Under 55m, cat 6 should be equivalent to cat 6a. Is there any reason to still go with 6a? Are there differences from POE perspective?

1 point

Cat6a is very hard to work with because it’s very thick.

For easier installation go cat6.

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1 point

Look at your environment. I’m sorry I went with CAT 6 for 2 of my runs. They are my longest at 156 feet. And fluke tested to 5gbps. I am in a very warm humid environment.

I’d say if you can splurge for the Cat6A I would for piece of mind. If not, Cat6 should do.

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1 point

From a non-technical viewpoint if you are buying wire in bulk then use the same thing for everything. Also if all of your wires are the same type then they are interchangeable and you never need to worry about getting the wrong one.

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1 point

Nah. Cat6 all day.

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1 point

Only reason is if they manage to get a 25gig or something (like we got 2.5 and 5 over cat5e) that works over 6a in the future. But buying for future possibilities is foolish.

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2 points

You say this, like I haven’t wired houses with Fiber for future LOL! Is it worth it? Not right now. But we’ll see what time tells.

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1 point

The way to future proof is a conduit, so that you can pull through whatever gets invented in 20 or years time and your cat 6 is obsolete.

Trying to second guess that cat 6A might be able to support some 25GB future standard is a fools errand. In the OPs situation, install cat 6 in conduit and if you need to pull through something else in 20 years it’ll be an easy job.

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1 point

Agreed. There are conduits everywhere. Ceiling conduits for connecting to the rooms. Under floor conduit to put cables outside. Once outside we’ll just dig or put the cables by the wall.

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