On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 3:39 PM, Jonathan Link <[email protected]> wrote: > I'd like to recable the office with Cat 6 everywhere ...
Either run CAT5E (Category 5 Enhanced) or CAT6A (Category 6 Augmented). Gigabit will work with CAT5E; ten gigabit needs CAT6A. CAT6 is *not* good enough for ten gigabit and pointless expense for gigabit. CAT6A was rather more expensive (more than 3 times, IIRC) when I last priced it out (a few years ago), so consider whether it's worth the expense. Ten gig copper adoption outside the datacenter and backbone, while likely, is by no means a given. Maybe they world will go with fiber this time. > ... including phone ports, but I'm unsure if the phones > support Cat 6. We're using a Toshiba Stratagy ... Most digital phone systems need a single pair of "voice grade wiring". Voice grade basically means "it conducts electricity and doesn't short". CAT5, CAT3, Romex, barbed wire, etc. Some systems are picky and want CAT3, or two pair, but they're the exception, not the ture. I've never seen anything require a full four pairs, nor CAT5. CAT6A is way overkill, but it will certainly work. Once you go VoIP, you might make use of CAT 5E/6A for phones, since then the phones are really just Ethernet nodes. But a lot of people chose to just buy phones with built-in Ethernet switches. That's the way we wired our newest building. Every jack location is just an Ethernet port. We plug the phone into the wall and hang the PC off the phone. We saved a fair bit on wiring costs by not running two sets of cables everywhere, plus the number of switch ports is greatly reduced. I wouldn't run a server through a phone like this, but that building is all sales people and factory stations, neither of which are demanding data net users. YMMV, IME, etc., etc. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
