2 What is the maximum distance of Cat 5e cabling for data transmission?

Answer 1

That depends on what you will be using the cable for.

In general, the higher the frequency of the signal being sent down the cable, the shorter the cable has to be.

The environment of the cable is also important. If the cable is in an electrically noisy environment, it needs to be shorter.

There are various standards that specify the maximum length of a cable. Sometimes it will work (some of the time) if you use a longer piece of cable, but following the standard is much more likely to work correctly all the time.

Some examples from computer networking standars:

For 10BASE-T Ethernet, the maximum length of a cable is 100 meters. Note that this standard was defined for Cat 3 cable, so you'll probably be able to use Cat 5e cable to send the signal further. However, there's no standard specifying how much further - you'll probably have to test it yourself.

For 100BASE-T Ethernet, the maximum length is also 100 meters, but the cable grade is specified as Cat 5 (not Cat 5e). So you might be able to make a longer run work with Cat 5e.

For 1000BASE-T Ethernet, again the maximum length is 100 meters, but now the cable must be Cat 5e. Also, all four pairs of the cable are used, whereas in the other two standards only two pairs are used.

HTH,

Gdunge

Answer 2

That depends on what you will be using the cable for.

In general, the higher the frequency of the signal being sent down the cable, the shorter the cable has to be.

The environment of the cable is also important. If the cable is in an electrically noisy environment, it needs to be shorter.

There are various standards that specify the maximum length of a cable. Sometimes it will work (some of the time) if you use a longer piece of cable, but following the standard is much more likely to work correctly all the time.

Some examples from computer networking standars:

For 10BASE-T Ethernet, the maximum length of a cable is 100 meters. Note that this standard was defined for Cat 3 cable, so you'll probably be able to use Cat 5e cable to send the signal further. However, there's no standard specifying how much further - you'll probably have to test it yourself.

For 100BASE-T Ethernet, the maximum length is also 100 meters, but the cable grade is specified as Cat 5 (not Cat 5e). So you might be able to make a longer run work with Cat 5e.

For 1000BASE-T Ethernet, again the maximum length is 100 meters, but now the cable must be Cat 5e. Also, all four pairs of the cable are used, whereas in the other two standards only two pairs are used.

HTH,

Gdunge

Answer 3

Cat5 is officially about 300 ft. Though Id recommend you stop at about 250ft, that way you never have to worry are you over pushing it. Sometimes at 300ft you will find that you have a rate of lost packets. But if you need to go further, just stick on a repeater and add another 250ft.

Officially 300 ft. My own experiments show that, if you have a direct switch to switch lead, with no junctions other than cable-plug-switch at each end, then you can get reliable 100 Mb/s over 200m with ordinary cat5e cable. 250m is unreliable.

1000 Mb/s is unreliable at 200m. The connection drops in and out.

These are switch-to-switch distances. The switches seem to test the connections when the cables are plugged in. If the switch indicating lights do not light, the connections are unreliable. If they do light, the connections are reliable.

Connection speed seems to be reduced by less than 20% when the switch lights are lit, indicating that throughput is not significantly affected when the switches indicate a connection is taking place.

The above is the consequences of experiments with ordinary cat5e cable.

Answer 4

Officially 100m, but longer if there are no twists in the cable, and no interference from power cables and other magnetic fields.

Answer 5

Officially 100 m.

Answer 6

100 meters (330 feet)