How to prevent broken ethernet port on DS

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by byteit101

Someone on our team found out that most of the people with problems on the eth ports were using cat5, and people with no problem were using cat6, which has better shielding and grounding. Our team is ordering a switch and cat6's.

Garden variety Cat6 is highly unlikely to have better grounding or shielding than Cat5. I can categorically declare this because most common Cat6 and Cat5 cables are Unshielded Twisted Pair. You can get it in Shielded Twisted Pair, but it's much harder to find and isn't going to make a difference unless you're also using shielded connectors.

The primary difference between Cat6 and Cat5, is that Cat6 meets higher standards for crosstalk and various things, and usually has a higher gauge wire. These things may make a difference in ESD protection, but any ESD protection isn't due to increased shielding.