I have gigabit symmetrical fibre optic service, which is exposing the weaknesses in my home network setup.
Currently I have a 20m cat 5e cable from the switch to my desk, which is actually only about 3 m away. I terminated this cable myself many years ago and it’s clearly far past its best. Now thinking of replacing it with something better for reasons. This cable runs for about 2m next to a 240 v power line, which cant be moved.
Thinking of getting a 5m replacement, either cat 6a or 7 or at a push, cat 8. Which would be best for running next to the power line, and should I go for S/FTP or F/FTP? My ISP offers way above gigabit, and it would be nice to have headroom for the future.
I don’t mind going up to about £$20 for a 5 m length it’s not going to break the bank. There is one right-angle bend external wall corner that the cable has to negotiate so a bit of flexibility would also help.
(ps Amazon sells flat ribbon shielded ‘cat7’ and ‘cat8’ ethernet, I find it hard to believe these are actually shielded cat 7/cat8)
Cat7 is not TIA ratified and technically not supposed to be terminated with an RJ45. You could argue that because GG45 jacks are backward compatible with RJ45 plugs this doesn’t matter but if everything you are plugging into it is Cat6A and RJ45 then are you getting any real benefit?
Cat6A will handle 10G up to 100m if properly terminated and min bend radii are not breached. Cat8.1 and 8.2 are TIA ratified with 8.1 being able to utilise standard RJ45 connectors. If you wanted to support the higher frequency rates in the future the Cat8.1 would be your go to but is probably wild overkill at this point given Cat6A can handle 10Gbps with no problem and most LAN ports will currently only go up to 1Gbps.
As far as shielding goes S/FTP and F/FTP should offer similar performance, F/FTP will provide better armouring protection with the cost of increased min bend radii. I would go with S/FTP for residential. Be sure to ensure your cable shield is earthed correctly to realise the benefits of the shielding.