The main difference between the two is total bandwidth available on the cable.
Cat5 and cat6 cable difference.
Cat5 cable cat5 cable is broken into two separate categories.
It offers a 100 meter 4 connector channel using shielded cabling and has been designed to transmit signals at a frequency of 600 mhz.
A cat6 cable is similar to a cat5 ethernet cable it consists of four pairs of twisted copper wire.
Cat6 cables also called category 6 or cat 6 cables provide lower crosstalk a higher signal to noise ratio and are suitable for 10gbase t 10 gigabit ethernet while cat5e cables support only up to 1000base t gigabit ethernet.
However it provides you with much more functionality.
Cat5 has become obsolete in recent years due to its limitations compared to cat5e and cat6 cables.
Cat5e cables have more stringent requirements than the cat5 when it comes to the tightness of the wire twisting.
Frequency of cat5 and cat6.
A cat6 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 250 mhz for example and it offers you speeds of up to 10 gbps.
The cost is about 20 35 higher than cat6 but the maximum cable length is 100 meters across all systems and conditions for gigabit ethernet.
The main difference between the cat5 and cat5e wiring comes down to specification.
While cat 6 consists of four pairs of twisted copper wire just like cat 5 cable it can handle twice the bandwidth.
It s theoretical top speed is 10 gbps over 100 meters.
The main differences between cat5 cat5e and cat6 cable are the cost to buy the speeds they can offer the length in which they can be run how they are wired and designed and what they are intended to be used for.
Cat7 cable is otherwise called category 7 ethernet cable.
It supports high speed ethernet communication up to 10 gbps.
Cat5 and cat5e cables.
Ethernet cables like the cat5 and cat5e use twisted pair wiring to decrease electromagnetic interference and crosstalk between the wires themselves.
More tightly twisted wiring equals less.
As a means of future proofing your network cat6 is generally a better choice and worth the small premium in price.
Cat5e and cat6 cables are both backwards.
While cat5 is limited to 100 mbps transfer speed cat6 can go all the way up to 10 gbps which is a more reliable specification for residential installments.
Cat 5e is currently the most commonly used cable mainly due to its low production cost and support for speeds faster than cat 5 cables.
The resulting performance boost allows cat 6 to handle up to 250 megahertz.
Cat 6 contains an extra component that prevents crosstalk between the pairs of wire.
