We have a need to wire our home for Ethernet. My wife’s office is a recent addition and as a result is a WiFi dead zone. So I would like to wire up her office and while I’m at it, a few other trouble spots. Some of the wiring will follow heating ducts, some might be attached to walls.
All the sources I see online are saying 5e slower 1Gbps vs 10Gbps for 6 or 6a. Of course 6 is stiffer than 5. Does that stiffness matter in practice?
Our house internet connection maxes out at 1Gpbs now. I don’t expect to pay for another speed bump in the next 5+ yrs.
You might already know - if by follow heating ducts you mean run inside a duct, then the cable must be plenum rated.
While your ISP may be limited to 1Gb/s at the moment, if you think or know you’ll be using a home server, NAS, copying files from computer to computer, etc in the future, 10Gb/s could be justified. The cable is the least expensive part of the job (Unless you’re looking at cat 8 plenum ).
I used a Wi-Fi mesh setup at my current house, so didn’t need to run any cables. My last house I did wire up (5e; garage up to attic, then to rooms), and cable stiffness wouldn’t have been a concern. I estimated it would take a day, and it took three, so, like I said, cable was the least expensive part of the job.
Whether the stiffness matters or not really depends on your set up.
I installed a stiff 6A cable, and I have had a problem in some conduits. But, I think the future proofing was worth it and I now have a shielded network cable with enough throughput to handle a lot of data.
In theory.
If you are going to have to read it through a narrow conduit, then a smaller diameter cable might be really handy.
If I had to go out and buy cable, I’d go with Cat6. I’ve been using 5e for awhile because I was given a 1,000’ box of butt-ugly green Cat5e cable. When running cable to places like an office or entertainment center, I usually only run a single cable and use a 4 port switch at the destination to handle multiple devices. In my experience, if you run 2 cables, you will need 3, and so on.
Several of you mentioned mesh. I was trying avoid making the original post too long. We already have Bell Canada’s mesh system - they call them pods. Even with a pod directly outside office. Even so she gets poor performance. I’ve tried the Pod in about 6 locations. I can improve the pod connection to the router but when I do internet performance in her office decreases. I suspect our renovation work a few years ago with the kitchen and my wife’s office was done so well that it degrades WiFi signals.
@SpivR a wealth of knowledge. Cat6 is a clear winner. I promise no barns, pools or outbuildings More seriously the next community member who needs to dig further will know these answers.
@glenthompson You remind of the trick we had a few years ago, run string instead of extra cables. When you need a cable, you attach it to the string and pull it through.
@fuzzygel we had powerline a few years ago, the ones we had then never saw above 50Mpbs even they claimed 250 (?).
@sangadi Mesh should work. However it appears the volume of wood between the router, our kitchen and my wife’s office is so large that it doesn’t work.
BTW on ATP (Accidental tech podcast), one of the hosts John (?) was talking about fiber vs Cat6 because he was thinking about the stiffness and future proofing benefits.
I had an electrician snake an Ethernet cable from basement to roof to family room. I have a switch for all devices connected and happier from day one. Every device is hard wired. Worth the investment
Cat6 is really the best compromise. 6a is more costly per foot and harder to terminate because of the extra sheathing.
Cat6 gives you 10gbps up to 55 meters and the higher gauge wires of 6 and above let you feel comfortable about using them in POE (power over Ethernet) use cases.
Once you become a speed junkie on your network, you’ll move up to five or like the rest of us want to do
I recommend cat 6 for home Ethernet wiring. It supports 10 gbps up to 55m and is much easier to install and terminate than cat 6a.
Yes, it is a bit heavier and stiffer than cat 5e, but still reasonable. Make sure to buy good quality cable, not the cheapest you find on Amazon or a local home store. I used Cable Matters and have been pleased with it.
I also recommend the pass-through rj45 terminals and crimping tool. Take your time to carefully terminate the cables and test them with a cable tester.
Below is a link to a video describing a network installation in a new large home. The owner regrets using cat 6a cable and makes a good case for using cat 6 instead. The part about the cat 6 cable starts at time mark 2:40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQMGmn3xzY
Good luck!
Edited to add: For cable runs that you are sure will never need 10 gbps speed, cat 5e is fine. Even cat 5e can support 10Gbps for short distances.
Just to catch the world up, I ran Cat6 to my wife’s office. Since her office is an extension to the main house on technoposts, it was easiest to drill a hole in the dining floor and run cable along the base boards. Thanks for the advice, you saved from John or Casey madness on ATP thinking about using fibre.
My wife now has WiFi Pod/Mesh unit in her office. She gets 4ms ping, 500+ mbps down and 300+ up. Wired to her desk is 700 each way but for the moment that difference doesn’t seem to matter.
Fellow Bell customer, I just did this too, got a 75 foot white Cat6 patch cable and stapled it to some baseboards and around a couple of doorways. Honestly I have to read the side of the cable to tell the difference between Cat5 and Cat6. After relocating the Gigahub to a central location, (fibre extensions are a thing!), the main benefit of the wire vs wifi for me is stability of the connection to the old laptop that’s used as a server, but the boost from 500Mbps Wifi to 900+Mbps wired at my desk is nice too
By using Cat6 I should be able to upgrade my whole network to 10Gbps by replacing the switch and the Ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter when the price of 10 Gigabit switches becomes reasonable. By then Bell may have also rolled out 3 or 8 Gigabit in my neighbourhood.
10BASE2 which worked fine from dialup through DSL but not particularly fast just on the LAN. The wiring is (as seen here) still in place! I feel it pays to be as futuristic as possible since upgrading can be a lot of work.
;-). Hoping that Cat6 cable is futureproof for at least 10 yrs. If we still own the house at time it will be interesting to see if there is any benefit to wires then.
OK, so a general question… If one is building a new house (3500 SF, two levels), would it be better to do a top-line mesh wifi setup or hard wired with cables?
I would do it hard wired with a future proof wiring. This also helps to install additional Access Points for the WiFi, if needed.
My house has a Wired-Network with CAT 7 cable, and a Mesh-WiFi Network.
I built 10 years ago and had Cat5e drops put in each bedroom plus one in the family room. I wish I had put in more, but they were charging me $100 each. The builder thought I was nuts, “doesn’t everyone use wireless now?”
When we built, I worked for a company that had a lot of anti-WfH people, and we had no idea that in 2020, both of us would transition to full-time WfH plus have kids spending an entire school year at home as well. The WiFi started to get crowded.
If I was doing it today, I’d put in two drops in the downstairs guest bedroom (which has since become my office; I have a 5-port switch in there for three devices), one in the dining room (which is now my wife’s office), at least two behind the TV/entertainment center, and a couple in the basement (which I could easily do myself today as it’s unfinished). All those in addition to the one drop in each upstairs bedroom. Cat6 at a minimum.
Like @Ulli said, you can use those drops to install APs instead of relying upon a wireless backhaul (like the Netgear Orbi can use)
Both. Hardwire any fixed in place devices like TVs and desktop computers and use mesh wifi for portable devices. Also handy to run some conduit between floors so new cabling can be run if needed. In something like a home office I wouldn’t run too many runs but install a switch to handle the devices in that room.
Unless you’re a radio engineer by trade, you will not predict where the dead spots in the house will be. Even with a mesh network having a wireless backhaul makes a massive difference. With the mesh backhaul was wireless my wife’s office had 14ms ping, 150 mbps down and 70 up. From a lot of experiments that pod location was best in terms backhaul and connectivity in her office. Now it’s wired I could move the pod anywhere. It’s 10 feet from desk and her whole office has fantastic wifi performance. (Yes wired to her desk would be faster, however she doesn’t care right now.
Before the wallboard is up is the easiest and least expensive time to install ethernet cable. Take the opportunity to install as many Cat6 ethernet cables as possible. The choices you mentioned are not mutually exclusive. By installing ethernet cables now you can choose later whether to rely on wireless-only mesh wifi, mesh wifi with wired backhaul or non-mesh wifi access points (directly wired to the router). If you chose a mesh wifi system, select one that can accommodate wireless or wired backhaul.
Most wifi networks ultimately become congested. You can prevent wifi congestion and RF interference by connecting as many devices as possible using ethernet and by using ethernet backhaul for your multiple wifi access points.
Think ahead: What are optimal placements for wifi access points, and where will your ISP (cable or fiber provider) want to place your cable modem or ONT? Where your ISP wants to place your modem or ONT will likely not be the optimal place for a wifi access point. By installing multiple cat6 cables in specific locations I was able to let the cable installer place the cable modem where he needed, then use ethernet cable to connect the cable modem to my main router, switch and wifi access points in their optimal locations. Avoid the temptation to let your cable modem or fiber ONT placement dictate your router and/or wifi access point locations.
Also think ahead about power outlet placement. Most consumer network gear (switches, routers, wifi access points) require both ethernet and power outlets. Business or “prosumer” gear can use POE (power over ethernet), eliminating the need for a power outlet.
It’s not just an excessive number of wifi devices that can cause wifi problems. One of my AppleTVs (connected to a small TV in our kitchen) malfunctioned every time the microwave oven was operated. Fortunately, ethernet cables were installed when my home was built. I simply connected that AppleTV to ethernet cable and the problem was solved.
).
More seriously the next community member who needs to dig further will know these answers.