There are a lot of factors that affect the speed of your internet, with Ethernet cables being one of them.
Ethernet cables come in different types, each designed for a specific purpose. There are some that will make the speed faster and others that will just slow it. Choosing the right one can make a big difference in your network’s performance.
Categories of Ethernet Cables
Ethernet cables are the standard way of connecting your devices to the internet but how do they affect your internet speed? In order to know how Ethernet cables affect the speed of your internet, you need to learn their different types.
Ethernet cables can be shielded or Unshielded. Their wires can be twisted or untwisted.
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Used in residential and small business environments, UTP is composed of four pairs (eight wires) of copper wiring wrapped in a plastic jacket. UTP cables do not have a metal shield to protect them from interference. This cable is generally used for 10/100 Mbps Ethernet networks.
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
STP has two layers of shielding around each pair of wire that protects against interference from other devices in your home or office.
This means that you will be able to send and receive data at a much faster rate because fewer errors are likely to occur when using these types of cables over those without any shielding at all.
Shielded Ethernet cables have a greater bandwidth capacity than unshielded cables. This means they can transmit data faster. They also have less “crosstalk,” which means that the signals transmitted don’t interfere with each other as much as they would on an unshielded cable.
Fiber Optic
Fiber optic cables use light pulses instead of electrical pulses to transfer data across networks at extremely high speeds up to 100 Gbps and more. Fiber optic cables are typically used in enterprise environments due to their high-speed capabilities and reliability compared to copper cabling.
Category 1 (CAT1)
Category 1 is no longer used and was replaced by CAT2. The cables were unshielded and supported analog voice communication only. The cable is similar to a traditional telephone line, transmitting voice data at up to 1 Mbps.
Category 2 (CAT2)
Category 2 (CAT2) is the second-slowest Ethernet cable type, with a maximum speed of 4 megabits per second (Mbps). This is very low speed.
The cable is unshielded, which means that it doesn’t have any additional protection against interference of devices.
Category 3 (CAT3) and Category 4 (CAT4)
Category 3 (CAT3) ethernet cable is used to connect older PCs and other devices to the internet. CAT3 Ethernet cable supports speeds of up to 10 Mbps, which is still slow for most home connections.
Category 4 (CAT4) ethernet cable is an unshielded untwisted pair network cable that supports speeds of up to 16 Mbps.
Category 5 (CAT5)
Category 5 cables are the most common type of cabling used in homes and businesses. They were a huge upgrade over Category 4, supporting speeds of up to 100mbps.
CAT5 cables were widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s, but newer generations of Ethernet cables are now capable of supporting faster internet speeds than CAT5 cables can handle. For this reason, CAT5 cables are no longer sold by most retailers or manufacturers.
However, they’re still widely used in many homes and offices because they’ve proven to be reliable over time and generally don’t need replacing unless they’re damaged or have become obsolete.
Category 5e (CAT5e)
Category 5e (CAT5e) ethernet cable is an enhanced version of the Category 5 cable and was developed in 2001. The main difference between the two cables is that CAT5e supports speeds of up to 1,000Mbps (1 Gbps).
This allows you to use it with newer devices such as gigabit Ethernet switches, gigabit Ethernet adapters, and 10-gigabit Ethernet adapters.
CAT5e has been replaced by CAT6a, which supports higher transmission speeds than CAT5e but is not backward compatible with it. However, if your network equipment supports only CAT5e or lower standards, then you can still use these cables in your network.
Cat 6 Cables
Category 6 (CAT6) and Category 6A (CAT6A) Ethernet cables are higher-performance versions of CAT5e cables. They both support speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
The Cat 6 cables are shielded to protect against electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Category 7 (CAT7)
Category 7 (CAT7) ethernet cable is a twisted pair of wires with a shielded outer jacket. Category 7 cabling is designed to support speeds of up to 10 Gbps, which is 10x faster than the 1 gigabit per second (1000 megabits per second) supported by the previous category 5e standard.
Category 8 (CAT8)
Category 8 (CAT8) ethernet cable is an enhanced version of the Category 7 (CAT7) cable.
It supports speeds of up to 40 Gbps and is shielded, which helps prevent electromagnetic interference from affecting the signal. CAT8 cable is used in enterprise data centers, as well as in other environments where high bandwidth and low latency are required.
