House renovation, Cat6 or Cat6a?

[Shadowjump]

Hi, I am renovating my house and I am at the phase that I have to choose network cables, since my house did not have any.

The max cable length between devices, be it a router, ap, swich, pc, will be around 10-12 meters (30 to 36ft)

For example, wall outlet to switch 8 meters, switch to router 11 meters, etc.

From what I saw, Cat6 goes up to 55meters (180ft) for 10Gbit speeds and 6a goes up to 100m (330ft).

What would you choose for future proofing the network cables? (10 years+)

Only thing that really makes me think about 6 and 6a is that the installation of 6a is a lot harder than the installation of 6.

Note that my house was built at 1981 and its all concrete and bricks. Cables have to go through the plastic tubes that are housing the phone line cables (11mm diameter tube).


Is 6a worth the extra trouble?

 

[TonyH]

Whatever you choose, go for the best quality cable.

 

[Shadowjump]

Of course I will. Quality above everything else.

But 6 or 6a?

 

[joegreat]

When I did the cabling of my new flat the electrician told me that they only have on cable type: Cat6a as the price difference is small and it's more future proof (up to 40 Gbit).

 

[degrub]

When I did the cabling of my new flat the electrician told me that they only have on cable type: Cat6a as the price difference is small and it's more future proof (up to 40 Gbit).

Leave a pull line in each run. Then it will matter less.

 

[Despacitomiko]

It is so hard to predict the future in computer stuff. By the time 10g ports get common on pc and the default disk subsystems are designed to actually be able to use speeds like that who knows what will be available. Currently in a home environment there is very little need for speeds that are faster than 1g. Both cat6 and cat6a cable are ok. But for future-proofing, cat6a is better. It provides even better protection against crosstalk and has been tested up to 500 MHz. Cat-6A can run 10 Gbps Ethernet up to 100 meters. By the way, if you need this kind of cable, you can take fs a try. I bought several times from there, they are cheap and fast shipping. And the quality is the better than C2G. http://www.fs.com/c/cat6a-patch-cables-3049

 

[System Error Message]

if you have option for cat6a without having to spend more or take more effort definitely go for it. Its difficulty to crimp cat6a yourself from what i heard by cat6 is not much more difficult than cat5e.
For 10Gbe, cat6 will do it well, just make sure not to use too much cable.

 

[jec6613]

I just ran into the same question. While the price difference between CAT6 and CAT6a cabling is small, the same cannot be said of the patch panels, and getting the lines to properly certify is painful. CAT6 can handle 10 Gbps up to 50m, which is sufficient for most runs in a home (thanks to 802.3bz). For my copper runs, I can CAT6, and do push some HDBT at 10 Gbps over it without issue. I can re-pull if necessary in the future, but it should be fine for the next 10-20 years (roughly the cable life, anyway). However, for trunk runs where there will be a switch on the other side, I actually ran the most future-proof of all: singlemode fiber optics. It's been around since the 70's and has remained unchanged, and will handle 100+ Gbps without issue.

 

[degrub]

I just ran into the same question. While the price difference between CAT6 and CAT6a cabling is small, the same cannot be said of the patch panels, and getting the lines to properly certify is painful. CAT6 can handle 10 Gbps up to 50m, which is sufficient for most runs in a home (thanks to 802.3bz). For my copper runs, I can CAT6, and do push some HDBT at 10 Gbps over it without issue. I can re-pull if necessary in the future, but it should be fine for the next 10-20 years (roughly the cable life, anyway). However, for trunk runs where there will be a switch on the other side, I actually ran the most future-proof of all: singlemode fiber optics. It's been around since the 70's and has remained unchanged, and will handle 100+ Gbps without issue.

What cable brand and designation did you use ?
preterminated ends or did you do yourself ?
What are you using for modems - fiber to ethernet ?
Thanks.

 

[System Error Message]

cat6a if you can, if not cat6 if the cable length isnt too long.

After writing up a presentation, Rj45 has a lot of compatibility with other things, so using better cable helps for such applications, such as video over ethernet, PoE, phones, etc.

 

[jec6613]

What cable brand and designation did you use ?
preterminated ends or did you do yourself ?
What are you using for modems - fiber to ethernet ?
Thanks.

Cable Matters bulk Cat 6 in 23AWG Solid, riser rated.

Nothing is terminated to a plug, it's all terminated to jacks or too patch panels - even if I then have to use a 6" patch cord. Solid cables are more reliable for in-wall installation, and are designed to be punched down to jacks - stranded go into plugs for patch cables. And I did it all myself, then ran a Fluke tester on it and certified them at Cat 6. I do buy pre-terminated patch cables in bulk - important ones I get from Blue Jeans Cable, less important I get from whoever is cheap on Amazon.

The fiber just goes into an appropriate SFP that plugs into the switch. My central switch is a Netgear M5300-28GF3, which handles the bulk of L3 routing, and has LACP bundles of varying sizes to wherever I need them. Within the racks themselves, I use OM4 patch because it along with the SFPs are cheaper, and it's easy to change out to new stuff later, but for in-wall stuff I use ran OS1. Even though the fiber runs are short within the rack, I still use fiber because of a much lower port to port latency, and because it frees up more copper ports for device use.