<p>After reading here where someone else ordered a 25 ft. ethernet cable on eBay vs. somewhere expensive like Best Buy or Fry’s, I went ahead and just ordered this one:</p>
<p>I would think 15 to 25 feet would be fine for most dorm rooms. 7 feet might be a bit short, depending on where the ethernet connection is on the wall relative to a desk, bed, etc.</p>
<p>I would rather have more length than not enough. One parent said he had a 12 ft. cable and when he went to hook up his daughter’s computer in her dorm, it wouldn’t reach her desk. So he had to pick up a 25 footer at the local Best Buy for $35! He was the one who recommended eBay. I was just hoping this was the right type of cable.</p>
<p>A Cat-5 Ethernet cable is a Cat-5 Ethernet cable. They’re all the same and that one on eBay will work just fine. Just don’t go out and buy a $50 Monster Ethernet cable because its “gold or brass” coated. :/</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it’s called cat5/cate5e ethernet cables. The regular ones are really cheap just about anywhere. At fry’s and amazon.com, they are like $2-5.</p>
<p>I’m just the messenger! That’s what the guy wrote. But, I just went to Office Max online and Staples and a 25 ft. cable was $25-30. That’s ridiculous. Best Buy is off line right now so I couldn’t check it. And, I couldn’t find one on Fry’s website. Anyway, I see them for a few dollars at Amazon and eBay Stores where I bought mine with free shipping. Other sites, as well.</p>
<p>**Socal70 wrote:</p>
<p>$35?! Yikes! those ethernet cables are pretty cheap. I just returned the 7’ cable and bought a 25ft for $4**.</p>
<p>Frys (online and in store) has various lengths and colors of CAT 6 cables at very reasonable prices. You might call the bookstore and ask their prices. I dont believe you have to pay much for the ethernet cable. Im not advocating Frys, just giving you a sample of the prices you can pay. CAT 5 is good but most places carry only CAT 6 because you can get faster speeds with it (if your internet allows it) and its about the same price as the CAT 5.</p>
<p>When my son moved into the freshman dorms, I brought (in the sealed package) CAT 6 cables, but ended up buying the 25 foot cable at the (very busy at move-in) bookstore at a decent price, not as cheap as Frys but not expensive like Best Buy. When I returned home, the cables were returned since the packages had not been opened (were lucky to have a Frys nearby). In our house, different colored cables represent different lengths or I just write the length on the cable. My son has completely different colored cables, so when he comes home during the holidays, I can tell which are his.</p>
<p>Here’s what I found about the different cables for Cal Poly. Since my daughter will be in Yosemite Hall, the Cat 5e looks like the right cable. Next year if she lives in Poly Canyon, we’ll be sure to get a Cat -6. Thanks for the heads-up!</p>
<p>“To connect to the network, your computer must support 10/100 Base-T or compatible Ethernet connections.
You must also bring an Ethernet cable. It is recommended that Poly Canyon Village residents use a CAT 6 Ethernet cable to access the wired network connection in their room.All other on campus residents should purchase a CAT 5 or CAT 5e cable to access the network. The cable is commonly referred to as a CAT-5, CAT-5e, or CAT-6 cable. Any of these cable types will be compatible with the residential network. The cable’s plastic plug is approximately twice as wide as a normal telephone cable’s plug. An example of the Ethernet cable plug is shown above.”</p>
<p>Alot of false information about cat6 cables in this thread.
Don’t spend the extra money on Cat6 cables. Unless every single component in the cal poly network is gigabit rated(and i don’t believe it is), then you will never see a difference in Cat5 v. Cat6 cables. Basically, A network will always run at the speed of the slowest device. The cat5 cable is likely not that device.
It’s not worth the money to upgrade to cat6 cables and it won’t speed up your internet during your stay at cal poly. Just hit up eBay/Amazon/Fry’s and buy the $2-$5 cat5 Ethernet cable.</p>
<p>More on routers, hubs, other devices. I know that in Cerro Vista a couple years ago,someone hooked up a wireless router or some similar device ( I am not a computer expert) and brought down the Resnet network in the Cerro Vista area. Damn near got him thrown out of Cerro Vista I heard. Didnt make him any friends either ! Be advised !</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t care whether you get a CAT 5 or 6, just get an ethernet cable. Personally, if I can get a 25 foot CAT 6 cable for $8 or 9 at Fry’s, I’d buy that over a CAT 5. I’m trying to think a few years ahead. My son used CAT 5 speeds in Santa Lucia but in Cerro, when he comes home & sets up his computers, or he goes to a friend’s house, a CAT 6 is fine. In a few years wherever he goes, he may need CAT 6 speed cables, so my thinking is, why not just buy a reasonably priced CAT 6 cable now, even tho he may not need it, vs buy a CAT 5 now & CAT 6 later? This is what I did (CAT 6) but it’s not necessary for anyone else to do it. Besides there are bigger issues for freshman to deal with than ethernet cables.</p>
<p>This came from Cal Poly ResNet/Network Model & Security
“All of the residence halls are 100BASE-T (meaning local network speeds of 100 Mb/s) except Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon Village, which are equipped with 1000BASE-T (meaning local network speeds of 1 Gb/s or 1000 Mb/s).”
So if you might be in Cerro or PCV this or next year, you might be able to use CAT 6.</p>
<p>On routers and other stuff:
To avoid getting caught and bringing down the network do the following:
Change your Ethernet MAC address for the outside port of the router. MAC addresses are allocated by manufacturer, which makes it possible for someone who is monitoring your packets to know who made the device you are connecting to the network, and sometimes what the device is.
Disable SSID broadcast.
Enable encryption. This way, Resnet has to violate California State Law to gain access to your network.
Use WPA or WPA2 just to be sure. Resnet and university housing regularly disregard California State Law. Make sure they can’t connect to your network.
Make sure you plug the router’s external port to school network. Make sure anyone else who uses the router does not plug one of the internal ports onto the school network. Most consumer routers run a DHCP server by default. If you plug the wrong port into the wall, the router will start offering addresses to everyone on the LAN. That will mean that everyone’s traffic will go through your router. Which breaks things, which draws attention to the problem and gets other people in trouble.
Hide the evidence. The 4th amendment doesn’t apply to university housing and they routinely use ‘fire drills’ to search for contraband. Don’t leave your network hardware in plane sight.
Watch your logins. All logins are logged, including originating browser useragent, username, time, originating IP, originating MAC address.
Have plausible deniability. Have at least one multi-boot machine around that you can show to ResNet if you are asked. Keep a few liveCDs around.
Do not run CCA. It’s a security risk, and it can compromise your network setup. This means you have to do all your logins from a Linux box.<br>
Consider having a ‘not a router’ router. A desktop box with two network cards can route traffic just as well as a consumer router, given the right OS (Linux, OpenBSD come to mind). Plus it’s “not a router™”</p>
<p>Do not attempt this unless you understand all of these instructions. Also, consider that I may have forgotten or missed something, or missed some other technique that Resnet may deploy.</p>
That’s what the guy wrote. But, I just went to Office Max online and Staples and a 25 ft. cable was $25-30. That’s ridiculous. Best Buy is off line right now so I couldn’t check it. And, I couldn’t find one on Fry’s website. Anyway, I see them for a few dollars at Amazon and eBay Stores where I bought mine with free shipping. Other sites, as well.</p>