Hubs, Switches, Cat5e and RJ45

[Marcus P. Bonner]

I'm not an IT professional by a long shot. I do have some questions. I'm in the process of upgrading my home network to add additional ethernet lines with Cat5e, so that I can take advantage of 1000gb applications. What's the difference between Hubs and switches? Why can't Cat5 simply utilize the unused 2 twisted pair that it's not currently using? Do I need to purchase special RJ45 and patch cord connectors to utilize Cat5e cable, or can I just use the connectors and RJ45 plugs I now have? Any other ideas, info and help will be more than just appreciated. Thanks for any and all assistance.

[Mohieddin Kharnoub]

Hi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable#Category_5e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_hub

Good Luck !!!

[Matt Hobbs]

Gigabit can work over standard CAT5, it's just recommended to use CAT5e. If you already have standard CAT5 cabling I would just try it first - if you have any problems then look at upgrading your cabling.

To understand the difference between a hub and a switch, imagine that with a hub it's a single wire and each device is connected on that one wire. Only one device can talk at a time on that - any other packets sent at the same time will cause a collision and the performance be affected. A switch gives each device it's own wire and can operate in full-duplex (send and receive at the same time).

http://winhlp.com/SwitchHub.htm

[sthen]

> Why can't Cat5 simply utilize the unused 2 twisted pair that it's not currently using?

Cat5/Cat5e are just the cabling standards; some applications (e.g. 100baseTX) use 2 pairs, others (e.g. 1000baseT) do use all 4 pairs.

[Rich S]

See:

http://www.sksapps.com/index.php?page=network.html

or

http://home.carolina.rr.com/hvaux/PCHomeNetworking.htm

Remember not to go over 100 meters per run on your cat5e.
And your throughput is only as good as your weakest (slowest) component. If you want to run gigabit then get all gigabit rated components.

ref:

http://discountcablesusa.com/crossover-cables.html

cat5e:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable



Rich

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