Should Network Cables Be Replaced? 524
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?"
So I got a new sink..... (Score:1, Insightful)
Should I have a plumber re-run copper all over my house?
On a practical level . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Gold plated baby! (Score:5, Insightful)
These people [monstercable.com] 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?
No (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Gold plated baby! (Score:3, Insightful)
Because new specs come out for the cables. There was cat 3, and cat 5, and cat 5e, and now cat 6 is out. They are all rated for increasing amounts of bandwidth.
I haven't yet come into a situation where this has been an issue though. I run gigabit over cat 5 constantly (despite claim that cat 5 is not rated for it), and have never had an increase in errors or interruptions. Which is what I think the OP was asking about.. are the new specifications really necessary?
In my experience, the answer is no.
Re:Outdoor or indoor? (Score:2, Insightful)
You know the old adage (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Full duplex more important (Score:3, Insightful)
Well terminated cat5 cable will be sufficient for achieving 1Gb/s speeds. What's more important for maximizing your throughput is to ensure that you have your cables properly wired to support full duplex connections. In addition, all passive hubs should be eliminated and replaced with GigE switches, either managed or unmanaged depending on how much control you need.
Overkill... (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [wikipedia.org]. 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 :)
Re:Yes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Gold plated baby! (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this insightful? Gigabit only requires Category 5 cabling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.3ab [wikipedia.org]
Re:Outdoor or indoor? (Score:3, Insightful)
In industrial settings, cable breakage from mechanical flexing stresses isn't uncommon.
In residential or commercial use though, your typical ethernet cable shouldn't really degrade over time unless it is subjected to frequent connection. My personal experience leads me to believe cables running between patch panels and routers are pretty reliable, but those between cubicle walls and connected to laptop docking stations fail most frequently.
Re:Copper vs New Materials (Score:4, Insightful)
Much like oil, these substances will never truly 'run out'. We're not shooting them out in to space, after all. What does happen is that, like those mines you mentioned, they become too expensive at today's prices. Tomorrow's prices, on the other hand (since demand will rise while the supply drops/becomes more scarce) will make these mines economical once again. Some mines shut down over very small price changes in the metal.
Copper's price, which was astronomical last summer, has dropped considerably. I know because I bought all the 12/3 cable for my house last summer as a hedge against rising prices and now it costs half what I paid. :(
And we can always harvest these materials from garbage if the price gets high enough to make it economical.
-b
Um, sorry ? (Score:1, Insightful)
or long term exposue to magnetic fields causes elecrical resistance and damages the switch over time.
Your post made good sense, apart from this bizarre statement. Did you just make this part up or something ?
Re:Overkill... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cat6 (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to be confused with link speeds versus transfer speeds which can be very different.
I'm sorry but 1Gbps is not equal on all hardware. Some hardware isn't even capable of going that fast, see the vast majority of consumer oriented network cards that come 10 for $1. As much as I love those realteks they are slow. Compared that with a server class NIC and you get dramatically different amounts of throughput.
Hardware matters a lot and so does cabling. Just because you aren't getting errors doesn't mean you're going as fast as possible given your wiring and in my experience good luck getting actual gigabit speeds over Cat5 or Cat5e. Cat5e can at least do it over short distances like say 20' but much past that and your performance will indeed drop. It's easy to measure. Create a ramdrive on an ftp server and put a single large file in the ramdrive. Now initiate transfer to ramdrive on the other end. I have to transfer multiple terabytes when I arrive back at HQ after events so I notice those little performance differences.
Of course since the bad old days I have moved on to fiber which is proving to be much more resilient to new technology.
Re:So I got a new sink..... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Cat6 (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, transfer speeds can vary greatly depending on the hardware being using, including the Ethernet controller, bus, CPU, drivers, etc.
No, transfer speeds will NOT vary for two cables with the same 1000BASE-T link and no Ethernet transmission errors. I'd suggest you get some hardware that lets you monitor for Ethernet transmission errors (not TCP/IP errors) and run your test again.
A 100M Cat5e cable will transfer at the same rate as a 100M Cat6 cable IF there are no transmission errors. In my experience, a well terminated Cat5e cable does not get regular Ethernet transmission errors with a 1000BASE-T link.
Re:Overkill... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's an ease of use thing.
Cat5e isn't as vulnerable as fiber. It takes more abuse and can be bent in a tighter radius without damaging the cable or impacting the signal quality. Crimping RJ45 on a Cat5e requires a $10 tool and any idiot with a printout of the wiring scheme can do it. Same for RJ45 sockets.
Fiber is thicker and doesn't bend as well. Trimming fiber creates microscopic glass shards. The tool for splicing pigtails onto fibers costs $1000 and requires training to use.
In-house cabling: copper.
Building-to-building: fiber.
Re:So I got a new sink..... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you have galvanized currently, it might be detrimental to your sink performance and long term health to not run new copper pipes.
Oh wait, are you attempting to use an analogy to prove a point? Like most analogies this one is false and meaningless. Also analogies are neither proof or evidence, they are a tool for illustration, not debate.
Re:Overkill... (Score:5, Insightful)
Please don't blame "Electricians".
Whoever did your cabling was unqualified to do the work he was hired to do. (Usually the the fault of whoever hired them.)
There are several electrical contractors who are qualified to do data work.
Re:"get old"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, but -- just like with CPUs -- we are *over* the hump in the S-curve now.
With a few small exceptions (HD-Video and the like), Core CPUs, a gig or 2 or RAM and GigE are *enough*.
Really. :-)
Re:Overkill... (Score:3, Insightful)
Either way, you learn:
Grounding both ends of a signal-carrying wire in which the signal itself does not require a ground reference is a Bad Idea.
There are signals which require ground. RS-232, for example. And in those cases, there's a myriad of implements in existence which serve only to break that ground (opto isolators, "short-haul" modems, transformers for audio or video, etc). Or, even better: Use a signaling format which doesn't require ground, like RS-422.
The rest of the time? Ground one end if the wire is shielded, and none if it is not (and if the particular signaling interface doesn't require ground).
Because, simply, at the end of the day:
Would you rather have lightning shunted to ground via the flimsy shield and drain wire on some UTP Cat5e, or via the substantially-heftier 12 AWG wire in the electrical socket?
(As someone who has seen holes burned between the shield and the conductors of shielded wire, as well as the outer jacket into open space, I think the answer should be obvious.)
*shrug*
Re:Yes (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone at Denon should go to jail for that.
Re:More things to look out for.... (Score:4, Insightful)
each port on the core switch can be manually set to a fixed 100mb full duplex (and ignore auto-sensing)
I just died a little inside. Fix the client, don't bandage the switch. I won't say autosensing problems don't exist, but I can't remember a time in the last decade across dozens of Cats and thousands of edge ports when duplex problems weren't caused by either stupid users forcing their duplex and thus requiring the switch to go half-duplex or wretched terminations at the jack or panel introducing frame/crc errors that would have continued anyway.