Although Wi-Fi networks are increasingly present and most devices are compatible, there is also the option of an Ethernet cable. You can connect devices such as a computer or television, without the need to use wireless networks. It is a more stable option and, in many cases, faster. But it also has its limitations. Therefore, we are going to tell you in this article at what distance an ethernet cable starts to malfunction.
Basically a Ethernet cable You are going to connect it to the router and, at the other end, you are going to put another device. That distance can be quite long, which will be very positive for connecting devices at home and not having problems that you would have with Wi-Fi networks. But, even so, there are certain limits that should not be crossed.
Maximum distance of an Ethernet cable
What is the maximum distance to use an Ethernet cable? Does it affect your home? If we talk about common cables, twisted pair standards, they can reach up to 100 meters before they start causing problems. They are the ones that most of us have at home, the most frequent.
From that distance of 100 meters, the connection may start to slow down and have problems. It will also depend on the ambient temperature, for example. It does not mean that it stops working once it reaches 100 meters, but you could see that the connection starts to go worse and you would have to take some action.
This is because it increases resistance. Therefore, the speed of the electrical signal begins to decrease. It starts to lose power, latency increases and the speed is not what we would like. The greater the distance, the less available bandwidth there will be and the more problems will appear. You can notice it, for example, when using the cloud, downloading or viewing streaming content.
But what we mentioned are the common ethernet cables, the ones you can have at home on your router. There are other options, such as fiber optic cables and coaxial cables. The first can reach up to 2000 meters without problems; the seconds, about 500 meters. They provide, as you can see, a greater distance.
The quality of the cable, fundamental
You should keep in mind that not all Ethernet cables are equal in terms of quality. In fact, you’re going to see different categories. If you use a cable lower than CAT 5e, you will not be able to reach more than 100 Mbps. On the other hand, from that category you will be able to reach 1 Gbps and take advantage of the fiber optic contracted at home.
The higher the cable category, the better. This also affects how far the signal can travel without problems. For example, better to have a CAT 7 cable than CAT 5e. It is something that you should review if you want to carry out a wired installation in your home to have Internet.
A common mistake is to use lower category cables, fast ethernetand that will mean that you will not be able to have a speed greater than 100 Mbps. You may believe that there is an error with the router, with your computer or with the connection, but in reality it is something as simple as using a cable that is not Gigabit.
In short, as you can see, a generic Ethernet cable can reach a distance of about 100 meters before starting to have problems. You must take into account factors such as the category, since it will affect performance and you can have higher quality.
