We have a bunch of ethernet cables, I have no clue how old. But do they have a speed limit, or is that based on the network card? They are less than 10 years old I know that, so if I upgrade the network card in our computer from 100 to 1Gb ethernet card, will the chord matter or do I need a new one of that too?
Look at the image on this webpage:
Category 5 cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See where the cable has CAT 5 written on it?
You can read the info on that site - but I'll add that if the cable has been kinked, knotted or folded too sharply - the cable is not as good as it would be had it been treated correctly. You will probably never notice the performance degradation from cables that have been damaged due to excessive bending, but it is there.
Look for the info written on the cables that you have. Most will probably say CAT 5. It has been around for quite a while.
if the cables in the wall are cat5, your pc cable to the wall socket can be cat5 or higher. ideally, for gigabyte use cat5e or even better, cat6 throughout. my 1gb intel network adapter has diagnostics for signal quality and frequency response. it fails on both with a 2m. cat5 from my pc to my 1gb ports on the router. it passes with a cat6. i do not notice any difference tho, but will keep the cat6 on the pc justincase. my other devices (tv, set-top boxes) work just fine on cat5 cables. also, if you have a long cable run (100 feet or so) or too many coupler sockets between your pc and the server/switch/router it will degrade performance a bit.
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