Cat5e??

[AadosX]

In my apt., in my room, I have a cat5 jack, and I've been running the 'net off of it for some time now, no problem. Well I saw that I had a jack in the living room so I decided to try to use the computer with it. Well, the network didn't work. After studying the jack and the orientation of the cables on the jack I found out that the one in the living room is a Cat5e jack. I'm assuming that you can't use regular cat5 cables on them?

I need to know what I need to do to get it to work. Do I need a different cable? a different network card? Should it already work? Can someone please just enlighten me on this subject?

[TransAmDriver]

Campus pointe?

My shit doesnt work in the living room either, same way in both apts ive lived in here.

[AadosX]

Yeh, it's because they're diff. types of jacks. I'm trying to figure out if all I need is a diff. type of cable to get it working, or if you have to get a diff. type of card too.

I'm thinking about asking them to just put a normal cat5 jack in the living room, maybe they will.

[Obike]

Probably it isn't activated, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6e are just the same cable and there is no difference (mainly marketing, Cat6 is capable of 1Gbps because it uses an extra pair of the wires, but that is a card capability). They all use the same connector, RJ-45.

[Adam]

Is their a router at the end connection points of the jack? (not a hub or a switch) Does your computer have a publiclly addressable IP address (like a 68.x, 216.x, etc) or does it have a private address (192.x, 10.x)

If you only have a hub or a switch then your problem is with your cable modem since they only technically only allow 1 computer connected to the internet at a time, hence the conntivity issues.

As stated by Obike Cat5/e/6/6e are all technically the same cable (from a high level tech perspective, I can argue the finer details till I'm blue in the face) so that shouldn't be your problem.

If you do have a router at the head there is another problem going on and I'd need more details to diagnose the situation.

[Obike]

Argue the finer details! I'd like to know them =/

Can't spell geek without EE.

[Jess]

Can't spell Aadosx without DOS

[Adam]

Argue the finer details! I'd like to know them =/

Can't spell geek without EE.

All Cat cable is essentially the same. The numbering schema after them is simply the design sepcifications that it meets. Just like con-spec vs. ind-spec vs. mil-spec equipment. The higher the; number the high sustained frequency it can carry (meaning higher bandwidth), the lower the attenuation (longer it can travel), and a few more little technical differences that almost never come up unless in long runs (like Return Loss (dB) and Delay Loss (ns))

Most all Cat5 cable is usually almost always Cat5e the manuafacturer just doesn't spend the extra cost to test it, to prove it's up to spec. They just manufactur a huge line of cable and if 40% of the cable they sell is Cat5e they pull 40% off to certify and sell at a higher markup

Basically as the numbers go up mostly the only difference in manufacturing is the cables are wounder tighter and you probably will see a slight (.5-1 mm) increase in sheilding to lessen the likelyhood of RF interference getting into the cable so you can pump higher frequencies down it.

Now this is where I can kinda sketchy (on the actual hard numbers). I know Cat5/e is rated up to 100MHz of spectral bandwidth and has an attenuation of 22dB @ >100MHz but, I can't recall the exact numbers of Cat6. It's either 250Mhz or 400Mhz of spectral BW and I know is has a lower attenuation (b/c the cables are wound tighter in their pairs) but, I can't recall the exact numbers; somewhere around 19 dB.

What I do know is that you can run GigE over Cat5 rated cable but, it'll only work on short runs b/c over distance you'll begin to get signal degredation due to the lower quality cable.

Now the fun stuff actually comes in when you start talking about effective bandwidth. GigE (meaning you can transfer 1 gigabit (bit) / second) can actually usually only transfer 100 megabytes / second. This is due to the fact that TCP/IP traffic at peak utilization usually takes down about 20% of your actual pipe overhead. So GigE = 128 mb/s - (.2*128) ~= 100 mb/s

What else do you want to know

[Zx RaTeD]

ugh! stfu! ; )

jk. very informative ; )

[Obike]

One more question... what happens when a daddy cat6 and mommy cat5 get tangled together?

[Adam]

One more question... what happens when a daddy cat6 and mommy cat5 get tangled together?

They make Cat3

[AadosX]

What? There are 3 computers hooked to the 'net in my apt. at the same time, in 3 diff. rooms, in 3 diff. NORMAL cat5 jacks, but they all use the same IP online. I found that out last night because an online poker table wouldn't let me and my roomate use the same table because of it.

Why, in a brand new apt, would they not hook up the cat5e jack to anything? Why would they put it there? And why would they put only one cat5e jack in the living room?

I don't know anything about a hub/switch/router etc because I can't see inside my walls or inside some random room that they keep all of that crap.

[Obike]

Campus pointe? As a tech at Sterling and since the same company setup all of the apartments systems they all have one-three T1s that ALL residents have to use (the office shares the bandwidth as well, they just get priority on bandwidth). This goes to a Cisco 3550 and has routing/DHCP/NAT all done there. What we would like to know is if you can pull an IP address when connected to the one in the living room, if not the line is not connected. It could also be a (thought) SDSL connection line, since that uses RJ45 connectors (saying it is Cat5e is pointless, it's just the connector that matters... as long as the wires line up properly on both ends that is).

[AadosX]

Well I already know that it doesn't connect to anything... or it would work.

Anyways, I just talked to the guys at the office. It's actually a phone jack that uses an RJ45 connector for some reason. Oh well, that's gay.

Does anyone have a long (20+ foot) cat5 cable that I could borrow for the weekend?

BTW, where did this forum come from? I could have sworn it wasn't there when I started this thread... seriously.

[WiggiE]

This goes to a Cisco 3550 and has routing/DHCP/NAT all done there.
Oh....I want one.....

[Obike]

Yea, SDSL connection was pretty much right :D

Go to Home Depot, buy a spool of Cat5, RJ-45 connectors, and a crimper... then google online to see how to make your own cable.

Or just go to wal-mart :D

[AadosX]

I only need it for a day and I'm too cheap to buy one. heh.