Topic: SmartLink Modem

[Sandra]

Oops getting my numbers mixed up still I think he understaood what I meant,thanks for pointing it out Adept    

[Sandra]

I found a pictorial reference for the types and names of lots of RJ plugs,see attached pic for clarification  

Speaking of connections can anyone tell me what the advantages/disadvantages are re UTP and STP Cat 5 and Cat 5e patch cables are ?
Preferably before I go and buy some around 2pm today  

[Sandra]

Oh well looks like I will have to go for the STP ones after all(its after my deadline for answers),as they are the dearer ones and are sheilded as opposed to unshielded so presumably they will be better at stopping any stray electrically induced magnetic field or other radiated interference interfering with stuff.
I found out,(for any other dummies like me),that cat 5 means it transfers data at up to 100mbs cant find what the E is for though  
I saw something saying enhaced but not sure if that was the E or what is enhanced in it  

[Adept]

You really must learn to use Google Sandra I found this on the first site

CommWeb

twisted pair

A thin-diameter wire (22 to 26 gauge) commonly used for telephone and network cabling. The wires are twisted around each other to minimize interference from other twisted pairs in the cable (Alexander Graham Bell invented this and was awarded a patent for it in 1881). Twisted pairs have less bandwidth than coaxial cable or optical fiber.



UTP, STP, ScTP, FTP

Twisted pair cables are available unshielded (UTP) or shielded (STP), with UTP being the most common. STP is used in noisy environments where the shield around each of the wire pairs, plus an overall shield, protects against excessive electromagnetic interference. A variation of STP, known as ScTP for "screened twisted pair" or FTP for "foil twisted pair," uses only the overall shield and provides more protection than UTP, but not as much as STP.



Standed and Solid

Both UTP and STP come in stranded and solid wire varieties. The stranded wire is the most common and is also very flexible for bending around corners. Solid wire cable has less attenuation and can span longer distances, but is less flexible than stranded wire and cannot be repeatedly bent. Following are the twisted pair categories.




                      Application
                      MHz=bandwidth
 Cat  Cable type      Mbps/Gbps=maximum data rate
  1   UTP             Analog voice
  2   UTP             Digital voice up to 1 Mbps
  3   UTP, ScTP, STP  16MHz, 4 Mbps
  4   UTP, ScTP, STP  20MHz, 16 Mbps
  5   UTP, ScTP, STP  100MHz, 100 Mbps
  5e  UTP, ScTP, STP  100MHz, 1 Gbps
  6   UTP, ScTP, STP  200MHz, 10 Gbps
  7   STP, ScTP       600MHz

[Sandra]

Oh so I am better with 5e for future proofing possibly then?
Or by the time they get faster than 100mbs the cable will have rotted or broken or need renewing anyway  

[lobo]

@Sandra

"CAT5e stands for Category 5e - Which is a type of data communications cable."

Cat5e is the standard cable for cable networking, as you will know the speed the WAN (Internet)works at is 10Mbs (broadband from 500Kbs to 2Mbs)but a LAN can transfer data at 100Mbs

Brian

[Sandra]

I bought cat 5e in the end,which happened to be the cheapest option and had the advantage of being available in different colours and various lengths which makes it easy for me to identify which PC is into which port no matter how tangled up they get in the ever expanding mass of wires behind my PC