ethernet cable

[dianal]

I need a longer ethernet cable to connect router to BT socket. I am using BT Halo 3 and Full Fibre 900. What sort of ethernet cable should I buy please. Should it be red or yellow ends? Thank you

[licquorice · Accepted solution]

Electrons aren't fussy about colour.

You need a Cat5E or Cat6 Ethernet patch cord. The 'E' is important.

[gg30340]

The cable has no idea what colour the ends are so you do not need to worry about that. They are only coloured as BT think it will assist users when describing where to plug them in.

You can use a Cat5e cable or a Cat 6 which is at higher standard and gives you a bit of future proofing.

[dianal]

Thanks for your help. Had read something on BT website about red or yellow but glad to know electrons will be happy with either or neither! 

[ob123]

Not all cables are the same 🙂 however agree with the others anything Cat5-6/6a or above would be fine. In my experience i would opt for a branded patch cable,  there are other brands... StarTech.com CAT6 Ethernet Cable RJ45 UTP Category 6 Network/Patch Cord w/Strain Relief UL/TIA Certified (N6PATC3MWH) try  amazon. 

[Anonymous]

@ob123 

You're not agreeing though, you're suggesting (incorrectly) that Cat 5 would be suitable, when it won't.

Although why you're posting at all 10 days after the question has been answered twice already & marked as solved is baffling.

[ob123]

Wow, you must know something I don’t.. good luck who ever you are

[WSH]

What he means is cat 5 was only rated to 100Mb/s.  It is cat 5"e" onwards that is gigabit rated and the post you replied to was on the 18th.

[ob123]

Thanks, however cat5 can run at 1g. The history of cat5 is well understood and some may know the orginal rfc confirmed this however however the standard looked at 100m and at that length cat5 may fail. Interesting it also confirmed the interference challenges impacted higher rates at shorter lengths. So technically it’s not incorrect to state cat5 can carry 1ghz in fact beyond that up to 5ghz. The original posted query does talk about a patch cable!

After moving to fttp and bt I was really looking forward to contributing to this forum. It is not listed anywhere that people shouldn’t reply to posts that someone considers old I.e the 18th.. to be honest really disappointed that some people call that out… it is their opinion and they are intitled to it. However poor show imo to a new contrubter to this forum and made worse by the fact it came from someone who is badged as a major contributor. Wow friendly bunch…. What effect do you think that has when people read it? Forums should be collaborative and imho friendly and inclusive. As a newbie and a confident individual I call it out… I hope the moderator can review and correct me if I’m mistaken, as this may not be a forum for me

[gg30340]

@ob123 

Cat 5 can be used for FTTP if that is what you want to use however Cat 5e and above is recognised as being a better standard to use for FTTP as Cat 5 it will limit your speeds to around 100Mbps. Cat 5 is designed to run 10/100 Mbps.

It might be able to run 1Gb over short ideal conditions but it is not reliable for speeds of 1Gb.  Cat 5e and above can achieve 1Gb with out any issues over 100m.

It would in my opinion and I am sure that of many others , given the cost of Ethernet cable, be a false economy to use Cat 5 as against the few extra pence for Cat5e and above to use Cat 5 cables but as always it's up to the user to decide. 

As regards your comments about posting on a thread that has been answered and marked as solved, it is entirely up to you if you wish to add to the thread particularly if there is something wrong with the answer that has been marked by the OP and should be corrected if required.

There is no time bar on doing this but while not in this instance it is not unknow for additional posts to be added to posts that are well over a year old which does seem a bit pointless if it adds nothing to the OP's question particularly if it is obviously some thing that would not "drag" on for so long and requires an immediate fix.  .

Contributions are welcome from all but only you can decide if this is a forum for you.