Can CAT 5 and CAT 6 cords be used interchangeably?

Question

I am trying to split my internet connection from my modem to a splitter/switch to 3 computers using 4 router cables in all. It isn't working, and technical support said that the router cables are to blame. I looked and noticed that one was a CAT 5 cord, two were CAT 6, and one was an unidentifiable Geek Squad cord. Is there a problem with using CAT 5 and CAT 6 cords in the same network?

Answer 1

they are electrically identical, but the cat 6 cable has plastic separator, they can be used interchangeably up to a certain speed/over the usual "home" distance. You can't use a switch to split the signal from your modem. You have to use a router that has NAT.

Answer 2

The answers are all over the board!

First: For your purpose there is no problem intermixing the cables.

Second: There is an electrical difference between the 2 types of cable. The difference is A. the total number of twists per inch and B. The separation of the pairs via the internal divider which creates properties that allow for Gigabit Ethernet speeds not achievable with the Cat5 standard.

Third: Check to make certain that the cable from the modem to the router is not a cross-over. It (may) be required depending upon the specific devices. You'll have to check the manuals to determine if a cross-over ethernet is required and if it is, that is why the setup doesn't work. Simply change it out.

Fourth: The switch device must be a Switch/Router. You do need a router between the modem and the PCs.

Finally: Make certain that the port on the switch/router into which you plug the modem is the "uplink" port / or port number 1.

Answer 3

No it's not a problem mixing types as long as you are not trying to do Gigabit Ethernet. More likely you simply have a broken cable.



As mentioned, you can network with a swith, but you cannot share in Internet modem between multiple machines with a switch, you need a router which will handle NAT and DHCP to give each machine a unique IP and share the single IP connection from the modem

Answer 4

CAT 6 has a much faster data transfer speed and can be used in place of a CAT 5 but CAT 5 cannot be used in place of a CAT 6.





Edit: In short, CAT 6 is upgraded CAT5 that is backwards compatible.