Patch cord minimum length

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden. Students Click Here. I know the max length is feet from hub to node. I have tried other forums but it seems like all I get are guesses for answers. I sure would like a reply with facts references. I've seen them sold as short as 6 inches but at what cost to the system ambiant noise, cross-talk?

I am using 24" cables with solid cat5e now. Come on "Tek-Tips". Now is the time to show up the other forums! There can't be a minimum length. The shorter a conductor is the more effectively it conducts. Signal loss, resistance, inductance, and interference increase only with length. These are fundamental principles of electricity and they apply equally to network cables, coaxes, antenna lines, high-voltage wires, transformer coils, etc. Industry standards for patch cable is based on combined length of the patch cable and the work area outlet cable.

There is a variation based on stranded or solid conductors. Asked 7 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 2 months ago. Viewed 65k times. Improve this question.

Jim Jim 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. I have never seen transmission problems caused by short cable when connecting devices manufactured by the same vendor. In contrary, connecting devices of different vendors sometimes gives communication problems ever on 'normal' cable length.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. MagnaVis MagnaVis 1 1 silver badge 6 6 bronze badges.

Below is the applicable quote: For Category 5e and 6, there is no minimum length requirement. YLearn YLearn Reflection was only an issue for 10base-2 coax. XXXbase-T doesn't have that problem -- solved by twisted pair.

There has never been a minimum distance for any "T" standards. The primary failure mode of short twisted pair cables has always been substandard crimping followed by pulling too much twist out of the cable. That being said, I personally have encountered issues with CAT6 pre-fab cables at 1' length.

Changing to 3' cables resolved the issue. So it happens. Check IEEE Thanks Zac! I "learned" long ago that there was a 3' minimum for copper ethernet. But I'll trust the person that actually looked it up in the relevant standards. Lauren Lauren 1. The question was on Ethernet, not by cabling standards which don't apply to a direct connection for instance.

Peter Mortensen 5 5 bronze badges. Richard Richard 1. Exactly where is that in IEEE Looked all over and couldn't find it. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown.

The Overflow Blog. There is no single factor somebody said, "Flashback" that puts this out of spec. There are too MANY components to the electrical properties involved such as insertion loss etc to list here, but suffice it to say if you hook up a 1 foot cable to a proper tester not your store bought tester, but the ones used to certify your cabling it will not pass.

The reason they don't list a specific length is because technology changes and it is possible for someone to invent something that will meet the necessary electrical requirements at smaller lengths. As of today, that has not been done. As stated above, take the time and space to do proper cable management and DO NOT use patch cables under 3 feet in length. They way I understand it was back from the days when we had "hubs" not switches Most of you probably don't.

Anyway, a hub could not properly detect a collision if the equipment was connected with a cable that was less than 3 feet in length. Since the advent of switches, it's not such a concern, but as stated, it is not within the specifications of ethernet transmissions. This will be fine, as long as the patch cord is from a patch panel to a switch.

Technically you are just extending the cables in your patch panel to the switch so there are not minimum length issue. To continue this discussion, please ask a new question. Get answers from your peers along with millions of IT pros who visit Spiceworks.

Popular Topics in General Networking. Spiceworks Help Desk. The help desk software for IT. Track users' IT needs, easily, and with only the features you need. Learn More ». I hope not. Most of my cables from the patch panel to switches are 1 ft. Jeremy Feb 17, at UTC. ZW This person is a verified professional. Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional.

Limey Feb 17, at UTC. Russell P This person is a verified professional. I would guess your picture looks similar to this:. Kevin Feb 18, at UTC. I honestly don't know if this true any more. David Scammell This person is a verified professional. Jarrad Feb 18, at UTC. Patch cable length vs. The only real issue: Using an 8 inch patch cable from switch to switch.

Mike Feb 19, at UTC. Randall L. Tico Oct 21, at UTC. Hey All, I thought I would comment on this one We are about to re do our MDF and we were going to use this same setup, but someone just told us that if you have CAT 5 cables then this is fine. He said if you use CAT 6 cables then it would not work very well aka lose packets.

Does anyone have any insight if this is true or not? BUT if you will use this short patch cord between two switch then you will have a problem.