Imagine this: You are running your long and trusty ethernet cable through your attic to your home office. You wonder is it going to affect my data and the signal speed somehow? One of the important considerations while maintaining a wired network is the ability to maintain speed despite the length, infrastructure, and interference.
To further understand, if there are any distance limits, let's first explore what Ethernet cables entail.
Ethernet cable is something that connects to your electronic devices, like a computer, tablet, or gaming console to a network such as the Internet, which in turn will allow your device to interact with shared network resources or simply have internet access to perform basic functions. Not only this, but these are also used to connect two computers together in order to allow direct data exchange between the machines.
The reason ethernet cables are being used in organizations and people with extensive work is that wireless connections are not infallible. If you are an avid user of Wi-Fi, you might have probably noticed that it can be down or damaged by some of the other interfering factors. The interfering factor could be something related to the distance of your device, interfering wall or object, or anything that can mess up the speed of the connection. So the devices being directly connected with a long ethernet cable can give you a faster and more reliable experience than a wireless connection. Plus, it can act as a great replacement when the Wi-Fi network is suffering from downtime.
Does the Length of the Cable Effect the Speed?
In internet technology, Ethernet is an internationally recognized cable. That's the main reason why it is supported by all manufacturers of network equipment and can be used with any piece of hardware. Another benefit of using Ethernet cable is that these are fairly long, which means that the user can never run out of room when it comes to creating a setup.
However, every type of cable has a maximum distance. And these distance limits can vary greatly from cable to cable. For instance, from 0 and 100 meters in length, you are not going to lose any data as long as the signal is strong in the cable the slow down will be negligible. For Ethernet cables, the maximum upload and download speed always depend on the type of cable you are using.
So when it comes to a standard Ethernet cable it has a maximum distance of 100 meters or 328 feet. However, as mentioned the varied maximum cable length may depend on the configuration of the equipment as well as the quality of the cable. For instance, the maximum length of a CAT5 cable, before attenuation occurs is 100 m. CAT6 is one of the fastest types of Ethernet cable available that can be purchased by users who want 10-gigabit speed. However, amongst users CAT 5 is the standard choice unless you have to deal with high powered network that requires high speed on a daily basis.
For a busy enterprise network, it is always recommended to go for the highest type of cable to get the best results. For a home network, it is best to go for a network that is capable of delivering the speed required of it.
When it comes to practical purposes, the length of the cable will have no effect on the speed of your connection or transfer of data. There would be a very insignificant amount of delay to the long cables that would be unnoticeable. However, the length won't affect the maximum speed and performance of the network but it would cause some latency.
Tips for Choosing the Right Ethernet Cable
- Choosing the right length is important for uninterrupted use. For this, you need to think about the proximity of the router and the devices you want to connect.
- Always buy from a reputable brand. Since signal quality is the problem when it comes to having a Wi-Fi connection. However, using a quality cable can provide the shielding that you need to prevent crosstalk interference.
