Should I change the Ethernet cable?
Reasons to change the Ethernet cable
Having an Ethernet cable that is outdated, damaged, or malfunctioning for whatever reason can greatly affect your Internet speed. We can have a bottleneck when connecting to the router and not receiving correctly what we should. There are some points that we must take into account to buy a new one.
Fast Ethernet
The main reason a home user opts to change the Ethernet cable is that they have a Fast Ethernet cable. This means that it is limited to 100 Mbps. It is a problem if, for example, we have contracted a symmetric 300 Mbps fiber optic rate. We would be limited and that speed would never reach us.
We can say that today it is essential to have Gigabit Ethernet cables. However, some users unknowingly use old cables that they had with an ADSL router, for example, and see that they do not reach more than 100 Mbps.
Damaged connectors
Another reason is that the Ethernet cable is directly damaged. Although it is not something that is very common, we can find problems on certain occasions. For example, if we have a computer connected to the router by cable and we have yanked and the connector has been damaged.
The same could also happen but in the case of the router. The cable may have been damaged, even just a few pins, and we cannot enjoy Gigabit Ethernet and it is limited to Fast Ethernet and 100 Mbps.
Current technology
Technology advances and what we need today may not be the same as they will be in a few years. We may find ourselves needing to have a superior cable to use a server or share files on the local network. Even in the future, when we can contract fiber optic rates of more than 1 Gbps.
So, the type of cable we have comes into play here. The usual thing is to have a Cat 5E or Cat 6 cable, which support up to 1 Gbps and are sufficient for current connections. But if we want to improve the technology and not stay only in that limitation, we can opt for a Cat 6A or Cat 7 cable, which supports up to 10 Gbps.
Domestic installation
If we are going to prepare a domestic installation, such as taking cables to another room and being able to connect from other places, the type of cable is going to be very important. The superior ones, like the ones we have mentioned of Cat 6A or Cat 7, will allow reaching a greater distance without affecting the speed.
Therefore, if we plan to do a domestic installation that goes beyond connecting a computer to the router in the same room, it may be necessary to change the Ethernet cable and purchase a better version.
In short, sometimes it may be necessary to buy another Ethernet cable to keep Internet connections in good condition and achieve good speed. It is essential in order to achieve maximum speed, but also to maintain stability and avoid problems.