House builders still using Cat 5?

Phil87 · 16 Nov 2020 at 16:56

I'm in the process of buying a new house and they have agreed to add an ethernet connection between the location of the master socket (fibre connection) and a room which I'll be using as an office / gaming room. The problem is that they say they are using Cat 5 which baffles me considering that was superseded by Cat 5e around 20 years ago.

I've asked if they meant Cat 5e and they still said it's Cat 5. Has anyone heard of Cat 5 cables still being used these days? :confused:

Deleted member 77746 · 16 Nov 2020 at 16:58

Not around this way. New builds are all cat6e.

Phil87 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:04

Bouton Aide said:
Not around this way. New builds are all cat6e.

Do you mean Cat 6a, and how do you know that they all use that? (there are obviously a lot of new build sites / companies).

Ayahuasca · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:04

If they won’t budge I’d offer payment for something better to be put in, as long as it’s not triple the cost, which it will be with a house builder.

Deleted member 77746 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:05

Phil87 said:
Do you mean Cat 6a, and how do you know that they all use that? (there are obviously a lot of new build sites / companies).

I know some of the installers.

Maybe it depends on area?

Why don't you ask if they can use a certain type of cable? or ask them what they will be using?

Phil87 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:09

Bouton Aide said:
I know some of the installers. Maybe it depends on area?

Why don't you ask if they can use a certain type of cable? or ask them what they will be using?

Cool, I thought you'd have to know someone doing the work to have that information

. This is around Leeds.
I've told them I'd prefer Cat 6 or 7, but Cat 5e is a bare minimum that I'd accept, and also said I'll pay any extra cost.

Deleted member 77746 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:12

Phil87 said:
Cool, I thought you'd have to know someone doing the work to have that information . This is around Leeds.
I've told them I'd prefer Cat 6 or 7, but Cat 5e is a bare minimum that I'd accept, and also said I'll pay any extra cost.

Don't accept cat5e they shouldn't be even putting that in new builds IMO.

Phil87 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:15

Bouton Aide said:
Don't accept cat5e they shouldn't be even putting that in new builds IMO.

I agree, especially when gigabit internet is already available there. I'd get Cat 8 if I could

Caged · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:26

It's very unlikely they are actually using Cat5, I'm not even sure you can buy it still. It will just be electricians using a shorthand word to describe network cable.

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2020 at 17:35

And there's nothing really wrong with Cat5e. It'll definitely support 2.5GbE and 5GbE, and will probably do 10GbE at the short distances you tend to have domestically. What more do you need?

Any talk of Cat7 and above is just daft (and usually the result of reading too many BS Amazon listings). There's absolutely no need for anything beyond Cat6a even in the most extreme domestic circumstances.

Phil87 · 16 Nov 2020 at 19:30

Thanks for the advice. I thought I might as well upgrade to the best cable if it's a reasonable price considering it's going to be permanently installed in the house. Cat 7 may be overkill now but maybe not in 10 or 20 years.

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2020 at 19:44

There's a reason that Cat5e is still so prevalent.

Domestically Cat7 doesn't offer any over Cat6a. We're still not near to 10GbE becoming cheap or common. Worrying about anything faster than that is pointless.

Zefan · 16 Nov 2020 at 19:56

It's almost certainly not Cat 5, it hasn't been common for a very long time and as said above, it isn't easy to even buy it as far as I'm aware.

See this thread where someone asked about - and subsequently successfully implemented - 10GBE over Cat5e (which I'm sure will be the minimum they've used). https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/10gbe-over-cat5e.18820298/

If you're thinking of running 10GBE over copper then you are an extreme edge case and are already paying through the nose when you should really just run fibre.

Avalon · 17 Nov 2020 at 00:25

Phil87 said:
Thanks for the advice. I thought I might as well upgrade to the best cable if it's a reasonable price considering it's going to be permanently installed in the house. Cat 7 may be overkill now but maybe not in 10 or 20 years.

It’s a single feed over a short distance in a domestic install, if you are concerned about longevity, focus on it being properly ducted/pull corded rather than the cable type.

bash247 · 17 Nov 2020 at 11:23

So I recently purchased a new build that around 2 years old and there's phone sockets in every room. After opening up one of the socket, I noticed they're using cat5e cables. Hope that helps.

Phil87 · 17 Nov 2020 at 14:51

Avalon said:
It’s a single feed over a short distance in a domestic install, if you are concerned about longevity, focus on it being properly ducted/pull corded rather than the cable type.

I don't think I have any control over how they do things like that, I just hope they install it correctly.

bash247 said:
So I recently purchased a new build that around 2 years old and there's phone sockets in every room. After opening up one of the socket, I noticed they're using cat5e cables. Hope that helps.

Are those phone sockets as in landline phone? I thought that was a different kind of connection to ethernet.

bash247 · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:28

Phil87 said:
I don't think I have any control over how they do things like that, I just hope they install it correctly.

Are those phone sockets as in landline phone? I thought that was a different kind of connection to ethernet.

Yup, they're currently landline phones but from what I understand and seen in the loft, there's cat5e running through and builders have been doing this for a while now. I have FTTP so won't be needing a traditional landline.

I have a photo from one of the sockets. see below mate.

robj20 · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:34

bremen1874 said:
And there's nothing really wrong with Cat5e. It'll definitely support 2.5GbE and 5GbE, and will probably do 10GbE at the short distances you tend to have domestically. What more do you need?

Any talk of Cat7 and above is just daft (and usually the result of reading too many BS Amazon listings). There's absolutely no need for anything beyond Cat6a even in the most extreme domestic circumstances.

Because you only want to do it once so why not use cat6, who knows what speeds people will want in 20 years time.
I already want higher than gigabit bit it's too expensive for the hardware at the minute.

robj20 · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:35

bash247 said:
Yup, they're currently landline phones but from what I understand and seen in the loft, there's cat5e running through and builders have been doing this for a while now. I have FTTP so won't be needing a traditional landline.

I have a photo from one of the sockets. see below mate.

Oh my that's a joke.

Caged · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:44

You can tell it's an electrician because they strip all the insulation back to just before the edge of the box.