Cat5e or cat6 cable for outdoors/underground use

MattyP1990

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Nov 29, 2010
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Hi there


Just about to run about 30 metres of Ethernet cable underground from one building to another. I know there's quite a few forums like this which suggest to go for cat5 mostly for the price, not sure when these were advised but cat6 doesn't seem to be too much more now...

So just wondering if it will be worth going for cat6 for a future reference if you will, ideally if products ever advance to support it. Just that I don't fancy digging up the cable in a year or so.

Of course I'd rather go for cat5e but wouldn't mind adding a bit to the budget if it's worth it?

Also does anyone know if it's any more difficult to fit the connecters to cat6e? Are they just the same as rj45?


Thanks in advance
 
You won't see a performance difference between the two, but either get outdoor rated cable or run it through a PVC conduit to protect the cable. If you use at least 1/2 inch PVC you can pull through a later CAT 6e/7/7e/whatever someday for 10gigabit Ethernet when it becomes affordable, but CAT 6 will not do any better than gigabit.
 
Thanks for the reply

I think I'll go for some decent armoured ca5e rather than the cheapest affordable cat6.

Thanks for the help