TOP NETWORK CABLE 2024 - WHICH CAT?

Welcome back to The Ultimate Tech Hub. On today's episode of Home Networking 101, we will recommend the correct Network Cable ( Ethernet ) for your particular Home Networking situation. If you've ever bought an Ethernet cable, you saw many different types you can choose from. You can buy Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6e, Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat7a but which cable do you really need for your Home Networking circumstance? All of these Networking cables will work and are backwards compatible, but there are some major differences depending on the speeds required for you current situation. In this video I go over the different types of ethernet cables and what each one does. And we will also discuss 3 different Home Network Types: Basic, Intermediate & Advanced ( Enterprise ). If you have any questions about this video please leave them in the comments down below. Thank you for being a part of The Ultimate Tech Hub Team and if you haven't Subscribed yet please do its free. And if you like this video give a thumbs up and share it. Thanks again for watching the Ultimate Tech Hub Channel! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases.

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0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:31 3 Factors That Determine Your Network Cable Type
0:01:19 Different Ethernet Types - Cat5, Cat6, Cat7
0:01:42 Cat5 Explained
0:02:02 Cat5e Explained
0:03:03 Cat6 Explained
0:03:32 Cat6e Explained
0:03:38 Cat6a Explained
0:03:51 Cat5e & Cat6 Costs Compared
0:04:12 Cat7 Explained
0:04:43 Cat7a Explained
0:04:49 Cat7 Costs
0:05:03 The 3 Common Network Types Overview
0:05:12 Basic Home Network
0:05:25 Intermediate Home Network
0:05:42 Advanced Home Network ( Enterprise Network )
0:06:22 Basic Home Network Cable Type?
0:06:42 Our Network Cable Recommendation
0:07:29 Intermediate Home Network Cable Type?
0:08:00 Our Network Cable Recommendation
0:08:33 Advanced Home Network Cable Type?
0:09:20 Our Network Cable Recommendation
0:09:40 Future-Proofing Your Home Network
0:10:22 Which Cable Type Do You Need For Your Network?
0:10:41 Patreon Support

[UltimateTechHub]

We've had many subscribers and viewers request a video on the subjects of different home networks and different ethernet cable types. Today we will show you the correct ethernet cables that should be used for your particular home network situation. Thank you for the great suggestion's and keep it up. Thank you for watching we really appreciate it!

[oneporschefan]

Great job with this video. I’ve been “home networking” since the late 90’s, but no one is too old to learn. Great explanations and I love to finally hear someone address the superiority of Cat7 for in-wall runs, even in a home network environment. In-wall is something few people can justify “re-doing”, so it’s best to consider that cost-effectiveness includes labor and effort of running and not simply the cable cost.

[jbdragon]

I wired my House with CAT6. I did that because price-wise over 5e, it's not much more money. It's more future-proof. it can handle 10G networks in the future when I upgrade my hardware in the future. From what I hear, CAT7 is not really an Offical standard. It jumps to Cat8.

[mixmasta]

I work as an installer/engineer in a Home Automation company in the UAE, mostly our projects are huge villas and palaces and we use Cat7 or Cat6A below 100 meters. Anything above 100 meters we use fiber optics.

[takashiz]

Great video. Initially, I too was contemplating which cables to lay for my home network. I finally settled down with Cat 7 shielded throughout the house for fixed systems. They are more reliable and future proof in the years to come. I segregated my network into different groups based on computer related, Home TV media systems, Home smart systems.

[James_Knott]

Gigabit Ethernet was designed plain CAT5 and predates 5e. Of course, plain CAT5 is hard to come by these days. When I got a cable modem, in the late 90s, I wired my condo with CAT5, as 5e wasn't available then. I also had a 10 Mb hub, yes hub not switch, as switches were still fairly expensive then. That CAT5 cable is still in use, though with a 1 Gb switch. My cable modem is now supposed to provide 500/20 Mb, but is actually around 940/31! Don't forget, Ethernet cable is usually rated for 100M (330') and you're unlikely to see a run that long in a home.

[hypergolic]

I'm just installing Cat 7 on a home network (Aug 2022). It's cost quite a bit over Cat 6, however having shielded twisted pairs and the extra cable features, should hopefully put me in the position that in 10 years time, as TV gains ever greater in definition values, I'm ready to go.
I've also put multiple points in at the same location, yes you can purchase mini switches, however it's more clutter (in my opinion), and if in future, one line fails, there's a spare too.
Ultimately, I've made the jump to Cat 7 as I work in IT and can see that capability, however as stated in this video, Cat 6 is still more than good enough.
On another note I've only installed two aerial points downstairs, much to the electricians interest. As I said to them, how much do you actually watch from terrestrial broadcast?: the answer, not much. So I have Cat 7 points to all the possible locations for TV's in future.
If your installing Cat 7 cable in your house, try to imagine how the space will be, and could be used too. Is that room always going to be the home office? Will the dining room table always be there? Take a bit of time, and pay the extra to cover the bases (if you can).

[catalystguitarguy]

I've just surpassed the limitations on the 5E in the walls at my house for internet speeds. I've long surpassed it for my office and general computer usage. been using SFP+ for years now in my homelab and for my NAS and main PC.

I'm going to be redoing the runs in the walls and thru the attic with mostly Cat7, and a few fiber runs. Also going to add some more drops so my office has a 6 port box in the wall, and the same behind the entertainment center for the consoles, smart TV and HTPC. along with 2 lines per bedroom.

[dariuscorba]

For the advanced home network, i would say Cat6A for both outdoor and indoor because it can run 10G at up to 328 feet/100 meters

[Mic_Glow]

For speed Cat 5e is enough.
But taking future-proofing into account, better go with Cat 6. Also modern smart-homes have a ridiculous amount of wires (every light/ outlet can be controlled via relays from main distribution panel). So better go with a shielded cable.

[bar]

3:25 There are only two types cat 6 and 6A - there's no official spec for 6e, it's just a marketing gimmick coasting from 5e, so it's just regular 6 with optional price increase.

[chloepatt]

Thanks so much!!! I was almost gonna get a higher cat cable, but now i know mine is plentiful for what I need!

[BrianBaldridgeC]

This video is two years old. Would you change anything? And what about Cat8 Cable. Would you use in a home with Fiber from the ISP?

[mathewshoyt]

i used CAT6 for my home network. works very well even though i only have a 300mbps from my ISP which is perfect for my family and my budget. I even used cat6 cabling in lieu of the cat5 cable that came with the security system.

[michaelpoczynek]

If I was building a house, I would use two runs of CAT7 and FiberOP. That is based on a house I may live in for 20 years or more.

[DavidRomigJr]

I updated my house to mesh networking a few years ago and the only cable I could get was cat6, and the price wasn’t bad, so I wired my nodes together to get the extra back haul speed. I only paid for 100 down 6 up on a docsis 3.0 modem and I swear I never felt a slowdown.

We were 4. And my wife kept adding cloud based security cameras. We even started to hit our ISP’s 1 terabyte cap— they swear they told us when we signed up but it turns out they didn’t start capping until 2 years into our service. So I paid for unlimited. Then I started working from home when Covid his and the ISP greatly reduced the cost of unlimited data. I also updated to a docsis 3.1 modem when my old one died to future proof. Comcast had issues with the new modem, I experienced a phantom hang that moved from device to device. I swear it was a problem with one of the bands, but I could never find a tech that knew more than a standard how to fix script. And my new job pulled lots of data.

We just moved. We are now 6. I still pull lots of data working from home and my wife plans on resetting up the cameras. The new ISP gave us 500 down and I think 20 up at half the price. Although they had to replace the line to my house. Downstream was -10db and upstream was 70db. It had worked until the wind picked up. The tech said it should never had worked at all. Now the signal is 2db DS too strong and the tech added a splitter just to weaken it.

Our new house came with cat5 to most of the rooms, from a panel at the top of the. cellar stairs, though my managed switch says it’s getting 1gb links. It’s great for connecting my nodes together and giving everyone the option to hardwire. I’m planning on updating the Ethernet to cat6 in the walls, but after what you said, I guess I should at least check the prices on cat7.

[kevinrtres]

Thanks for the info - sorts out the maze in one fell swoop!

[dasmoove]

From wherever the Source (Phone, Cable, Satellite service )feeds into the home you definitely want a fiber patch panel and Cat 6e wiring with a Satellite closet if runs are beyond 300ft (large home's) I'm sure that any large home being built or under remodeling would be using Racks/Raceway in the ceiling for all the additional 1-3 hubs and run fiber optic cable links to each versus Cat7

[PeloquinDavid]

Very helpful. I'm kind-of halfway between a moderate and advanced home network and am slowly moving in the direction described here (in my 25-year old house).

Immediately inside my firewall (an old-school combined modem-router connected to the Internet via coax), I have a rack in the basement utility room with a so-far unmanaged switch - including a couple of 10GBE ports to which I have connected both my NAS (right next to it in the basement) and my home office desk top PC (both via cat8 cables), as well as a bunch of regular ports via which all 3 of our flatscreen TVs are connected (on cat8 cables for future-proofing reasons) to our NAS media-server plus a few extra jacks/cables - mostly cat8 but a few older cat7s from a couple of renos ago - that have yet to find a function in the rooms where they're installed.

Basically, every time we do a home reno that involves opening up walls for whatever reason, I feed at least one or two new ethernet jacks and cat8 cables down through the walls into the basement. This year, it's the kitchen's turn and we'll install several new jacks (both in the kitchen and in adjacent rooms on the other side of its indoor walls) plus some PoE outdoor security cams via a separate PoE switch - and probably a new PoE powered access point to more reliably project Wi-Fi (and Thread/Zigbee) signals into the backyard and back-end of the house.

I know it's overkill right now, but for the limited runs I have left (between the kitchen and utility room) I don't find the extra cost of the cat8 cables out of line given the future-proofing/home resale benefits (particularly when you consider how small the extra costs are compared to those of the major home renovations that open the door to those upgrades...)

[sue_mama]

Cool 👍. Thanks for the video. It's helpful for my CCNA ☺️