Re: Cat 3 cabling

[Filippo Basso <debian@zirak.it>]

Hi Jason,
    I'm not 100% sure, but the connection pin-to-pin is the same, I think, just it's a straight connection, not done in a proper way so to ensure the Cat5 quality of signal...
so, it's not a test of connection, more a test of quality...
I cannot see why to downgrade the quality from Cat5 to Cat3, maybe if you remove the wire gauge and wrap the cable around your mobile phone! ;-)
Viceversa, the Cat3 cable give strange results on connections, and on my Laptop I cannot link to my hub if not with a Cat5 cable (with Cat4 don't link).

.02$

fi

Cat 3 cable is the quality of 4-pair wiring used for voice connections
    

between PBXs and analog telephones.  Turns out, it is 'good enoug' for 10
M/s Ethernet (10BaseT) but not good enough for 100 M/s or GigEnet.
  

Cat 5 cable is also 4-pairs, but the manufacturing process is more
    

precise (pitch of the twists, different for each pair;  wire gauge;
insulation thickness;  etc.).  As a result, the Cat 5 impedance is more
uniform and produces lower signal losses.  The better impedance matching
carries over into the connectors, which are newer designs (almost all IDC,
more precise punch-down blocks) than the Cat 3 (screw posts and relatively
sloppy "66" punch-downs.
  

Bill
    

So in essense, since they are both 4-pairs, just looking at it won't let
you know which it is (without actually testing it)?

Any way to turn Cat 5 into Cat 3, and vice versa?

Thanks.