[ On Sun, April 14, 1996 at 20:15:43 (-0400), John F. Woods wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: 100mb/sec 
>
> In the Black Box catalog this morning (as I was leafing through it looking
> for home wiring supplies ;-), I noticed that there is now a "Fast Cat 5"
> cable which is rated for 155Mbps, with dramatically less attenuation at
> ~100MHz than Category 5 cable.  Presumably 100BaseT will be affordable
> before 155Mbps is, but all around it looks like your best investment isn't
> top of the line cables, it's conduit so that you can pull BETTER cables
> five years from now...  ;-)

Yes, do the conduit if you ever plan on re-wiring, and remember to leave
the nylon twine in the conduit (i.e. pull more twine with each cable pull).

There is a company that delivers tested cable that can out-perform
standard Category 5 cable:  Berk-Tek, LANmark-350 cable.  They claim
their cable  delivers 18dB ACR @ 100 MHz, and has been tested to 350
MHz, which they suggest might be good enough for 622 Mbps ATM (OC-12
equivalent!).  I don't know if it's plenum rated Teflon covered, or not.

Black Box *may* be reselling this cable, or they may be imitating it.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 443-1734			VE3TCP			robohack!woods
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets Of The Weird <woods@weird.com>