Over the years newer forms of network connections have paved way for the development of improved cables. Now cat3 and cat4 cables have been superseded by newer and faster cables such as cat5, cat5e and cat6. Cat5 and cat6 are two standard versions with cat5e being a variant of cat5 for incorporating some enhanced changes. Here we are going to highlight features and specifications of cat6 vs cat5.
First of all, cat6 and cat5 cables vary from one another in their appearance and structural design. Both have four wires inside them but the gauge of each one is different from the other with cat6 having 23 American Wire Gauge and cat5 having 24 AWG. It should be noted that the lower number of gauge is the indicative of cable thickness; so cat6 cable is thicker than cat5 cable. For longer distance or high speed connections thicker cables are better.
As far as the speed support of these cables is concerned, cat6 supports higher network connection standards that operate at gigabit speed (1000 Megabytes per second). The older version, cat5, is ranked for older Ethernet connections that operate at the speed of 10 megabits per second to 100 megabits per second. It means cat6 is proficient for newer connections to provide enhanced speed, about ten times faster than that is supported by cat5.
Moreover, the data transmission speed, generally known as bandwidth, of cat6 is much higher than that of cat5 cables. Cat6 cables support transmission at frequencies up to 250 Megahertz whereas it is only 100 MHz with cat5. As a result, cat6 is more efficient in transferring data to the receiving end with quicker speed and stronger communication signals. Cat5 slows down the speed when transferring data and takes a lot of user’s time in accomplishing its task. Therefore modern man prefers cat6 over cat5.
The comparison of cat6 vs cat5 also shows that there is a difference between them with regard to noise resistance and crosstalk reduction capabilities. Since cat6 cables have lower gauge and improved copper wires inside, they transfer stronger signals to larger distance with great efficiency in comparison with cat5 cables. Whether it is external or internal noise, cat6 resists it with its powerful signals while cat5 sometimes surrenders to the noise interference and send weaker signals to disrupt communication.
As for immunity to crosstalk (an electromagnetic problem originating from unshielded, twisted pairs of copper wires), cat6 cables provide high immunity to crosstalk because its paired wires are twisted very tightly at precise distance and in addition to it each wire is covered with strong sheath. Though cat5 also comes with twisted pairs but it lags far behind in standing equal to cat6 mainly due to longer distance between twisted pairs and a bit weaker sheath over copper wires.
Another important difference is that cat6 cables are backwards compatible meaning thereby they can support equally well both the latest network connections and older forms of technologies but cat5 supports only lower category standards. In short both cat5 and cat6 cables can efficiently work in home as well as office for networking purposes. The choice between the two is yours: if you want high speed connection to get your business finished earlier, you will be in need of cat6 for your gigabit facilitated Ethernet connections; however, if you are having megabit facilities at your home or office, you should choose cat5. In a similar manner, if you live in an area where different intrusion lines occur, you should choose only cat6.