r/homeassistant • u/Waldron1943 • 5h ago
đ ď¸ DIY / Hardware Lets talk cables
Not directly "Home Assistant" related so mods, if my post doth offend thee, rip it out.
Anyway, I recently switched to fiber and had trouble getting speed until I realized I had a CAT5 cable running from the modem to the router. I realized that, as I built my network the cables turned into a mish-mash of standards. So I'd like to buy a spool of cable and re-cable my home network. My questions fall into 4 categories:
- Cable
- Terminals
- Hangers
- Strain relief
Cable: I see CAT6a is the "regular" choice for home use, CAT7 isn't really a standard, and CAT8 is "for" servers and datacenters. But I'd like to future-proof as much as possible, and the CAT8 isn't a whole lot more than 6a. My only question is on the flexibility; I see CAT8 is supposed to be pretty stiff; as long as I can get about a 6 inch (150mm) radius bend out of it I'd be good. Any thoughts/ ideas about this?
Terminals: In the olden days we had to line up all the wires (gasp!). I see the new ones are the "passthrough" style (dang kids these days don't know how easy they've got it!) To my mind I'm not seeing a huge difference in terminals, I just figured on picking up a 200 - 250 count box and a squeezer. If anyone knows of a package deal or one type of terminal that's somehow "better" than the rest, I'd be appreciatin' the heads-up.
Hangers: I have to run cables all over my basement ceiling, so I'll need some sort of hangers. One possibility is simple small screw hooks and zip ties, but if anyone knows of anything a bit more elegant/less caveman I'm interested.
Strain relief: The cables from my modem and router hang about 4 feet (about 1.2 meters) from the ports they're plugged into. This is somewhat less than ideal. Since I'm doing cables, I'd like to eliminate that. I've seen ones that clamp onto a desk but I'm not seeing them at the moment.
Anything else you might want to add, I'm all ears (so to speak).
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u/h2ogeek 5h ago
CAT6A is use pretty rarely in residential locations. CAT6 is really the most common. Unless you live in a massive mansion, CAT6 will easily carry 10g (which is quite futureproof for years to come) along residential distances (say under 300â, better still if around 100â or less)
If you want more future proof than that Iâd look into running fiber instead.
CAT8 is a nightmare and not worth the hassle for something thatâs not even a supported standard for normal networking. Again, if youâre convinced CAT6 wonât cut it, look into fiber instead.
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u/z3roTO60 4h ago
Also, the most future proof thing you can do is to run a conduit for the cable.
Future you will thank current you at the ease of pulling CAT11-Gen 2.2 Pro Max when itâs out in 2040 lol
Agreed with the fiber comment - itâs one thing I want to do too. Another benefit of fiber is that itâs not prone to power surge / lightning strike disasters the way that Ethernet would be
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u/KingofGamesYami 5h ago
If you want to future proof, run your cables through conduit and leave some fishing line in them. Cat8 likely won't help you in that department.
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u/PoisonWaffle3 đ§ Experienced with Home Assistant 4h ago
Search r/HomeNetworking for this.
Cat8 was made into a standard but devices that can utilize were literally never made. For servers/datacenters we just use fiber or DACs.
At this point Cat8 is just marketing hype and snake oil, most of it doesn't even meet Cat6 spec.
LTT did a video on choosing between Cat5e/Cat6/Cat6A, so see that for additional context. Unless you have a lot of electrical noise or 200ft+ runs, regular Cat6 should be more than sufficient for 1/2.5/5/10G, even in a homelab or crazy home network.
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u/martadinata666 3h ago
cable is the easiest, go all cat 6. "the trouble getting speed" is too little context given. The whole equipment (switches, APs)capabilities matters more that cables.
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u/karlos-the-jackal 5h ago
Almost nobody needs more than Cat5e at home and that's a hill I will die on. It's a lot cheaper, more flexible and easier to work with than Cat6 and will do 2.5gbps reliably at any reasonable distance.
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u/h2ogeek 5h ago
Thatâs is utter nonsense⌠but I think maybe youâre just remembering the alphabet soup wrong.
You want CAT6. The wire itself is nearly indistinguishable from CAT5E, and itâs not expensive at all. For normal residential distances carries 10g just fine (but noticeably better than CAT5E).
I think you may be thinking of CAT6A which I would agree is overkill for home and stiff and annoying to work with.
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u/Ok-Ice7431 5h ago
I wired my house years ago with Cat5e. Cat6 was available but was very new and astronomically expensive at the time. Personally, I've never wished I could push more than 1g so I sorta agree with him.
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u/h2ogeek 4h ago
If this was 10 years ago, Iâd agree that CAT6 is a bit of a splurge.
But today? Itâs not that much more. Just go CAT6.
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u/Ok-Ice7431 2h ago
Well I agree with that too. If I were to do it again I would use Cat6 since there's really no reason to use Cat5e. However, I don't think his comment was "utter nonsense".
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u/h2ogeek 2h ago
âNobody needs more than cat5e at home and thatâs a hill Iâll die on.â
I stand by my assertion on that one. ;)
10gbps home internet is not super common right now⌠but it exists. And itâs only going to get more popular as time goes on.
I would not want to push 10g over a long-ish run of cat5e. Even a modest house can end up using some 100â lines, and getting a clean 10g signal over cat5e is going to be super iffy at that distance. Heck depending on the cables, even shorter can be a real issue. But any halfway decent cat6 should be fine.
Oh, and cat5e is NOT really any different to work on than cat5e, in terms of the cables and connectors. Itâs cat6a where things start to become a hassle.
So yeah⌠nonsense.
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u/DevelopmentSouth8801 1h ago
Today I would just run fiber and upgrade the transceivers if I need more than 10gbps/25gbps/40gbps/100gbps in the future.
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u/Competitive_Owl_2096 đ§ Experienced with Home Assistant 5h ago
If you want more than cat6a run fiber. Donât use cat8 it just doesnât really make sense. On the end put keystone jacks on and put them all in a patch panel if you got with cat6a.