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What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R7000
As somewhat of a novice I need help with what type of ethernet cable cat5e, cat6, etc. and jacks should I use to hardwire my home to take maximum advantage of speeds offered by my new Nighthawk AC1900 R7000 router?
Re: What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R
Cat5e will work, but I'd suggest using cat6. You'll also want cat6 jacks.
If this cable is running between floors, then I recommend getting plenum grade cable (Riser might be enough - depending on the details of the cable run and your zoning. But plenum can always be substituted for riser). The plenum/riser cable meets fire safety codes that regular cable doesn't.
Of course if some of it is running outdoors, you'll want an outdoor grade for that segment (and you can find outdoor plenum - which you can run anywhere). Riser/Plenum/Outdoor cable does tend to be thicker and stiffer then normal patch cable. But it important to meet the fire codes.
You'll want wall plates in the various rooms. You can terminate the cables in switch boxes+wall plates at the router, or get a patch panel. Either way, you then use patch ethernet cord to connect the wall plates/patch panel to the router and switches. There are several kits that allow you to build your own wallplate with various connectors (a mix of coax, etherent, phone line, etc). If you are putting in a lot of these, you might also want to invest in a LAN cable tester (or see if you can borrow one). There are some inexpensive ones out there. A punchdown tool will also be needed (some of the wall plate kits include these).
It can be challenging to get the cables through the walls, especially if you have multiple stories. So you might get a quote from an electrician. Note there are some countries where it is not legal to install in-wall cable yourself.
Re: What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R
Cat5e will work, but I'd suggest using cat6. You'll also want cat6 jacks.
If this cable is running between floors, then I recommend getting plenum grade cable (Riser might be enough - depending on the details of the cable run and your zoning. But plenum can always be substituted for riser). The plenum/riser cable meets fire safety codes that regular cable doesn't.
Of course if some of it is running outdoors, you'll want an outdoor grade for that segment (and you can find outdoor plenum - which you can run anywhere). Riser/Plenum/Outdoor cable does tend to be thicker and stiffer then normal patch cable. But it important to meet the fire codes.
You'll want wall plates in the various rooms. You can terminate the cables in switch boxes+wall plates at the router, or get a patch panel. Either way, you then use patch ethernet cord to connect the wall plates/patch panel to the router and switches. There are several kits that allow you to build your own wallplate with various connectors (a mix of coax, etherent, phone line, etc). If you are putting in a lot of these, you might also want to invest in a LAN cable tester (or see if you can borrow one). There are some inexpensive ones out there. A punchdown tool will also be needed (some of the wall plate kits include these).
It can be challenging to get the cables through the walls, especially if you have multiple stories. So you might get a quote from an electrician. Note there are some countries where it is not legal to install in-wall cable yourself.
Re: What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R
Thanks for the quick response. I had researched enough to be dangerous and confused on what to do. Fortunately our home is one story so that will make it a lot easier with most of the runs being in the 50 foot range including up the stud wall, across the attic and back down. I have read of horror stories about trying to make up your own cables and getting good connections. I know that I want to use a good quality cable such as Belden so to get these lengths, 50 foot or so, I will probably have to make up my own cables. Again thanks for the quick response.
Re: What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R
I upgraded all my cables from Cat5 to Cat7. I now have 300Mbps to the house and wanted to make sure my cables were able to carry the extra bandwidth and to get 1Gbps between my networked devices.
Cat7 is over kill but it helps to future proof your network and it doesn't cost all that much more than Cat6.
Re: What type of ethernet cat5e, cat6, should I use to hardwire my home to use w/ Nighthawk AC1900 R
I hope your projet works out ok my was a easy task as the house is about 5 foot of the ground and where the office computer is below the main floor so running cat 6 cable was easy.
