House builders still using Cat 5?

Armageus · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:51

Phil87 said:
Are those phone sockets as in landline phone? I thought that was a different kind of connection to ethernet.

Phone signals run quite happily over normal twisted pair network cable (e.g. Cat5e) - indeed it's considerably better quality than the old wiring that used to be used for phones

robj20 said:
Because you only want to do it once so why not use cat6, who knows what speeds people will want in 20 years time.

Then you don't want to be using Cat6 - you want Cat6A

robj20 said:
I already want higher than gigabit bit it's too expensive for the hardware at the minute.

Cat5e already supports higher than gigabit (2.5G/5G)

Given the quality of the above installation photo, it's probably safer for builders/electricians to be installing Cat5e rather than anything higher, as bend radius and termination requirements are stricter for the higher standards.

bash247 · 17 Nov 2020 at 15:58

Oh I haven't shown you bend in one of the cables in the loft. I hope it isn't damaged

pepp77 · 17 Nov 2020 at 16:11

People who work with cabling everyday will say Cat5 when they mean Cat5e, its just assumed you know the e is on the end and not said.

The cabling in that pic is horrid, mine in my house is much nicer (yes I have cat5(e

)

robj20 · 17 Nov 2020 at 16:13

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

What about stripping the actual wires in no strip terminators. You just wouldn't accept that.

bash247 · 17 Nov 2020 at 16:23

Sadly, the previous owner to the property was using a traditional landline and wifi. Probably didn't even realise it was that bad

Avalon · 17 Nov 2020 at 16:24

robj20 said:
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.

It’s really not expensive for 10Gbit, it’s been cheap for years, if you can live within the limitations of Infiniband, 40Gbit is cheap, it’s only since it became YouTube fodder that prices have gone up on used SFP+ kit. 5e will do 10Gb, in 20 years you’ll likely want fibre, not copper, but given the glacial pace of networking and the steps needed to get to 10Gbit, I really wouldn’t worry about it.

robj20 · 17 Nov 2020 at 16:36

Avalon said:
It’s really not expensive for 10Gbit, it’s been cheap for years, if you can live within the limitations of Infiniband, 40Gbit is cheap, it’s only since it became YouTube fodder that prices have gone up on used SFP+ kit. 5e will do 10Gb, in 20 years you’ll likely want fibre, not copper, but given the glacial pace of networking and the steps needed to get to 10Gbit, I really wouldn’t worry about it.

Really I couldn't find any 10Gb switches that were remotely affordable compared to Gb. I paid £67 for my 24 port one.

LiGhTfasT · 17 Nov 2020 at 18:10

pepp77 said:
People who work with cabling everyday will say Cat5 when they mean Cat5e

Exactly this I run cat5 in as part of my work and have never refered to it as cat5e in conversation. Its rare I run cat6 unless specified as it provides little to no benefit to the majority of people except certain types of IT guys. Funny thing is when you go back and see cat5 patch leads in the cab and from the socket to the desk.

WJA96 · 18 Nov 2020 at 06:34

LiGhTfasT said:
Exactly this I run cat5 in as part of my work and have never refered to it as cat5e in conversation. Its rare I run cat6 unless specified as it provides little to no benefit to the majority of people except certain types of IT guys. Funny thing is when you go back and see cat5 patch leads in the cab and from the socket to the desk.

Those would be the smart IT guys who want a certificate for each drop. Lets say I get you to pull my cable and I spec CAT6 and you tell my purchasing manager that you don't need CAT6 and the job is £100 less because the CAT5e cable is cheaper he'll probably go for it. But then when it won't reliably carry 5GbE or 10GbE in future I can't get you back because you've fitted cheaper cable than the standard says is acceptable. And the purchasing manager signed for it. Good for you. Bad for the IT department. And yes, because CAT5e will carry 10GbE over short distances, why not use a CAT5e patch lead if that's all I have lying about.

Django x2 · 18 Nov 2020 at 11:13

In all honesty, none of this matters in a new build. Attach fish wire to the old Cat5 cable, and pull through a cable of your choice behind it.

bremen1874 · 18 Nov 2020 at 13:52

Django x2 said:
Attach fish wire to the old Cat5 cable, and pull through a cable of your choice behind it.

Rarely that easy unless it was deliberately installed with that in mind.

Django x2 · 18 Nov 2020 at 15:23

bremen1874 said:
Rarely that easy unless it was deliberately installed with that in mind.

It's completely that easy. The CAT cable would have been installed through all the necessary conduits during the build. It won't have been tied up, wrapped around or clamped down to anything. Fishing wire, being more rigid and infinitely thinner, will follow behind a tugged CAT cable all day long.

Caged · 18 Nov 2020 at 15:58

What necessary conduits? The cable will be clipped when it changes direction, you're not pulling new stuff through.

Django x2 · 18 Nov 2020 at 16:08

Caged said:
What necessary conduits? The cable will be clipped when it changes direction, you're not pulling new stuff through.

Disagree. Brand new home here and was able to pull through multi Cat cable where an existing cat cable existed with absolutely no issues. Having been at the home at multiple stages throughout the build, I think you've got high expectations if you think Cat cables (especially) are clipped through turns in a new build property

bremen1874 · 18 Nov 2020 at 16:51

You've got a sample size of one where you just happened to get lucky.

Django x2 · 18 Nov 2020 at 22:07

bremen1874 said:
You've got a sample size of one where you just happened to get lucky.

Possibly, although this is at least the third time I've done this. It's really quite simple. There are hundreds of spaces in walls to get cat cable run through a house even post build.

kosymodo · 28 Nov 2020 at 20:02

Django x2 said:
Disagree. Brand new home here and was able to pull through multi Cat cable where an existing cat cable existed with absolutely no issues. Having been at the home at multiple stages throughout the build, I think you've got high expectations if you think Cat cables (especially) are clipped through turns in a new build property

My new build has the cabling clipped, meaning that using it to pull through additional cabling is impossible.

ZombieFan · 28 Nov 2020 at 22:17

I would double check that the builders know exactly what you want. We've recently had an extension built and I've now got cat6 cable wired between various rooms, but our builders also fitted a phone extension point from the master socket to my new study. For this, they used Cat5e, since it was just a phone extension. I had a chat with the electrician since I was suprised they used ethernet cable for phone extensions, but apparently, that's the most common thing used now which meets the BT cetification requirements.

I would just check that they understand that you want an ethernet socket installed, and not a phone extension. Since they would probably use Cat5e for that.

Rich · 28 Nov 2020 at 22:19

There is zero chance of fishing a cable through in mine. The insulation in the walls is horrendous. When I reterminated the study I couldn’t get the cable to even move, let alone fish a cable up behind it.