Issue
Sigma devices connected to an Ethernet Cat7 network?
Environment
Network
Ethernet
Cat5e
Cat6
Cat7
Cause
Connecting Sigma devices to a Cat7 network.
Resolution
Ethernet networks are categorised by numbers, 5e, 6 and 7 for instance. These numbers refer to the cable types used and the speed they are capable of communicating at.
With this in mind, Sigma devices mostly communicate at 100M, so as long as the switches they are connected to will communicate at this speed, Cat5, 6 or 7 does not matter.
Below is some general information on the Cat numbers.
Cat5/5e.
This is the older standard for Ethernet cabling, used by older equipment which was capable of either 10BaseT (10MBs) or 100BaseT (100MBs). These cables used 4-pair, twisted, unshielded cable.
Cat6
Increases cable's frequency rate to 250MHz, instead of the Cat5 and Cat5e's 100MHz spec. It allows faster and more reliable transfer speeds, especially when combined with Cat6's improved insulating qualities. In fact, these two features combined make both Gigabit and even 10-Gigabit speeds possible, though the maximum cable length is halved to around 55m when using the latter.
Cat7
Increases cable's frequency rate to 1000MHz, To achieve this, shielding has been added for individual wire pairs and the cable as a whole. Besides the foil shield, the twisting of the pairs and number of turns per unit length increases RF shielding and protects from crosstalk.