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I have a mixed 2.5gbps/1gbps network with old cat5 in wall wiring. I have a 200ft or so run that is very convoluted and that I'm not willing to even try pulling a new cable through. The wall jack for this (RJ45) has a 30ft similar old cat5 cable running to my device (Shield TV media streamer). Amazingly I am pulling off a gigabit connection. I'm not sure yet what the reliability is going to look like though. From a fundamental wiring standpoint - do I improve my odds of a better connection at all running cat6 or cat7 cable from the wall port (30ft or so) to the device with the bottleneck of the in wall cat5 200ft connection still being behind it or is buying and testing that solution just a waste of time and money?

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  • I think the most improvement to be had is from new wall jacks (depending on the current ones of course), but that’s just my intuition. I’m not knowledgeable on the exact physics.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Oct 23, 2022 at 20:03

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Somewhat a law of physics here. Nothing whatever gained by putting fast ends on a slower middle section.

Overall speed will be governed by the slow section.

Reliability will be OK if the installed cable is reliable. Test it carefully with a good cable tester. If the base installed cable tests good, new ends will not increase reliability by any measurable amount.

Just use the same cable until such time it makes sense to replace the middle section.

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  • Certainly, it won’t get faster. OP is asking more along the lines of “is my 30ft cable now the weakest link?“—the goal is to up reliability, not connection speed.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Oct 23, 2022 at 20:04
  • Good cable will give good reliability. I added a note to my answer. Thanks
    – anon
    Commented Oct 23, 2022 at 20:27

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