy from Jaycar etc ( obviously not something you can do at 2am on a Sunday )

Decent tools from the likes of Krone cost a bomb and not value for money unless you are doing it for a living and the cheaper ones are not as reliable, ya gets what ya pays for.

Cat6 is a different story, buy every time

[DrNomis_44]

Out of desperation I've made more than my fair share of Cat5 over the years when I've been in the middle of a cutover/upgrade and find the cablers have forgotten something, personally I'd rather spend the few cents extra to buy from Jaycar etc ( obviously not something you can do at 2am on a Sunday )

Decent tools from the likes of Krone cost a bomb and not value for money unless you are doing it for a living and the cheaper ones are not as reliable, ya gets what ya pays for.

Cat6 is a different story, buy every time

That's true, I was pretty lucky to be given a LAN Tester/Toolkit for nothing at the last place I worked, the tools were pretty good quality, I even got a decent crimping tool as well as a Tester and Terminator with it as well as some RJ45 connectors and rubber boots to go on them, all I needed was some Cat.5 or 6 cable and some easy to follow instructions on how to make LAN cables, and I was in business, I was using a LAN cable I had made from a length of Cat.5 cable but ended up having to replace it with a new Cat.6 cable after the Cat.5 cable got chewed up by one of my cats, anyway, I talked to someone who recommended using some Cat.6 cable, my understanding is that Cat.6 cable can handle faster Data Transfer speeds than Cat.5., the brand of my LAN Tester/Toolkit is Pro'sKit, well that's what's written on the case anyway.


So my home Network for my NBN Internet for my computers and game machines is all Cat.6 cabling, except for the games machines cause they're on WiFi.

[dave.king1]

Cat5e is gigabit not sure how much more you need because you won't get a NIC to go above that unless you go to fibre.

Cat6 is very particular to cable lengths and patch lengths in particular can be problematic and cause interesting losses that aren't as apparent in Cat5e.

In my past life all my servers were fibre connected with fibre campus backbone and gigabit to the desktop via Cisco 6500 Catalyst switches.

All the desktops had 10/100 NICs which supported fully converged voice/data/video. (The voice and video was my domain)

I did wire the services in my sons house in Cat6 because I got it for $0.00

Damn I happy to be retired and don't have to do this stuff anymore.

Edited to add. Don't let that put anyone off using Cat6 just be aware it can be difficult.

[keloooe]

Cat5 cables are EXTREMELY useful in many applications. It can even be used as a dual USB cable with a bit of tweaking. A use that I'd definitely use is for having a patchbay on a pedalboard and having a single Cat5 cable running to another patchbay over by the amps if you use multiple lines? Maybe a buffer would have to be implemented and possibly some balancing but it could be done!

I know that the TC Electronic G System can be rack mounted, the brain and the foot controller interact with Cat5.

[DrNomis_44]

Cat5e is gigabit not sure how much more you need because you won't get a NIC to go above that unless you go to fibre.

Cat6 is very particular to cable lengths and patch lengths in particular can be problematic and cause interesting losses that aren't as apparent in Cat5e.

In my past life all my servers were fibre connected with fibre campus backbone and gigabit to the desktop via Cisco 6500 Catalyst switches.

All the desktops had 10/100 NICs which supported fully converged voice/data/video. (The voice and video was my domain)

I did wire the services in my sons house in Cat6 because I got it for $0.00

Damn I happy to be retired and don't have to do this stuff anymore.

Edited to add. Don't let that put anyone off using Cat6 just be aware it can be difficult.

I think both the LAN ports on my DAW PC and my Laptop are Gigabit LAN ports, and as far as I know, the longest run of Cat.6 cable I've installed is well under the maximum length for Cat.6, so far I haven't noticed any issues.

[Rabbitz]

I have a bit of an RF background, and out of this I have seen on more than a few occasions that LANs running at 100/1000 Mbps are terrific RF noise generators.

While 100 Mhz or 1 Ghz noise might seem to be a bit out range for audio, don't forget that harmonic frequencies can end up in seemingly odd places.

Additionally, the clocks in all of your microprocessor based gear is running in those frequency ranges and that leaves them open to interference.

Good quality NIC's and cabling helps, but it has been found in radio circles that forcing NIC's to 10 MHz can also be helpful. Some have found ferrites on the LAN and device input cables have also helped.

Offered in the hope no-one needs this info

[dave.king1]

I think both the LAN ports on my DAW PC and my Laptop are Gigabit LAN ports, and as far as I know, the longest run of Cat.6 cable I've installed is well under the maximum length for Cat.6, so far I haven't noticed any issues.

If you are running it around your house you won't go close to Cat6 loop limits but having said that they are much shorter than Cat5e

[DrNomis_44]

If you are running it around your house you won't go close to Cat6 loop limits but having said that they are much shorter than Cat5e

Apparently the maximum length limit for Cat.6 is something like 100m or so, I think the longest run of Cat.6 (the run that goes from my NBN Co. box to my wireless router) I have installed is probably approximately 30m at most, so I reckon I'm good, the other two runs are much shorter.