Difference between Cat5e and Cat6 Ethernet cables

 

Bulk Ethernet cables are considered as the most common type of the networking cables which are used on a wired network at businesses, homes etc. The main purpose of the Ethernet cables is the fact that they provide access to share files or use the internet by connecting the wired devices together to the local network. Bulk Ethernet Cables are divided in various categories including CAT5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6e, Cat6a and others.

All of these cables have the same work but their specifications are different from each other which differentiate their demand as well. Let’s start from digging deep into how Cat5e and Cat6 cables are different from each other with respect to specifications, compatibility, performance and others.

Both Cat5e and Cat6 Plenum cables are proved to be one of the most transformed additions in the modern tech cabling system but they still differ in various ways. Cat5e are designed to be backward compatible so they work with huge number of interfaces. For the very reason, However, Cat6 plenum cables are best used in indoors for easy and smooth installations because they are made of high quality yet low-smoke producing material.

Cat5e transfers data more smoothly without any error as it has the ability to deal with the errors in a timely manner. Bandwidth is defined as the capacity of a system to transfer data from one place to another so the higher bandwidth the better. Cat6 plenum cable meets the safety standard of UL910, which is considered as one of the strictest safety standards. Cat5e Plenum cables have the ability to support networks that run up to 1000 megabits per second. No doubt, this difference cannot be felt in homes and on smaller levels but it’s a big deal for IT companies and huge businesses.

However, both the Cat6 riser and plenum cables are used as per their requirements on various situations. No doubt, Cat6 plenum is recommended by the experts in most of the cases.