Category 5 cable

Difference between CAT 5, CAT 5e & CAT 6 cables

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• published: 10 Sep 2012
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Matthew and Sabrina explain the differences CAT 5, CAT 5e & CAT 6 Cable. Making all the necessary recommendations for home and network installations. Click here for more info: http://www.cableorganizer.com/articles/cat5-cat5e-cat6.htm?utm_source=YouTube&utm;_medium=video&utm;_campaign=difference%20between%20cat5%20cat5e%20cat6%20cables Hi, my name is Sabrina Barreiro from CableOrganizer.com and I'm here with my coworker, Matthew Carvell. We would like to answer some questions from our customers. What's the difference between CAT 5, CAT 5e & CAT 6 Cables? Well CAT 5 is the most basic; it was the first of those three standards ever introduced. It comes in two types: solid which is more rigid and more appropriate for long distance cabling, and stranded which is more flexible and more appropriate for patching situations. It has a capability of up to 100 MHz and has a transition speed of either 10 megabits or 100 megabits per second over Ethernet. CAT 5e where the "e" stands for Enhanced is a more enhanced version of the CAT 5 standard. It has basically replaced all CAT 5 in all new installations. It can handle up to 1000 megabits per second over Ethernet and it has some improvements that have reduced the near end crosstalk and other types of interference. This makes it better at performing than the CAT 5 standard. Finally there's the CAT 6 standard which has improvements such as a longitudinal separator that further reduces crosstalk and other types of interference. It can support up to a 10 gigabit Ethernet transmission speed and has a capability of 250 MHz. It's also backward compatible with CAT 5 and CAT 5e installations. Ok, so why would anyone choose one over the other ones? Well the main difference is really a tradeoff between costs versus performance. You won't really find CAT 5 in any sort of new installation so this choice is really between CAT 5e and CAT 6. CAT 5e will probably be the better choice in situations where performance is not as important due to its reduced cost compared the CAT 6. In situations where you care more about getting the maximum possible speed you would probably want to choose CAT 6 cable. Ok, so what is your recommendation for a new network or home network? Well in the case of a home network you may be best off going with the CAT 5e where the speed and performance improvements in CAT 6 wouldn't be as important you may be concerned with the cost. For situations where you're dealing with business applications where performance might be more of a factor I would suggest going ahead with the CAT 6 cabling for the induced performance for the cost. Thank-you Matthew. Thank-you for watching our video and if you have any other questions you can call us at 866-222-0030. Thank-you!