Question : Lan run of 240 ft. Cat-5 vs Fiber Optic

Hello,

We are installing a new EIA Line (Ethernet Internet Access) which will connect to a Fiber Optic fed  Cisco ONS 15327 in our first floor tel. closet.

Our office is on the second floor, which is about 30' verticle and then 220' horizontal from the Cisco switch.

We have the option of running an unsheilded Cat-5 from the Cisco 15327 to a switch in our unit for a copper hand off to our Lan. Alternatively, we are considering either a direct Fiber Optic connection to the Cisco switch, or, a short copper hand off which we would then convert to Fiber Optic for the approximately 250' to our office.

My question is, what gain would we experience from using the more expensive Fibre Optic cable? For Bandwith, we will only use 3mbps of the Cat-5 available 100mbps, so that is not an issue, what we are wondering is if there is a significant latency difference between the 250' copper vs Fibre, and are their any other advantages that would justify the added cost.

Answer : Lan run of 240 ft. Cat-5 vs Fiber Optic

The latency loss is not due to transmit time of the signal, but the transmission errors wich force the sender to send the data again.

Consider different cat5 cables (type E...), or cat6, before switching to optical fiber.