cat5 cable/internet

[texastc316]

No clue what this is, but my wifes out looking at houses and #1 on the list is already wired for Cat5. Any of you smart guys enlighten me on what this is?

[gyrene81]

Cat5 is the now older standard for network cabling...allows 10/100 wired network connections out to 300 feet from a switch.

Cat6 is the most current but Cat5 is still in heavy use.

Guess she's just trying to make sure you don't have to drill any holes in the floors or walls and pull cable...or pay someone to do it.

[OOZ662]

Unless you're using dialup or USB, it's the wire that looks like an obese phone cable that connects your modem/router to your computer.

If a house is wired with it, that basically means it has "phone jacks" all around the house where you can plug your computers into the network. Somewhere there's a place to put the router and modem so that the internet (and connection to every other computer/printer in the house, if you setup a home network with it) is available anywhere there's a jack in the house.

EDIT: Take note that even though it's a "now older standard," it's still many, many times faster than the internet and is still used in the majority of cases. The only time you'll ever reach peak usage on a Cat5 connection is when you're doing a large file transfer between two computers in your house.

P.S. Isn't Cat5 10/100/1000?

[Stoney]

Also,

When I was working in Reno, almost all the new homes were being wired with Cat 5, but they were only using it for phone jacks, i.e. there was no network plug or method of hooking up a router for the whole home.  So, basically, you just have more expensive phone jacks, a.k.a. stupid marketing gadget.

[EDIT] the only time this adds value to the home is if it has the network capability built in--otherwise, its a waste.

[gyrene81]

P.S. Isn't Cat5 10/100/1000?

Nah...Cat5 is 10/100...Cat5E is "compatible" 10/100/1000 and Cat6 is full 10/100/1000...

[texastc316]

So basically its not part of an internet service it just makes it easy to use a network?

[OOZ662]

It's exactly the same as if you bought wire and strung it all over your house, except it's in the walls.

[TilDeath]

So basically its not part of an internet service it just makes it easy to use a network?

If it is wired as a network.  Cat5/6 is also used for security system wiring, phone jacks, intercoms, door bells, electric garage door buttons, etc etc.  It is used for various low voltage installations.

[Stoney]

If it is wired as a network.  Cat5/6 is also used for security system wiring, phone jacks, intercoms, door bells, electric garage door buttons, etc etc.  It is used for various low voltage installations.

Exactly.  Make sure you check to see what they've used it for.  Like I said earlier, most builders weren't progressive enough to actually wire homes for networking--they just wired the phone jacks with Cat 5 and then added a "pre-wired with Cat-5" bullet in the brochure.  Somewhere along the way the sales managers got some sort of bug up their butts about it.  It sort of came with the rest of the Idiocy Package of the last 5 years.

[Vulcan]

Nah...Cat5 is 10/100...Cat5E is "compatible" 10/100/1000 and Cat6 is full 10/100/1000...

You'd be unlikely to find a house wired with old Cat5, it's going to be Cat5e at least.

[Heater]

here is a link to an overview of the type of cabling:

http://www.zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/cables/tech_lan.htm

[Soulyss]

Also if you have CAT5 in every room you can use the cable to send other signals and get a video or audio signal to that room with baluns, as long as you have access to each side of the cable (most like it's all homerun to a closet or panel somewhere).  This can be cheaper then having new cable pulled after the house is completed.  Although knowing what type of catagory 5 cable you have can be important, the other thing is how well the cable was run.  If the installer was good and knows how to pull CAT5 avoiding sharp corners and such it works fine, if they guy doesn't then it can be problematic.