Cat5 vs Cat5e patch panels & Gigabit 2

[SmokeySam]

There has been alot of discussion around Cat5 vs Cat 5e cable but I haven't seen much regarding patchpanels.

I was given a Lucent 24 port Cat5 (not 5e) patch panel and the basic question is: would be a bad idea to use it for structured wiring in my house. Did panels designs change much between 5 and 5e? Is there anything I can look for with repect to panel construction that might indicate the panel's ability to support gigabit? My cabling is all 5e.

Anyone have any experience reusing an old panel like this with newer cable.

Last, if your windows network icon tells you "connected at 1.0 Gb/s" is this for sure or do I need to do further speed testing? Recommended tools?

Sam


I have looked through and perhaps I have missed an answer to my question.

 

[mforrence]

If it were MY house, I'd use it - simply because I know that gigabit will function with well-installed cat5 or cat3. That said - getting the real deal is $100.
Mike

 

[jimbopalmer]

If it stays at 1.0 G/s you are fine. If it 'flaps' between 100 meg and gig you are hurting.

(I bought most of my UTP in 1992, at that time I could get Cat 5 wire but the best panels I could get were Cat4 (no longer even a standard) They do gig just fine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_4_cable

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.