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Soon after, Cat 5e cable emerged with the ability to speed data with 1Gbps throughput.Ĭategory 6 cable appeared at the start of the 21st century and remains popular with home networkers. It could reliably convey 100Mbps of data at a frequency of 100MHz over 330 feet.

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The year 1995 brought not only Microsoft's Windows 95 but Category 5 cable as well. By contrast, Category 4 cable pushed this to 20Mhz and roughly 16Mbps but it was used for Token Ring – rather than Ethernet – networks.

This standard gave way to Category 2 cabling, which carried 4Mbps with a 1MHz signal.įast-forward to the early 1990s and Category 3 cable, which is often called the first modern networking cable, boosted the cable's frequency to 16MHz and Ethernet performance to 10Mbps. Capable of carrying a 10KHz signal, Category 1 cable could deliver upward of 1Mbps of data for early networkers. Also called voice-grade cable, it was generally composed of insulated telephone wires twisted into pairs to reduce crosstalk and covered in a plastic jacket. Hair was bigger, shoulders were padded and early networkers were using either coaxial cable or what came to be called Category 1 cable. Set the Wayback Machine to the late 1980s. What type of Ethernet cable should I buy for my home network?Įven with a speedy WiFi6 router, your connection to the Internet is usually the bandwidth bottleneck.Data Evolution: The many types of Ethernet cable, and where they come from Gigabit Ethernet in data centers and commercial buildings If you plan on running cable through walls or between floors, choose rise-rated (CMR) or plenum-rated (CMP) cable.

Installation Location: cable jackets are rated for fire safety.

See Ethernet Cable Length for more information. Keep in mind that cable runs are rarely straight so plan on extra cable for some twists and turns.

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Good quality cables with shielding and thicker conductors can reach further but some trial and error will be required. Cable Length: The maximum length of an Ethernet cable is about 295 feet (90 meters).See Ethernet Cable Shielding for more information. Shielding also prevents parallel conductors inside the cable jacket from interacting with one another.

Shielding: some Ethernet cables are shielded to protect the cable's conductors from electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by power lines, large machinery and flourescent lighting.

See Table 1: Category Cable Summary for more information. Cat5e, Cat6, etc.) is an easy way to identify the speed of a cable.

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In the home, choose a cable that can support the speed of your Internet connection, plus some room for speed upgrades in the future. In a commercial network, speed is usually dictated by the equipment you are connecting (for example, a network switch with Gigabit Ethernet ports). 100 Mbps means the cable can transmit 100 million bits of data a second.

Speed (Data Rate): the speed of a cable refers to the amount of data it can transmit per second.

Other factors are worth considering in certain circumstances so if in doubt, read on.

If you are buying Ethernet cable for the first time, focus on these four features and you'll make a good decision.

Ethernet connector