I got this cable with a homeplug AV 200 device – its labelled cat 5e
But looking at the plug end has me rather dubious about it.
(There's only 4 strands there, not the standard 8 – and missing pins, so I suspect these cables are designed to do so. The wire jacket is also surprisingly loose).
Another angle. This isn't a standard connector, no, someone has went and made a non standard connector specifically for this
I figured the cable was crap so I cut into it – some of you were wondering if they had merely left out the additional pairs – and the answer is no – its basically half a cat 5 cable.
I'm currently using it for some legacy equipment that runs on fast ethernet and the plug it came with and it seems to work. However, I'm curious – what're the downsides of such a cable? What do I need to look out for? In what situations would this cat-5 cable be unsuitable for use in anything other than a ethernet cat o'nine tails?
Best Answer
Standard 100 base ethernet only uses two pairs so this works... what is a little worrisome is it appears someone did it on the cheap and saved a couple of cents by omitting the other pairs. That said, 1000 base ethernet may use all four pairs and this cable can't handle that.