Different Cat Ethernet Cables

Computer accessories peripherals.

Different cat ethernet cables.

However it provides you with much more functionality. Cat8 cable or category 8 cable is an ethernet cable which differs greatly from the previous cables in that it supports a frequency of up to 2 ghz 2000 mhz and is limited to a 30 meter 2 connector channel while cat8 cable requires shielded cabling as well. Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than cat 5 and cat 5e. A cat6 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 250 mhz for example and it offers you speeds of up to 10 gbps.

A further difference within the ethernet cables whether cat 5 cat 5e cat 6 cat 6e or cat 7 can be whether solid or stranded wires are used within the cable. Cat5 cat6 and cat7 with some variations. Cat 3 and cat 5. It s also compatible with both cat5 and cat5e cables.

Sometimes the category is updated with further clarification or testing standards e g. Both cat 3 and cat 5 ethernet cables are at this point obsolete. As the description implies a solid cable uses a single piece of copper for the electrical conductor within each wire of the cable whilst stranded wire uses a series of copper strands. You ll still find cat 5 cables in use but you should avoid them altogether.

Ethernet cables are grouped into sequentially numbered categories cat based on different specifications. Cat 5e may be popular and adequate for today s more basic. For basic cat5 cables that s 100 million signals a second or 100 mhz. Ethernet cabling can provide a faster and longer distance approach to home networking than wi fi but don t skimp on the cables.

The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e. These days the choices comes down to a handful of different types. Cat8 uses an unprecedented 2 billion 2 ghz signals per second. A cat6 cable is similar to a cat5 ethernet cable it consists of four pairs of twisted copper wire.

Let s look at the technical and physical differences in ethernet cable categories to help us decide. 1 24 of over 30 000 results for electronics. Most importantly cat8 ethernet patch cables can support a speed of 25 gbps or even 40 gbps. Category 6 cable cat 6 is a standardized twisted pair cable for ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the category 5 5e and category 3 cable standards.