Cat 5 cable upgrades?

[xu^]

hi all, currently using old cat 5 cable (probably 10 yrs old) from my router to a switch with a broken rj45 lol , then another even older cat 5 cable from the switch to the PC, was wondering would swapping it out for cat5e or cat 6 make any difference at all to my speeds or pings in online games.?

Currently on pretty slow internet by most ppls these days i suppose ,60 down and around 15 up.

thanks for any help

 

[ShiBDiB]

If there's any decent distance involved in the old cables you might see some improvement upgrading. I highly doubt they degraded unless you're running them outside or in some other weird setup that exposes them to temp extremes.

 

[xu^]

current cable lengths are 20m and 10m, just running in the house, just wondering if its worth bothering or not really.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Cat5e will allow gigabit Ethernet so if your current hardware supports it and you stream, have a lot of users on your network or move a lot of data back and fourth. upgrading to cat5e will be quite a decent upgrade. Upgrading anything beyond that is not really worth it unless you want a 10GB network and are constantly transferring massive humongous chunks of data like a blu-ray rips across the network.

It wont lower your ping because the distance between you, your ISP and gaming servers are still the same. The only thing that can change your ping is either upgrading your internet connection to fiber optic or moving closer to your local telephone exchange where your ISP keep all their boxes that do the switching.

If your router is more than10 years old, It might be worth upgrading to a router that supports gigabit ethernet and wireless AC/Wi-fi 6

 

[Valantar]

hi all, currently using old cat 5 cable (probably 10 yrs old) from my router to a switch with a broken rj45 lol , then another even older cat 5 cable from the switch to the PC, was wondering would swapping it out for cat5e or cat 6 make any difference at all to my speeds or pings in online games.?

Currently on pretty slow internet by most ppls these days i suppose ,60 down and around 15 up.

thanks for any help

If the cables are only really used for internet (i.e. no large local file transfers) then no, not with those internet speeds. If it works, leave it.

 

[Final_Fighter]

can you list your hardware? (router and switches) it will make it easier to help.

Without knowing your hardware i can make some general recommendations. if your hardware is 10 years old i would start by upgrading the main router to a gigabit or greater. if you use wireless than make sure you are looking at a wifi 6 capable router so you can get another 10 years life from the hardware. Go with gigabit switches if you need them and run cat 6 or greater cable. if the cables will be subjected to the elements than you should be sure to get cables that are listed as weather resistant. As stated before tho, ping is only going to improve unless your current hardware is maxing out the connection. geographical location and the type of connection will have the greatest effect on ping. this is assuming your current network is working the way its supposed to from 10 years ago.

Again, give us some more info on what the hardware is you are using.

 

[TheUn4seen]

Wouldn't make any difference at all unless you plan on upgrading your local network to faster than 1GbE or you experience connection drops due to damaged cables/plugs. New cables would not improve your in-game ping or anything at all. This is the case of "if it works it works, leave it alone".

 

[Space Lynx]

Cat5e will allow gigabit Ethernet so if your current hardware supports it and you stream, have a lot of users on your network or move a lot of data back and fourth. upgrading to cat5e will be quite a decent upgrade. Upgrading anything beyond that is not really worth it unless you want a 10GB network and are constantly transferring massive humongous chunks of data like a blu-ray rips across the network.

It wont lower your ping because the distance between you, your ISP and gaming servers are still the same. The only thing that can change your ping is either upgrading your internet connection to fiber optic or moving closer to your local telephone exchange where your ISP keep all their boxes that do the switching.

If your router is more than10 years old, It might be worth upgrading to a router that supports gigabit ethernet and wireless AC/Wi-fi 6

my current internet goes to 1.2 gig down but i only get 900 down or so. really annoys me. i am guessing my gtx 1070 laptop ethernet port maxes out at 1 gig. i would need a 2.5 gig ethernet port on one of these newer mobos to see that 1.2 gig down i suppose.

 

[xu^]

its a standard Sky 2 port router, its not old. but no idea what the model etc is, id guess pretty low end from Sky

TP-Link TL-SG105 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch, again only a couple yrs old.​

and 2 cat 5 cables, one around 10/12 years old 20m and the other must be at least 15 yrs old 10m, but they do appear to work without any problems.

 

[Final_Fighter]

the switch is fine. its already a gigabit switch. are you connected to the switch directly from your pc?

edit: never mind. just read that you are. you should have a gigabit connection from your pc to the switch at the least. go to network and internet in windows setting, then go to properties and scroll down. you should see something like this.

 

[dragontamer5788]

current cable lengths are 20m and 10m, just running in the house, just wondering if its worth bothering or not really.

Replace them only after you prove that the cables are slowing down your connection. How fast do you expect your data to go? Are you reaching those speeds? If not, are you sure that the cable is at fault?

 

[Grog6]

If you're running analog signals with ethernet adapters, cat6 might help if it's shielded.
Digital can't really get any better than "It works!
I did find out the signal latency between channels was worse with cat 6, due to he variably spaced twists.

 

[eidairaman1]

current cable lengths are 20m and 10m, just running in the house, just wondering if its worth bothering or not really.

No, just replace the broken ends

 

[Space Lynx]

sorry to butt in on your thread OP

but why is this not showing 1200/1200? i am paying for 1200/1200

is it the issue i mentioned earlier? i just don't have a 2.5g lan port on this laptop?

 

[Final_Fighter]

sorry to butt in on your thread OP

but why is this not showing 1200/1200? i am paying for 1200/1200

is it the issue i mentioned earlier? i just don't have a 2.5g lan port on this laptop?

your laptop only has gigabit. your link speed is correct given the hardwares capability.

 

[Space Lynx]

your laptop only has gigabit. your link speed is correct given the hardwares capability.

does anyone know what the playstation 5 ethernet port is limited to? just curious if i will get the full 1200 on that or not

 

[cvaldes]

Why don't you just consult the Sony PS5 specs page on their corporate website? It would be much more authoritative than asking this question on an anonymous Q&A forum.

Sony will post what the device is rated for. It's a consumer device full of commodity components. It's not like you're going to get a unit that gets twice the network performance as your next door neighbor's PS5.

 

[Valantar]

does anyone know what the playstation 5 ethernet port is limited to? just curious if i will get the full 1200 on that or not

Ethernet is either 10, 100, 1000, 2500, 5000 or 10000. There's no such thing as a 1200mbps Ethernet link. And anything above 1000 is quite rare and rather expensive still.

 

[Space Lynx]

Ethernet is either 10, 100, 1000, 2500, 5000 or 10000. There's no such thing as a 1200mbps Ethernet link. And anything above 1000 is quite rare and rather expensive still.

I know that. I am asking if the PS5 has a 2.5 gig port or a 1 gig port. I just worded it badly.

edit: i found the answer it is 1 gig max on ps5. so yeah next gen pc is only way for me to max my internet speed... 2.5 gig port mobo will be a must in my future build a year or two from now.

 

[Valantar]

I know that. I am asking if the PS5 has a 2.5 gig port or a 1 gig port. I just worded it badly.

edit: i found the answer it is 1 gig max on ps5. so yeah next gen pc is only way for me to max my internet speed... 2.5 gig port mobo will be a must in my future build a year or two from now.

No problem I don't think any console will move to anything above GbE for a long time - the bandwidth just isn't necessary for gaming. No game comes close to saturating GbE (if it did it would be unplayable for >99.9% of people, those who don't have internet connections that fast), and latency doesn't change with a higher bandwidth NIC. And media streaming uses, what, 50Mbps at most? Btw there are reasonably cheap (~$40 IIRC) 2.5G NICs to be found if you have a spare PCIe slot or fast USB port. But you'll need a modem (and any switches in between) to also support 2.5G of course.

 

[Space Lynx]

I can't get a USB dongle for 2.5 two of my usb ports on this gtx 1070 laptop are dead, I am using a Sabrent USB hub just to get by with my keyboard and mouse, etc. I imagine a 2.5g port would not like the hub... would prob have to get a powered hub... prob not worth it for 200 extra speed.

not sure if my laptop has any pci-e slots or not. i don't think so

 

[Valantar]

I can't get a USB dongle for 2.5 two of my usb ports on this gtx 1070 laptop are dead, I am using a Sabrent USB hub just to get by with my keyboard and mouse, etc. I imagine a 2.5g port would not like the hub... would prob have to get a powered hub... prob not worth it for 200 extra speed.

not sure if my laptop has any pci-e slots or not. i don't think so

Yeah, on a laptop that isn't really feasible. Then again, I sincerely doubt you'd ever notice the difference anyhow. A 20% increase over what is already blazingly fast? That's not likely to be noticeable.

 

[dragontamer5788]

Ethernet is either 10, 100, 1000, 2500, 5000 or 10000. There's no such thing as a 1200mbps Ethernet link. And anything above 1000 is quite rare and rather expensive still.

1200mpbs is a spec associated with 802.11ac.

Arguably, any standard over "802" is Ethernet (with 802.11ac being part of the "wireless Ethernet" taxonomy). But you're right in that there's no 1200Mbps wired-Ethernet link.

 

[Bill_Bright]

IMO, it is not urgent but I would replace them - especially if exposed to sunlight and other physical abuse. Sunlight can degrade the insulation over time and physical abuse can cause wear and tear on the connectors and wire crimps.

CAT-5e is good enough. But if me, I would go CAT-6 anyway.

 

[lexluthermiester]

its a standard Sky 2 port router, its not old. but no idea what the model etc is, id guess pretty low end from Sky

TP-Link TL-SG105 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch, again only a couple yrs old.​

and 2 cat 5 cables, one around 10/12 years old 20m and the other must be at least 15 yrs old 10m, but they do appear to work without any problems.

Yeah, you should get some new cables. Not only will your LAN speeds improve but cat5 from that long ago had shielding that was less than optimal. Cat6 however has modern shielding and will be very much less susceptible to interference.