Connecting from one computer to another

[Shadowex3]

No, cat6 is NOT faster any more than the autobahn's cement is faster than ours. It's a cable. The difference is that cat6 is designed to handle the tighter specs required of gigabit ethernet while cat5 might or might not be able to handle it because of it's looser specs. Think of a competition rifle vs a weekend plinking rifle, same basic gun but one is manufactured to much higher requirements.

 

If you want gigabit ethernet speeds you need cat6 and computers+routers capable of it, it gets expensive. Plus you'll likely never use even 1/2th of the available speed of gigabit ethernet.

 

Voltage: just get a regular straight ethernet cable, NOT crossover cable.

[jazzy]

dont bother getting a cable, just get a USB wireless adapter, their cheap now.

[/dev/null]

The best way to go, depending on your housing situation, is to run you own Cat5e or Cat6 cable in your attic or basement. I ran cable connecting a few of the rooms in my house with it all terminating in one closet where I put my router. I paid about $80 for 1000ft of Cat 5e cable at Lowes (or Home Depot). Of course I learned how to do it all when I did it for work for about a year, but it's not hard to learn. It does depend on your housing situation though, as I said. It's the best solution though. Much more reliable than having only wireless.

[Guy]

cat6 is required for 10gb ethernet, but unless you want to pay $1000 for a switch and $300 to $500 for a network card, it's not anything to worry about. Any cat5 you buy today is going to be cat5e, which is fine for 1gb ethernet. If your going to go wireless, buy a card with a broadcom chipset, as they are of very good quality (mac computers use them mostly exclusively, and most cellphone pda's use broadcom for wireless).

[Shadowex3]

cat6 is required for 10gb ethernet, but unless you want to pay $1000 for a switch and $300 to $500 for a network card, it's not anything to worry about. Any cat5 you buy today is going to be cat5e, which is fine for 1gb ethernet. If your going to go wireless, buy a card with a broadcom chipset, as they are of very good quality (mac computers use them mostly exclusively, and most cellphone pda's use broadcom for wireless).

 

 

Gigabit ethernet "officially" requires cat6 because they claim cat5e isn't made to tight enough specs for the extra crap expected of it. In reality if you don't mind a sometimes flaky under high stress connection you'll be fine.

 

Gigabit ethernet is also not $500, even a business gigabit router with VPN and built in security from cisco is less than $150. For a consumer a linksys (owned by cisco...) wireless 802.11N band router with 4 gigabit ethernet ports will run you right about $100 even.

 

Also bulk cable's good IF you REALLY trust your own cabling skills, otherwise just buy 50 and 100ft increments for like $10 like the rest of us mere mortals.

[Wrathek]

lol. "tight specs". thats' a laugh. the only real difference between cat5 and cat6 is that cat6 has more shielding. they do it so that they can charge more for nothing.