Cable distance between Hubs

There is no minimum length between two hubs.
If you are looking for the maximum the answer is in theory the same as between computers but in realty dont use longer then 5 meters.

I normally don't call wrong answers, but caller number 1 is WAY WRONG.

The maximimum distance using Cat-5 cable between 2 10/100 hubs is an absolute 100meters. You may be able to stretch it a meter or two if your signal to noise loss ratio is very low, but 100 meters is the industry standard.

As a good rule of thumb, if your distances start to exceed 75 meters, especially in a backbone situation, you need to start looking at Fiber.

SLAP ME.... I didn't read the question. the minimum length is 1 meter.

I believe min of 1 meter and max of 100 meters is the official spec.

I agree with the 100 meter maximum, but I have 2 hubs joined together with only a 1 FOOT piece of Cat 5. I haven't had any problems so far.

In response to answer 4, just because it works now doesn't mean you should do it.

If you ignore the standards some day it will come back to bite you. As the size of your installation grows small problems start to add up into degraded or intermittant operation or even failure. Spending a couple pennies to make the 1 meter cable now is a lot cheaper than troubleshooting later.

Between 10/100 hubs: 5 meters is a good rule of thumb. However, the true distance is 205 meters total between NIC <-> HUB <-> HUB <-> NIC.

Between 10/100 hub and 10 Mb hub: 100 meters.

Between 100 Mbs hubs: 5 meters is a good rule of thumb. However, the true distance is 205 meters total between NIC <-> HUB <-> HUB <-> NIC.

Between a Switch and any hub: 100 meters

Between a NIC and any hub: 100 meters.

3Com's web site will give you the "official" IEEE 802.3 information:
http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/hubs/suprstac/16592/manual.a02/index.htm
http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/hubs/suprstac/ss100/ssii100/index.htm

The minimum distance of Cat5 ethernet
is defined by the hub/switch
manufacturer, and according to microsoft,
is typically 0,5 m. However, that depends
on the manufacturer.

The background for a minimun length is
that if the cable is tooshort, it will start
working as an antenna, hence
introducing noise on your network.

Espen

because of the twists in the wire, I would say 3 feet is the min. length for CAT5 wire.

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