In the past few years, Cat-6 has become increasingly popular compared to Cat-5E. While they are both 4 pairs of 24-gauge that are wrapped in shielding of the Cat-6. They are more tightly wound and let transmission happen faster. For security cameras, it is recommended to use Cat-5e as it is not necessary to transmit more than 1,000Mbps, even in 4K resolution. Cat-6 is mainly intended to be the backbone for large network infrastructures that transmit several gigabytes of data per second.
Is this statement true ?
- Thread starter Baldcamman
- Start date
One more thing: CAT-6 can be had more readily in 23 Gauge (larger) to facilitate more current for POE at greater distances.....or so I've heard. 
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BORIStheBLADE
Getting comfortable
What I read in the past is Cat 6 has a higher standard of insulation to follow. I've seen a spline and individual shielding... Copper is copper and the twisting with better insulation helps but I don't think its JUST the twisting..
I tried looking for what the actual standards to follow are (cat 5e compared to cat 6) and can't seem to find them.. I'm curious now that you brought this up...
I tried looking for what the actual standards to follow are (cat 5e compared to cat 6) and can't seem to find them.. I'm curious now that you brought this up...
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The CAT-6 RJ-45's that I've used are staggered and stacked to keep them close together as much as possible, I guess to maintain the twist; other RJ-45's are in a straight row that I guess allows the pairs to be un-twisted further, thereby de-rating the bandwidth capacity (I'm paraphrasing here).
I have never seen official specs of each standard either. Such things are usually extremely long and you can't expect them to even contain information relevant to a consumer, like what speeds they make available at what distances, because those aspects are out of the scope of the cable standard.
There isn't really a table of cable types versus achievable speeds anywhere, so, but a lot of the information is scattered out there.
Of course the distances for each speed can vary based on many complex factors:
There isn't really a table of cable types versus achievable speeds anywhere, so, but a lot of the information is scattered out there.
| Speed | Cat5e Max Length | Cat6 Max Length | Cat6a Max Length | Cat7 | Cat8 Max Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Gbps | 100m | 100m | 100m | cat7 is a mess | 100m |
| 2.5 Gbps | 100m | 100m | 100m | don't bother | 100m |
| 5 Gbps | ? | 100m | 100m | 100m | |
| 10 Gbps | 45m | 55m | 100m | 100m | |
| 25 Gbps | ? | ? | ? | 30m | |
| 40 Gbps | ? | ? | ? | 24m |
Of course the distances for each speed can vary based on many complex factors:
- The true quality of the cable. "cat5e" is just a specification. Real cables may be fall short or exceed the specification, or fail in some aspects and overachieve in others.
- Damage to the cable (from tight twists or bends, scrapes or cuts that break the shielding, etc)
- Local interference (e.g. from nearby power wiring)
- Quality of the RJ45 crimping job
- Quality of the electronic network interfaces at both ends
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SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
for every proposed camera location pull at least two cables. You will be adding more cameras in the future or you may have bad cables and need to swap.
Do not mount the cameras over 7 ft up if you expect to ID the bad guy.
Do not mount the cameras over 7 ft up if you expect to ID the bad guy.
biggen
Known around here
- May 6, 2018
- 2,782
- 3,193
I still run Cat 5e exclusively. I have no use for Cat6. I don’t have ANY 10Gbps switches or NICs in my home nor will I probably ever. 1Gbps really is perfectly fine for 99.9999% of home users.
10Gbps is perfectly fine for backbone connections or linking storage servers. But it’s ridiculous overkill for most home networking and IP camera installs.
10Gbps is perfectly fine for backbone connections or linking storage servers. But it’s ridiculous overkill for most home networking and IP camera installs.
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BORIStheBLADE
Getting comfortable
If you are willing and can afford to have every drop in your new house Cat 6 there is nothing wrong with that. When my house was built two years ago they wanted 250.00 for additional cat5e drops and 600.00 for Cat6. I went with Cat5e for everything.. Stuff I've done after myself has been Cat6..
An RJ 45 is a fixed size. the Cat6 RJ45s are staggered/stacked to allow for the slightly thicker wires to fit into the RJ45.
Additionally, the CAT-6 RJ-45's are "staggered/stacked" to also allow the pairs to remain twisted and closer longer before entering the connector for crimping to help prevent crosstalk thereby providing CAT-6 with a higher bandwidth rating as compared to non-staggered/non-stacked RJ-45's.
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I would agree that cat5e is all that is needed to be run to CCTV camera locations.
Cat6 is faster, but also requires cat6 connectors and patch panels/punch down blocks to get that extra speed. If you run cat6 wire, but have a cat5e patch panel, you aren't going to get full speed out of that cat6 wire. Honestly I think fiber will soon be the go to transmission method for high capacity/speed needs - even in residential settings.
Cat6 is faster, but also requires cat6 connectors and patch panels/punch down blocks to get that extra speed. If you run cat6 wire, but have a cat5e patch panel, you aren't going to get full speed out of that cat6 wire. Honestly I think fiber will soon be the go to transmission method for high capacity/speed needs - even in residential settings.
My two cents on the topic at hand is way back in the day when the technology was new and costs for the same was out of this world. CAT-6 or better was reserved for those with deep pockets and able to deploy the same. In 2022 given the increase in competition, online shopping, the difference in price isn't that great.
The problem with most DIY folks is always going the cheap route . . .
Few, if ever plan for tomorrow or even follow basic industry standards of the 80% rule. Everyday on this forum you read about some yahoo that buys CCA cable. That same cable is some kind of man bear pig thinness of 26~32 AWG?!?! These same people will also exceed the maximum length for video data. These same people think they are so smart because they also believe using that ePOE make belief shit tech - is the silver bullet to solve that distance limitation???
Later on, realize they didn't pull an extra line as was suggested by many of Prosumers in this thread alone!
So Yahoo boy missed that boat so decided to up the ante and go buy a POE Splitter so they can power. You guessed it 2-4 more camera's on that same (single) man bear pig super thin 26~36 AWG CCA cable!!!
There's no problem . . . Nothing to see here . . . Everything is going to work out just fine . . .
To be fair to the DIY'ers I see more thought and consideration in this forum then I do sometimes in a commercial installation. In the vast majority of times the reason for seeing so much shit is because you guessed it. The guy running the show is the same kind of idiot who bought man bear pig CCA because it was a really great price like lice and a hue of murple!
As for the OP's question and statement up above - it's just plain wrong . . .
I'll keep this part short as it relates to the why: Standards, Future Proofing, Increased data rates & bandwidth, etc.
The problem with most DIY folks is always going the cheap route . . .
Few, if ever plan for tomorrow or even follow basic industry standards of the 80% rule. Everyday on this forum you read about some yahoo that buys CCA cable. That same cable is some kind of man bear pig thinness of 26~32 AWG?!?! These same people will also exceed the maximum length for video data. These same people think they are so smart because they also believe using that ePOE make belief shit tech - is the silver bullet to solve that distance limitation???
Later on, realize they didn't pull an extra line as was suggested by many of Prosumers in this thread alone!
So Yahoo boy missed that boat so decided to up the ante and go buy a POE Splitter so they can power. You guessed it 2-4 more camera's on that same (single) man bear pig super thin 26~36 AWG CCA cable!!!
There's no problem . . . Nothing to see here . . . Everything is going to work out just fine . . .
To be fair to the DIY'ers I see more thought and consideration in this forum then I do sometimes in a commercial installation. In the vast majority of times the reason for seeing so much shit is because you guessed it. The guy running the show is the same kind of idiot who bought man bear pig CCA because it was a really great price like lice and a hue of murple!
As for the OP's question and statement up above - it's just plain wrong . . .
I'll keep this part short as it relates to the why: Standards, Future Proofing, Increased data rates & bandwidth, etc.
Whether to use CAT.6 this is related to distance.
If it exceeds 50 meters, it is recommended to use CAT6
Has nothing to do with using 8MP or 2MP
If it exceeds 50 meters, it is recommended to use CAT6
Has nothing to do with using 8MP or 2MP
Cat6 does not mean any shielding. It's available unshielded (UTP) and in pretty much all of the "flavors" of shielding. From what I've seen, most cat6 cable is 23 awg and uses the separator spline, although neither are required by the cat6 spec. The different shielding types are listed here: Universal Networks
All of my camera wiring is cat6 UTP.
All of my camera wiring is cat6 UTP.
TheWaterbug
Known around here
Cat6 is not necessarily faster. If the two devices at the ends of your cable are running 1000BaseT, they will have the exact same 1 Gbps raw bit rate whether the cable is Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7, or Cat8. The only fallback from 1000BaseT is to 100BaseT; there is no intermediate fallback to 500 Mbps or anything like that. Some of the 10GBaseT NICs and devices can negotiate 2.5, 5 or 10 Gbps links, but there's nothing between 100BaseT and 1000BaseT for Ethernet.
As bp2008 wrote above, Cat6 will support higher speed standards at longer lengths than will Cat5e, but at any given speed standard, such as 1000BaseT, the link either works at that speed or it doesn't. At the edge cases you might get higher error rates with inferior cabling, but "better" cabling won't make 1000BaseT go any faster than 1 Gbps.
You are correct of course. I should have chosen my words better..... Cat6 has a faster max speed than cat5e, but won't be faster than the slowest element in the network chain.
TheWaterbug
Known around here
One more thing: CAT-6 can be had more readily in 23 Gauge (larger) to facilitate more current for POE at greater distances.....or so I've heard.
I've purchased this 23AWG shielded, solid-core Cat6a cable from Stonewall, and it's super heavy duty. It feels like a garden hose. Stonewall is expensive on a relative basis, but on an absolute basis cabling is still pretty darn cheap, and if you want these specs, there aren't a lot of vendors that will make them to order. Unshielded Cat 5 or 5e is easy to crimp yourself, but anything shielded gets much more complicated to do correctly.