As a means of future proofing your network cat6 is generally a better choice and worth the small premium in price.
Cat 6 and cat 5.
Cat 6 is the sixth generation of twisted pair ethernet cabling that is used in home and business networks.
Category 5e category 5 enhanced ethernet cables are newer than category 5 cables and support faster more reliable data transmission through networks.
Cat 5 ethernet cable succeeded cat 3 and 4 and was designed to satisfy the need for a cable that could support higher speeds.
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.
Category 6 is an ethernet cable standard defined by the electronic industries association and telecommunications industry association.
Although the cat5 cable can handle up to 10 100 mbps at a 100mhz bandwidth which was once considered quite efficient the newer versions of cat cables are significantly faster.
The resulting performance boost allows cat 6 to handle up to 250 megahertz.
When it comes to cat5 and cat6 ethernet cables there s no right or wrong choice.
Cat 5 ethernet cable.
Cat5 cable is able to transmit data at 10 to 100mbps speeds while the newer cat5e cable should be able to work at up to 1000mbps.
Cat is short for category and generally denotes the speed the cable is able to.
Cat 6 ethernet cable 100 ft flat white slim long internet network lan patch cords solid cat6 high speed computer wire with clips rj45 connectors for router modem faster than cat5e cat5 100 feet.
Cat 6 contains an extra component that prevents crosstalk between the pairs of wire.
These days the choices comes down to a handful of different types.
While cat 6 consists of four pairs of twisted copper wire just like cat 5 cable it can handle twice the bandwidth.
The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e.
Cat5e and cat6 cables are both backwards.
Cat5 has become obsolete in recent years due to its limitations compared to cat5e and cat6 cables.
Cat 5 cables support 10 100 mbps which translates into data transfer speed of either 10 or 100 mbps.
Many cat 6 cables also include a nylon spline which helps eliminate crosstalk says how to geek.
Although the spline is not required in cat 5 cable some manufacturers include it anyway so cat5 or cat6.
Cat5 cat6 and cat7 with some variations.
Cat 5 a utp cable was the first ethernet cable that also supported video and telephone signals.