OT: CAT6 my studies with it

[Guest Joshieca]

When I first heard my networking people talk about CAT 6 cables I really didn't think too much about it. I looked into it and the cables were quite expensive. Well that was one year ago, and while the cables are still sold at a premium price, they are a bit more cost effective today. So I thought that I would give it a try. I really didn't expect too much. I mean come on, can a cable make that much of a difference? I know that CAT 6 cable can support up to one gigabit connections, but my little cable modem only outputs 10T. Would it be overkill?So I went ahead and purchased two 7ft. CAT6 550mHz patch cables. One from my modem to my router and the other from my computer to my router. I fired up the system and I was surprised that I actually could tell a difference. Now I am not talking about a night/day difference, but what I did notice was that on certain websites that had a "lag time", that was no longer there. On some FTP sites sending and receiving data seemed to be more fluid. How can this be? I mean my cable modem can't be sending out any faster of a signal can it? So I told some of my friends about it and they too went out and purchased CAT6 cables. They too reported to me that they felt that their computers were using the network more efficient. So I got to thinking about what was going on. The only thing I can think of is that since the bandwidth of these cables is better than the older cables I was using, there is less errors being sent. Less errors means less data having to be resent, thus providing an increase in speed.So long story short...if you use a DSL/CABLE modem and/or you have a home network take a look into some CAT 6 cables. It worked for me and my friends.- Josh[br][br][div align=center][br][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Click Here For Weather Image of the Day!

[Guest]

I just changed my Cat5 cables with Cat 6 cables last week. My son has a hugh roll of cat 6 line in his work truck. He installs that stuff for a living. He rolled some out; clipped the connectors on. Strung one upstairs to the wife's computer; replaced my cable modem line and my computer line with Cat6 and away I went. Yes, the internet is faster is most respects. Not a whole lot; but enough to be noticeable. It's a subtle change; but I also notice slow web sites opening faster. Downloads seem just a bit faster. Not much; but steadier. It definitely did something positive. My son indicated that they use only Cat 6 line now. His company's customers seem to like it better so they say.