The basics:
We have a 300 mbps Charter cable connection for internet. The feed comes into the basement in the corner where the modem is located. There is a 35' to 40' line that zig zags it's way to the center of the basement where the ASUS AC1900 wireless router was always located. It's a 2500 sq. ft. house with a 1st and 2nd floor over the basement. There is also a large room off one end over the garage, and a back porch.
I set up the CAT5 cabling for all this 10+ years ago and it's worked adequately all this time. I built my own cables and they've always worked fine. However now we are working on ditching cable TV and have purchased several ROKU devices for the TVs. After setting them up we were getting what I felt was too much buffering so I began looking at my network speeds. The 300 mbps was confirmed coming to the modem but I was only getting 45 to 55 (or lower at the extremities) around the house. So I contacted Charter tech and began looking at new wireless routers.
What I've done:
After doing some online reading I purchased the Netgear ORBI RBK50 with one satellite. This MESH system seemed to be highly rated and was the easiest router to setup that I've ever used. I place the router in the center of the basement and the satellite at one end of the first floor.
However even with the new router I was only getting about 65 to 75 mbps speed at the laptops in the house. I'd made an appt. with Charter for the next day so just waited for the tech.
The tech replaced the modem, removed unnecessary splitters and basically brought the system up to date. We still had the 65 to 75 mbps speed though. The last thing to try was bringing the router into the corner of the house with the modem and connect them with a short NEW LAN patch cord.
VOILA.........275 mbps.
Question:
Turns out there is nothing wrong with my original 35' to 40' CAT5 cable. I know this because it works just fine. And it's not the long length of the LAN cable because I've now replaced the short patch cable with a newly purchased 40' CAT6 cable and I have maintained the high speed.
So my question is just what is the difference between a CAT5 and CAT6 cable. Online reading has told me that the CAT5 is good for up to about 100 mbps while the CAT6 goes way past that. Does this speed capability only affect communication between the modem and the ORBI router or do I need to replace other long CAT5 runs I have in the house to devices that are not wirelessly connected? Most importantly I have another 35' to 40' run of a home made CAT5 cable that goes from the ORBI router to my Ubiquity wireless bridge transmitter. Will replacing that CAT5 cable, or changing the setup so the Ubiquity transmitter plugs into an ORBI satellite instead of a home run back to the ORBI router in the center of the basement make a difference for the wireless bridge performance?
I hope I've given a complete picture here and appreciate those who've taken the time to read it through.
Thanks,
BH
We have a 300 mbps Charter cable connection for internet. The feed comes into the basement in the corner where the modem is located. There is a 35' to 40' line that zig zags it's way to the center of the basement where the ASUS AC1900 wireless router was always located. It's a 2500 sq. ft. house with a 1st and 2nd floor over the basement. There is also a large room off one end over the garage, and a back porch.
I set up the CAT5 cabling for all this 10+ years ago and it's worked adequately all this time. I built my own cables and they've always worked fine. However now we are working on ditching cable TV and have purchased several ROKU devices for the TVs. After setting them up we were getting what I felt was too much buffering so I began looking at my network speeds. The 300 mbps was confirmed coming to the modem but I was only getting 45 to 55 (or lower at the extremities) around the house. So I contacted Charter tech and began looking at new wireless routers.
What I've done:
After doing some online reading I purchased the Netgear ORBI RBK50 with one satellite. This MESH system seemed to be highly rated and was the easiest router to setup that I've ever used. I place the router in the center of the basement and the satellite at one end of the first floor.
However even with the new router I was only getting about 65 to 75 mbps speed at the laptops in the house. I'd made an appt. with Charter for the next day so just waited for the tech.
The tech replaced the modem, removed unnecessary splitters and basically brought the system up to date. We still had the 65 to 75 mbps speed though. The last thing to try was bringing the router into the corner of the house with the modem and connect them with a short NEW LAN patch cord.
VOILA.........275 mbps.
Question:
Turns out there is nothing wrong with my original 35' to 40' CAT5 cable. I know this because it works just fine. And it's not the long length of the LAN cable because I've now replaced the short patch cable with a newly purchased 40' CAT6 cable and I have maintained the high speed.
So my question is just what is the difference between a CAT5 and CAT6 cable. Online reading has told me that the CAT5 is good for up to about 100 mbps while the CAT6 goes way past that. Does this speed capability only affect communication between the modem and the ORBI router or do I need to replace other long CAT5 runs I have in the house to devices that are not wirelessly connected? Most importantly I have another 35' to 40' run of a home made CAT5 cable that goes from the ORBI router to my Ubiquity wireless bridge transmitter. Will replacing that CAT5 cable, or changing the setup so the Ubiquity transmitter plugs into an ORBI satellite instead of a home run back to the ORBI router in the center of the basement make a difference for the wireless bridge performance?
I hope I've given a complete picture here and appreciate those who've taken the time to read it through.
Thanks,
BH
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