cat5 run lenght

[Miles_stylus]

1) what is the max length of cable that I can have between two routers
2) how easy is it to put the "plug" on the end of a cat5 cable - I ask as one of the places that it has to go will be easy with bare wire but very very difficult with a ruddy great lump on the end!

Many thanks

Miles

[combemarshal]

The ends are easy if you got the right tools!
As for length, I'm not a 100%, But I could work it out, But I can't see a problem using a whole box (I've done it many times with no problems) 305meters

[aldi]

You need an RJ45 crimp tool to do the ends, once you've done one you can do a hundred. Spade side up+top left to right its

white orange
orange
white green
blue
white blue
green
white brown
brown

only cut off enough of the sheath so that the conductors can make it all the way to the end of the connector, don't have unsheathed wires hanging out the back of the end. then as you crimp it the end grips the sheath. Untwist the pairs and arrange them in the right order, make sure they stay in the right order as they find their way through to the spades. Then crimp.

Edited by aldi on Friday 15th September 18:09

[rsvmilly]

100 metres

[malman]

Generally people work to 100m max length but the spec is something like 70-90m depending on termination and patch length etc

Patch cables 10m max I think.

As with most specs you can stretch things but using an entire box is way beyond spec at 305m

[deva link]

malman said:

As with most specs you can stretch things but using an entire box is way beyond spec at 305m

Doesn't it depend (mainly) on the speed? 100Mb limit is 100M, but 10Mb would be probably OK at 300M. At higher speeds the collisions happen in a shorter distance.

[agent006]

Cat5e is certified to 150m isn't it?

[BliarsGoing]

90M of installed cabling with two 5M flyleads for CAT5. You "shouldn't" run with just plugs on the cable but a lot of people do. Easy enough to terminate with the right tooling. Can you use backboxes and faceplates? It's a better solution and only requires a punchdown tool to terminate.

You can run 10MB up to 185M after that you'll start to get excessive/late collisions.

[Plotloss]

Blah blah blah collision domains, time on wire blah blah blah.

Its unusual to get near the max length for Cat5e, in practice.

[BliarsGoing]

10101010101010101010101010101010

[griffgrog]

Just so you all know, the maximum length of the cable is determined by the time it takes for a packet to propogate from one end to the other. The time it takes for a packet to propogate a 100M CAT5 cable is the amount of time that a transmitting NIC will wait before deciding another station is not transmitting and it's ok to transmit. The implications of installing cables over 100meters (including the patch leads at each end) are that collision detection will not work within the correct time frame and so called late collisions will be detected. The efficency of the network will subsequently be impaired. If your connecting two full duplex switches then the collision detection function is disabled so I'd doubt in practice you'd notice any problems going slightly over. If you go way over then the signals will become attenuated and distorted leading to increased packet retransmission or even no communication at all.

On Windows servers and workstations a quick netstat /es will show you what's happening. If you're really worried or experiencing performance issues then stick ethereal on a laptop and have a peek. Matt

[malman]

BliarsGoing said:

You can run 10MB up to 185M after that you'll start to get excessive/late collisions.

Isn't that only if you are using coax though (remember coax? oh the joys of fault finding).

[tinman0]

100metres max. we've run 110m and found that it failed with too many errors.

[Miles_stylus]

Many thanks all - looks like it shouldn't really be a problem in the home any way. When you all mention "the right tools" to terminate / apply plugs - what are these and are they expensive?

Many thanks once again

MIles

[aldi]

RJ45 Crimp tool - see above

In B&Q for £20 ish I think, cheaper on the web. As with most things you can spend a lot if you want to, but just to do a couple of ends every now and then I'd just get a cheapie.

Crimp tool, £13 ish
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear

Ends, 76p for 10
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear

Cable seems a little bit pricey from there and you probably won't need this much:
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSear

Edited by aldi on Sunday 17th September 13:11

[thepassenger]

Miles_stylus said:

Many thanks all - looks like it shouldn't really be a problem in the home any way. When you all mention "the right tools" to terminate / apply plugs - what are these and are they expensive?

Many thanks once again

MIles

Nahh. Depends on how fancy a crimper you want to buy really. Check out Maplin's they used to do some pretty cheap crimps that are basically pliers (no ratchet stuff) with the crimp attached to them... and I think plugs are about 50p each at most... probably less if you buy a packet of them, face plates maybe £1.50 for a basic jobbie.

[Plotloss]

Miles, whereabouts are you in the country, if you're fairly local to me or somewhere I'm travelling I may be able to assist.

If you can guess at a cable length I'm happy to bung a couple of connectors on either end of it, no probs.

[BliarsGoing]

malman said:

BliarsGoing said:

You can run 10MB up to 185M after that you'll start to get excessive/late collisions.

Isn't that only if you are using coax though (remember coax? oh the joys of fault finding).

Nope, 10MB will run quite happily up top 185M over CAT5. It's bad practise though as pretty much everything is 100MB these days and sooner or later someone will try it at 100MB and wonder why it is error prone.