topic Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps in Broadband & Landline

Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:43:17 GMT

I have 500mbps speed and a BT smart hub 2. I run a Cat5e cable 50m to an outhouse but only get 90mbps there. Wi-Fi in the house is approx 500. After contacting BT technical help, they told me that Cat5e will not support 500mbps and will only give 100. I have to have Cat6 cable. This advice is contrary to all the info on the web. Cat5e is meant to support up to one gbps up to 100m.
Does anyone have a view please?

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

Northerner — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:11:17 GMT

Hi @NickWilliams

Cat5e supports up to 1GB.

Check your router ethernet settings are not limited to 100 via the port.

Read here:

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/Smart-Hub-2-only-giving-100-mbps-on-ethernet/td-p/2254283

Thanks

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

JimM11 — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:44:05 GMT

@NickWilliams As @Northerner has pointed out, also check your cable, one bad connection and you are down to 100mb/s on the cable, that's all it takes it needs the full 8 cable cores to get 1Gb/s speed and wired correctly off course.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

Mustrum — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 13:04:11 GMT

@NickWilliams what device do you have in your outhouse? Is that capable of 1Gb, or if a switch are any of the devices limited to 10Mbps?

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 07:08:56 GMT

Thanks. I see in my Hub2 settings that there are various options. Not specifically 100mbps but the fastest are selected. The BT/ee technical help people have checked it remotely also.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 07:12:23 GMT

Thanks v much for replying. I should check my connections and will do this. I was just amazed that BT/ee swore to me that 100mbps is the maximum with Cat 5e and 500mbps.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 07:15:57 GMT

Thanks v much for replying. In the outhouse I have a WAP but I bypassed this and connected the Cat5e cable direct to the computer, for this test. It seems that the connections must be the problem OR BT/ee are correct.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

JimM11 — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 08:55:12 GMT

@NickWilliams The spec of the cable for 5e and there are many many, but it's 100 Metres run at 1Gb/s speed's ALL 8 cores connected. Link below, oops can be when you get like a Pro router 2.5Gb/s nic and alleged fussy about cable type/connection, but not up near that yet and never will be, wired the son's 5Gb/s to a 10Gb/s router cat6 as that was the cable i had lying around!

ANSI/TIA-568 - Wikipedia

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

JimM11 — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 08:58:52 GMT

@NickWilliams As long as you know the device you are using has a Gb/s interface, plug it into the BT router short cable, test the port connection by looking at the properties the nic connects at, then as you said, check the cable out from that port to the area. Your going about it the right way. Jim

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 07:17:54 GMT

Thanks JimM11 and others. BT/ee are going to visit and they confirmed that it should be OK and that their previous statement that 100 was the max, was incorrect . I have no doubt now that BT will find a poor connection.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

Profile closed — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 20:38:35 GMT

Clean the plugs. As someone pointed out, it only takes one poor connection. Once the auto-negotiation has decided it's only capable of 100Mb/s that's what it will stay on until it's reset.

(100Mb/s was the limit for the old cat 5 standard, by the way. 5e was "enhanced", (that's the e), to get it up to 1000Mb/s).

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

Ewan15 — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 06:11:52 GMT

@NickWilliams I would invest in a LAN cable tester from S***fix, you can get one that will do the job quite cheaply. Then you can confirm your cable to the outhouse is good (All eight LEDs should light up in sequence as each of the eight strands is tested if your cable is good)

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 07:15:56 GMT

thanks for this. I hadn’t heard that before.

Re: Cat5e cable and 500mbps

NickWilliams — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 07:16:29 GMT

Thanks. V much