As it was explained way back then by a Fluke engineer and as I try to remember it correctly your understanding is correct. There were minor differences in some companies cabling between 5 and 5e. The main difference was in the specs between the two. His demo included a couple of their cabling meters and several different types of cabling and ends. He had a mix of CAT5 and CAT5e cable. In the end he showed that if the cabling was installed correctly, either would work with gigabit. The cable meters were cool and expensive then. They haven't dropped that much in price on some of the models last time I checked.
This might help some more as it goes into a little more depth. http://www.gigabit-ethernet.org/technology/faq.html Art -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 2:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Getting Rid of CAT5? On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Art DeKneef <[email protected]> wrote: > Without trying to stir up a debate on networking... I agree with > everything that has been mentioned here with one exception. You can > run gigabit over > CAT5 cabling if it has been installed properly. > > http://www.gigabit-ethernet.org/technology/whitepapers/gige_1098/coppe > r.html#base My understanding is: In most cases, there is/was no construction difference between CAT5 and CAT5E cables. The difference was in somewhat stricter certification requirements. That doc seem to align with my understanding. It doesn't mention "5E" or "Enhanced" at all, and does state "The 1995 cabling standard did not specify two critical performance parameters--return loss and Far-End Crosstalk (FEXT)." Given the date of the doc (1998), I think it likely that it just predates the 5E spec. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
