Different Types of Ethernet Cables

Understanding the Different Types of Ethernet Cables

Choosing the right network cable is essential for performance, speed, and future scalability. Here’s a simple breakdown of the most common Ethernet cable categories:

🔹 CAT3 (Category 3)
 • Speed: Up to 10 Mbps
 • Frequency: 16 MHz
 • Used for: Old telephone lines and legacy networks
📄 Mostly obsolete today.

🔹 CAT5 (Category 5)
 • Speed: Up to 100 Mbps
 • Frequency: 100 MHz
 • Used for: Early Ethernet networks
📄 Largely replaced by CAT5e.

🔹 CAT5e (Category 5 enhanced)
 • Speed: Up to 1 Gbps
 • Frequency: 100 MHz
 • Improved crosstalk reduction
📄 Still widely used in homes and small offices.

🔹 CAT6 (Category 6)
 • Speed: Up to 1 Gbps (up to 10 Gbps for shorter distances)
 • Frequency: 250 MHz
 • Better insulation and lower interference
📄 Ideal for modern office networks.

🔹 CAT6a (Category 6 augmented)
 • Speed: 10 Gbps
 • Frequency: 500 MHz
 • Better shielding and performance over longer distances
📄 Common in enterprise environments.

🔹 CAT7 (Category 7)
 • Speed: 10 Gbps
 • Frequency: 600 MHz
 • Individually shielded pairs
📄  Designed for high-performance data centers.

🔹 CAT8 (Category 8)
 • Speed: 25–40 Gbps
 • Frequency: 2000 MHz
 • High shielding, short distance (up to 30 meters)
📄  Used in data centers and high-speed server connections.

💡For most business environments today, CAT6 or CAT6a offers the best balance between performance and cost. CAT8 is mainly for specialized high-speed data center applications.