k0ua
Epic Contributor
Did the test...on new access point on other side of the house from main router...on the main router....and the one in the barn.
NO difference. In fact the barn was slightly faster, but it all had to do with the internet's condition at the time of the test. All test results was very close.
You can do an internal thru put test by measuring with a stopwatch how long it will take to download a large file from a PC on the other side if this wired ethernet link. Then move the the other side with the same laptop and download this large file again from a switch port on the same switch as the PC you are downloading from. This will give you an idea of how much thru put you are losing from using substandard CAT3 buried cable instead of a "proper" CAT5 or CAT6 cable. I am sure you are losing some, but I doubt it is significant. And for your purposes you have already proven that for browsing the internet, your internal thru put is faster than your internet connection to your internal network.
So unless you are having thru put issues on your internal network as you try to move large files from your "servers" to your "workstations" I doubt you would even notice.
Now for some possibly bad news. We didn't bring this up, but with buried cable you always run a risk of damage from lightning. Some areas are much more susceptible than others of course and there are many factors that can effect this. There are CAT5 plug in lightning/transient protection modules you can buy made by Polyphasor/Transtector and others. They aren't real cheap, and would likely be more expensive than the old junky access points/switches that are terminating the cable now. For some reason, some installations never seem to have any lightning problems, and others are plagued with it.