I have a Cat7 cable going across the house between my router and my PC.
The PC and router are both 1 gigabit.
I want to connect another PC to the router at the same location as the first PC without using a second cable.
The Cat7 cable is capable of handling the bandwith of multiple gigagit connections.
If I used a simple Cat7 RJ45 splitter would this perform any worse (Even theoretically) than two separate cables? If I had a splitter at each end of the cat7 cable, this would act like two cables, right?
For example, if I used a 1gbit switch at each end, the bandwidth would be limited to the 1gbit connection between the switches and each PC connected and each PC would have a maximum of 500mbit if they were both in use.
Would this be the same with the splitter? I am thinking not because thereâs no actual gigabit connection being made and the cable can easily handle 2x 1gbit.
I might be completely wrong on this, network hardware is one of my weaker points.
I havenât heard of a splitter like that, only one that splits a gigabit connection into a âfastâ Ethernet connection and a power /usb line. But it may be possible to split a 1000mb/s line into two 100mb/s lines, if you wire the ends right.
If you want faster, you would need a faster-than-gigabit nic on each end of the line. So a switch near the pcâs which connects to each pc with a gigabit port, then a 2.5 or 5 or 10 gigabit port for the cat7 to connect to a similar port the other endâŚ
Sorry, to explain a bit better, cat 5,6 or even 7 cables are made up of 4 twisted pairs of wires.
100mb Ethernet only uses 2 pairs, and ignores the other 2. So if you split the pairs right, one cable can don2 separate 100mb lines.
Gigabit and upwards uses all the pairs.
Cat 6 just has better quality wires, and more shielding, and 7 more so.
But each grade does not add any additional wires
Which says "RJ45 Ethernet Network Splitter could help to split one network cable to 2 port output, thatâs convenient to take turns to use different computers. (Please note that cannot support using two cables at the same time) "
Am I reading this wrong to think that it splits the time between the different connections? So each connected device gets 50% of the time on the cable but has 100% access for that time?
If the cable supports over 2gbit/second, then each second can be split between 1gbit on each input because they are âtaking turnsâ using the full capacity. I guess it depends how long a âturnâ is.
But, as I said, I donât know much about this and Iâm probably interpreting it wrong.
Edit: If, for example, a âturnâ was 1 byte, then the cable could handle the inputs from 2 gigabit connections couldnât it? If the splitter just took 1 byte from each input at a time, the cable can handle 2 gigabit, so would work?
Yes. All this tool does is what Trooper said above.
It even says not to connect two cables at once as you will get collisions.
Again, this is not how ethernet routing and switching works. What you are wanting to work is actually a token bus network.
Ethernet frames work on the principle of encapsulation (think layers of an onion) and this splitter just turns 1 physical connection into two (with only one active at a time).
I would not recommend this tool. It will not work. You need to either run another cable or put a secondary switching device if you cannot do another run.
On ethernet, data is sent when it is sent. The data is encapsulated into packets which is further encapsulated into ethernet frames. When a networking device unwraps the content it looks at the MAC/physical address in the frame and this is how routers know where to send traffic. Data is also defined as âburstyâ and is not neatly cut out into specific intervals. All this little tool does is physically wire two physical interfaces together but there needs to be some logic to be able to use both ports as a networking tool. If it were then it would be a dummy L2 two port switch; which this is not.
Probably what you want is a network switch. They have processing to actually route the signal to the correct cable, so it is not just a simple wire connecting the ports.
You should be able to plug the cables in, and everything will work out of the box. One cable going to your router, and two short cables going to your two PCs.
Just use a switch, you could do a ghetto 2 cables off 1 (orange/green and blue/brown for 2 pairs) but honestly just run two or get a switch, I highly doubt you are going to saturate gigabit with most house hold needs.
what mutation666 said⌠add one switch close to where the two PCs are, and wire it:
router-switch (existing cat.7)
switch-pc1 (new cable, cat.5 or better)
switch-pc2 (new cable, cat.5 or better)
Itâll cost you $10 or similar
everyone will be able to talk to everyone over a switch.
youâll be limited to 1gbps on each link
If you have something like a router in modem mode or bridge mode (probably not) - youâd need to turn it back into router mode (or do other complicated configuration on one of your PCs).
Only if you want faster than 1gbps on the links: youâd need a 10Gbps switch that costs about $130, and 10Gbps nics on machines. (or complicated to configure direct link between two machines)
Yes
But only when they come as 10Gbit. So your two (or more) devices on either end talk with a switch (each via 1Gbit), the switches then talk over the CAT7 cable in 10Gbit.
Edit: Switches that can do 10Gbit are expensive. Are you sure you need the bandwidth?
