Cat 5 and CAT5E: How Do They Differ from Each Other?

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Cat5 and CAT5E How Do They Differ from Each
Other?
While setting up network cables for home
or work spaces with multiple configurations,
it is very important to choose the right kind of
cables for the right connections. Even though the
cable just acts as a medium to transfer data, it
is of much importance given that it significantly
affects the speed of such operations. It
gets more complicated as there is no definite
answer to which cable should be used. It depends
on various factors depending on the utility of
the connection. While choosing between
cables, one question that often surfaces up
is that whether one should use CAT5 or CAT5E for
connections across devices? And how are the
two different from each other? Lets try to
answer the latter which is the primary
factor while deciding the former.
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Physical Differences Starting from the
surface, CAT5 and CAT5E cables are identical in
physical appearance. You cannot differentiate
them on the basis of color, thickness, or
the covering. Theres only one way to
differentiate and thats from the information
printed on the cables by the manufacturer. You
can also cut up the wire to distinguish
between the two as the wires in CAT5E is
twisted more tightly as compared to CAT
5. Speed If you are using these cables for
your Ethernet connection, they arent going
to increase your internet speed as they are meant
only to transmit data. For network
connections, CAT5 cables can work only under a
speed of 100 Mbps while CAT5E can work for
up to 1000 Mbps. In fact, CAT 5 can be
troublesome in transmitting data even with its
speed of 100 Mbps. Therefore, in terms of speed
and smooth data transmission, CAT 5E cables are
definitely better.
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Performance Performance in networking cables
is measured based on their capacity to
transfer datai.e. their bandwidth. The
bandwidth of CAT 5 cables is up to 100 MHz which
goes up to 350 MHz for CAT 5E cable. Judging on
the performance, CAT5E cables are adequate for
gigabit internet connections though higher
CAT cables would soon take over.
Crosstalk Crosstalk is mainly about the
interference which occurs between cables
which can further lead to errors
during sending and receiving data. This
can be a reason for serious problems while
transmitting sensitive data. The interference
is lesser in CAT 5E cables but still can
occur rarely. One of the reasons for
designing the enhanced version of these
cables has been to reduce this interference
therefore, it makes them better than the
former version.
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Usage of both these cables is quite popular
because even though higher configuration cables
like CAT6 and above are all available in the
market now, they are rather expensive. So, to
make affordable connections, its best to employ
CAT5 cables or CAT5E cables as per requirements,
deciding on their individual features and your
utility. A sound judgment of their
differentiations sure helps in selecting the
better one for your job!