I have 1Gbps internet, should I be getting a Cat6 cable?

[boohoo]

I'm confused if I should be getting a Cat6 cable or a Cat5 cable?

 

[JackMDS]

If you already have CAT5e you can use it.

If you have to buy new cable get CAT6.

 

[azazel1024]

Cat5 can also be used, but it does not perform as well as 5e and is pretty uncommon, except in cables bundled with devices (IE a lot of routers, media bridges, media streamers, etc come with cat5 cables to save half of one penny per cable instead of using 5e).

Cat5e and Cat6, in so far as gigabit is concerned are identical.

 

[Cooky]

May I ask who your provider is, and how much you pay for the 1G connection?
Is it 1G up AND downstream?

 

[OogyWaWa]

i live in japan and have 1gb (best effort, full duplex) FTTH. speed varies a lot based on server, but speed test usually come in around the 600 mark

after all the discounts it comes to <$40usd/mo or there abouts...

provider is au kddi

there's a new provider here that does 2gb http://www.nuro.jp

 

[Batmeat]

and I $60.00 a month for a 24 meg connection.....sigh. The US still is lacking in broadband when compared to the rest of the industrialized world.

 

[code65536]

after all the discounts it comes to <$40usd/mo or there abouts...

Holy damn, that's even cheaper than my Google Fiber!

there's a new provider here that does 2gb http://www.nuro.jp

Wait, how? Teamed GbE ports? Because 10GBASE-T is still stupidly expensive and rare.

 

[OogyWaWa]

Holy damn, that's even cheaper than my Google Fiber!


Wait, how? Teamed GbE ports? Because 10GBASE-T is still stupidly expensive and rare.

It's 2gb across the ONU. The interface to provider is fiber (GPON) so that's 2gb+ easy. For home users, they provide a gateway with 1gb ports + wifi. So, the total bandwidth across all the devices connect is supposed to be 2gb. Of course, no single device will get more than 1gb.

Their commercial solution uses a hardware bridge, but it requires you to use two external IPs (again, the ports are 1gb). You could configure your router to bond these, but it's not going to be very useful unless 1) you have some lb in front of those IPs (on the internet somewhere) and route your traffic in/out that or 2) use sticky connections. in this case you can in theory get 2gb for connections which are multi point and separated (bittorrent, for example)

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I gotta laugh! I'm hysterical! Historically hysterical!!

If I were Japanese, I'd get gigabit INTERNET?!!

Lemme tell ya!! I'd put off replacing my ISP's Surfboard modem that's at least 4 years old. I thought we were "plenty fast" -- 3 (human) users, six computers. I'd put it off for the last two years, or so I estimate.

Adding the little crown on the whole household's infrastructure today, I got my I-phone connected, and was able to stream Live-TV (which comes in through internet) - matching a subset of my cable-tv subscription. It worked at first, and then I get an error message to call tech-support.

The woman tells me "Lissen, young man!" [but she's the young one] "You grab that Motorola and march right down and exchange it!" She was adding my visit schedule to the database as we spoke. Did that.

Our speed is now double what it was, which was 10 times what my friend with DSL has. I think we have a 60 Mbps connection.

And I can get 1-Gbps? In Japan? You gotta be kidding! How long do we have to wait for this?

 

[Cooky]

I'm not surprised w/ the 1G connections in Japan.
When I was in high school back in 1997, or 1998, a Japanese classmate tried to explain to me what his parents had as their Internet connection, which I later realize it was something like Verizon's FiOS.
So Japan had the FiOS equivalent when I was still on dial-up in 98.
That's how behind we were 16 years ago.

 

[OogyWaWa]

there are still people here on adsl/vdsl, but mainly do to choice or old infra in big buildings. although i read the wiki and NTT's FTTH adoption is at 76%, which is pretty high.

anyways.... 1gb is nice. really nice. however, it doesn't matter if the server at the other end or network inbetween isnt just as fast and low latency. i get mediocre speeds going to my bank in the US (servers in texas).

one of the things that makes internet really fast for the domestic market is 1) there just isnt as much distance to travel (small country) and almost everything is centered in tokyo or osaka. all the main providers have direct links to the big data centers or across them. i get killer speeds to the KDDI datacenter which is 30km south of me

anyways... internet in the states sucks. i was recently consider a move to new york and couldnt believe the prices. $100+ for 100mb fios... what a rip off. there needs to be more competition and a lot of monopolistic regulations pulled.

in japan, there aren't as many regulations on line providers (if you want to start laying new line, it's not that bad). Also, you can lease lines (the 2gb Nuro link i sent is actually leased lines from NTT). Finally, there are line providers then 'connection' providers. the connection providers give you your IP, Dns, email, etc. While line providers just supply the cable.

i think it's a good setup and it's easy to piss off to another provider if you dont like your current one

competition is strong and people switch often because of good signup deals, so the providers have to be on their game.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

. . . . there needs to be more competition and a lot of monopolistic regulations pulled.

in japan, there aren't as many regulations on line providers (if you want to start laying new line, it's not that bad). Also, you can lease lines (the 2gb Nuro link i sent is actually leased lines from NTT). Finally, there are line providers then 'connection' providers. the connection providers give you your IP, Dns, email, etc. While line providers just supply the cable.

i think it's a good setup and it's easy to piss off to another provider if you dont like your current one

competition is strong and people switch often because of good signup deals, so the providers have to be on their game.

I think your generalizations here could push this thread into "Politics & News." The original purpose of public regulation had been to clip the profits of natural monopolies or locational monopolies and assure fair pricing in absence of sufficient market competition. What happens with this is the monopolists get their two-cents-worth in formulating the legislation -- the railroads did that with the Sherman AntiTrust Act. So regulatory prescriptions become perverted.

There are many situations in which competition doesn't just "blossom in a marketplace," and hence the modifiers to the word "monopoly." There are natural barriers to entry; there can be regulatory barriers to entry -- an undesirable possibility. Telephone companies once had a locational monopoly, and microwave technology increased competition and offered a chance to deregulate.

Frankly, the industrial partnership with government in Japan has been a given for a very long time. I can imagine all sorts of possibilities to explain pricing and availability there.