[UFO Chicago] cat 6 termination ?

[Matthew T. Gibbs]

It really depends on what your goal is...sure there might be a performance "gain", but are you going to take advantage of it?  You didn't state the speed at which you are intending the hardware to be rated for.  I think ethernet will run pretty well on some pretty crappy stuff, based on the few "professional" installs that I've seen.  Also, are you going to be certifying this hardware/wiring?  The network may actually run on Cat 5 terminations but you couldn't certify that as a Cat 6 installation.  The rating on the termination points might be an issue if Cat 6 uses higher quality metals in the pins or thicker wires/insulation/etc or something like that.  I know that Cat6 jacks have a different punch-down block arrangement than Cat 5 jacks and as I recall it was so that you could maintain the twist to a point closer to the termination.  It seems to me that some of this is like the "Monster Cable" nonsense.  There are a lot of variables in the performance
 of a segment such as cable length and nearby noise sources and you may in fact be able to run just fine without all of the fancy stuff or it may not work at all.

Disclaimer:  The above paragraph is my thoughts and you really need to compare the specs and equipment and your requirements for network performance to find out the answer.  Also, if you really want to know how it performs then you'd have to get test equipment and test your specific installation.

Matt




________________________________
From: Politik Durden <politikdurden at yahoo.com>
To: ufo at ufo.chicago.il.us
Sent: Sunday, October 4, 2009 1:14:28 PM
Subject: [UFO Chicago] cat 6 termination ?


I'm installing cat 6 cable and the client is asking if they need to upgrade their patch panels to cat 6 ? I'm thinking that termination points (patch panels, jacks, etc) being advertised as cat 6 is just marketing. I'm thinking the cat 6 spec is all in the cable. Would there be any issues terminating cat 6 cable to cat 5 patch panels, jacks , etc ? Any performance gain with upgrading the termination points to cat 6 ? 
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