BT full fibre - couple of questions

[rodleydragons]

We've just had the BT full fibre installed today with speeds promised of up to 900meg. I understand it can take a while to settle and currently on wi to were on about 300-350 however on the PC which is wired it's only 90.  Do I need a special cable to handle the fibre optic? Currently just using ethernet cable from 2 yr ago. 

Second question is we were told we'd get two booster discs but engineer said that's nothing to do with him. Do they get sent separately?

Many rhanks

[jac_95]

For your wired connection to your PC is the ethernet port and network card capable and supports 1000BASE-T?

Are you also using a supported ethernet cable such as cat5e or above?

[rodleydragons]

I don't think the ethernet cable we have is capable which is why I was asking what I need to look for.  I did google and some said cat5e but some had other numbers so just want to make sure I order the right thing. Thanks

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[jac_95]

@rodleydragons 

What cable do you have today? Cat5e was widely available and in use many years ago so surprised if not already that standard.

It should say on the cable what it is.

These days it's cat6 or cat6a or above but cat5e will do the job for up to 1,000 Mbps

[rbz5416]

.

[rodleydragons]

Thanks all. I'll check the cable but will buy a new one.

One final question. On my mobile phone I use various streaming services. Just tried IT X and it keeps pausing on the video but audio continues only for a split second each time but it leaves the audio out of sync. I've just tried Netflix and Prime too and it's exactly same issue but this morning before the çhange in broadband they were all working fine. Is this a common issue? I've restarted my phone (Google pixel 6) but it's still happening making it unwatchable. Any advice please? 

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[WSH]

Cat 5…only used 4 out of the 8 wires and was up to 100Mb/s at up to 100m distance.

Cat 5e…was “enhanced” to reach 1000Mb/s (1Gb/s).  That’s what the e stands for.  It uses all eight wires and, while it will give 1000Mb/s at a 100m with good quality cable/install, it is operating with the accelerator pedal on the floor.

Cat 6…is a redesign to do 1000Mb/s at up to 100m comfortably.  In fact, while it is unofficial, cat 6 is said to be capable of up to 10Gb/s at up to 55m.  With 2.5Gb/s cards starting to appear, cat 6 is what I personally would recommend for the future proofing it offers, but cat 5e will do the job fine until better equipment comes out.

Cat 6A, (A = augmented), is shielded and rated to 10Gb/s but the last stuff I used was very thick.  (About the size of 13A mains flex).

Cat 7 and 8 are really for data centres etc.  Cat 7 will do up to 10Gb/s to 100m.  Cat 8 will do 24 to 40Gb/s at up to 30m.  Over the top for your job but they will work if you want to spend the money.

Note, while a duff cable can limit speed, the cable itself does not determine the speed.  That is set by the network cards at either end negotiating for the best they can handle with an acceptable error rate.