cat3 to cat5 question

[etech]

We have to add 5 ethernet drops to an existing facility (using existing infrastructure) and need some assistance.

The network dmarc room has connections for cat5 (3 drops) and cat3 (to 2 drops - each would have only 1 computer on them) and we need to connect all of them together on a local lan. Our problem is that the cat3 connections would terminate roughly 450 feet from the dmarc room.

I'm assuming that a 10/100 hub/switch would do the trick for connecting them all together, but what about the distance? I was originally told that we would need some sort of fancy converter that would cost $1200/pair (we need 1 pair for each connection), but that doesn't make much sense, as there shouldn't be anything to 'convert'.

This is an old facility that we do not have any ability to do wireless or to run any new cable... we have to make what we have work.

Any suggestions on what we can do here?

 

[folken]

Cat3 can still be terminated into an RJ45 head for use on networking equipment, you wont need any sort of adaptors.
At that cable length you will either be limited to 10Mbps or it will require a repeater half way through. You could buy an actual repeater or just drop a small hub/switch in.

 

[jokb]

yep, folken is right, you could drop a small hub or repeater inbetween.

but if it is located some where not ideal for cables to run or a hub to be put in. You're going to have problems sooner or later.

 

[jjw]

Are the cat5 drops near the cat3 drops?

If so, maybe you can set up a switch at the drop and split off the cat5 runs. 450ft is longer than spec for 100 mb over copper.

Another option is to split the pairs, 100/10 only uses 2 of the 4 pairs in the cat5 cable. Each cat5 cable could support 2 ports. Length is still an issue.

 

[riser]

If you're going to run cables and what not, you might as well just run CAT6 straight there from the demarc.

CAT6 will run around 700-750ft and it'll upgrade you for future use.