Evening all,

Quick question for the IT minded.

I have a Client who has an existing CAT5 home network. This is 6-years plus old. It is arranged as 1No telephone outlet, a triplex tv outlet (aerial cables run separately) and 1No cat5 outlet at each point. It works fine.

They have recently got BT Infinity. The router is located in the ‘server room’ and for coverage reasons (it’s a big house) the wi-fi box is located centrally and connected to the router via a cat5 outlet.

This works fine for the wi-fi connections but there are some items that the Client wishes to hard wire. Moving the wi-fi box to the server room is not an option as the coverage isn’t sufficient.

Now it is possible to replace the triplex TV outlet where the wi-fi box is located with additional cat5 outlets so that connection in the wi-fi boxes RJ45 sockets can be made and run back to the patch panel in the server room.

My question is this. Would it work if 2 cat6 outlets and wiring was installed instead of cat5 items to maximise the internet connection to the patch panel.

Thanks.

yep 🙂

Thanks.

why not just mount the router as close to the socket as possible and run homeplugs or extenders?

If they already have an existing network, what would be the point of using homeplugs?

DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!!!

purely as wifi access points? not all homeplugs have to plugin at both ends… next question

CAT5 has really been CAT5e for years, which is gigabit Ethernet. CAT6 would work, sure, but I seriously doubt you’ll be ‘maximising the Internet’ any time soon.

If it’s existing wiring, leave it alone unless it’s faulty. If it’s new cabling, look at the cost of CAT5e vs CAT6, bearing in mind that CAT6 is only CAT6 if it’s endpoint-to-endpoint and meets a bunch of other ephemeral specs like maximum bend radius in a cable, and ask yourself whether you’re likely to be getting 10Gbps ADSL any time soon.

If it’s a business client and you have to ask these questions, hire a professional cabler with a Fluke tester.

Two new outlets would need to be wired regardless. The question is, is it worth/be a benefit doing these in cat6 or to stick with cat5? Given it would be feeding a cat5 (about 30 outlets) network then would cat5 suffice.

Actually, having thought about it there’s only a single cat5 connection between the router and the wi-fi box so it kind of renders the question mute.