Which cable goes where?

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networkingnoob

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Mar 18, 2013
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Hello,

I am kind of new to the ethernet cable scene... previously, I just used my laptop on my roommate's wireless network, so I don't know how to optimize internet speed now that I have a desktop and my own place. The problem is that I want to make sure I'm getting the most speed out of my internet connection, but can't find any solid answers to this question despite lots of time digging around this forum and others:

I have a coaxial cable coming out of the wall to my modem, I'll be connecting the modem to a gigabit wireless router (for my mobile devices), and then connecting the router in turn to my desktop. I have what I think is a cat5e cable and a cat6 cable, both the same (and adequate) length. Would I get the fastest internet speeds on the desktop by putting the cat5e cable between the modem & router and the cat6 between the router & desktop? Or vice versa? Does the answer change if I'm naive and the cat5e cable turns out to be only cat5?

The question assumes that my internet connection allows for gigabit speeds, and that the hardware is also adequate.

I've heard that connecting the PC directly to the modem might be better, but the modem only has one cable-out port, which currently runs the line to the router, which has multiply cable-outs. Is there some better configuration that I am overlooking in my ignorance?

Thanks for taking the time to read!:)
 
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corbeau

corbeau

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Jan 24, 2013
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It probably won't make a huge difference, unless you've got high bandwidth from your provider, but the best setup would be the cat6 between the modem and router, and the cat5e between the router and the desktop.
 
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edogawa

edogawa

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Jan 4, 2012
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Just because you have a LAN capable of gigabit or higher speeds does not mean you will get that from your provider/ISP.

You will get the speeds that your ISP has provisioned you with, which will never be anywhere near saturating a cat5e or cat6 cable, at least not in America or yet, some other countries have very fast internet compared to us.

So basically you can use both and you won't even notice a difference. So if your internet plan is for 5mbps or 15mbps, that is all you can achieve.

You can see your current connection speed via this site: http://www.speedtest.net/ (select closet point to you)

Unless you have something wrong with your router, computer, or cabling, this will give you an accurate measure of your speed.
 
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mbreslin1954

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Nov 27, 2010
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^__^ Exactly. Your Internet connection speed will be about 1/50th of your gigabit LAN speed (approximately 20 Mbps X 50 = 1,000 Mbps = 1 Gbps). That's if you have cable, which typically maxes out near 20 Mbps. Your Internet connection is so much slower than your LAN speed that it isn't funny. It is the limiting factor. You can only use your router's speed of 1 Gbps on wired devices in your place, i.e., those that are wired into your router. Wireless and Internet access will be slower (wireless) or much, much slower (Internet). Don't worry about it, either CAT cable is capable of running at 1 Gbps speed between your router and your desktop.
 
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