Cat5 & Cat6 cable

whats the difference between the two anyone know

The most obvious difference is their transfer capability. CAT5 has four pairs of twisted copper wire and supports up to 100m of Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) transfers. Although CAT5 has four twisted pairs, it only makes use of two pairs. CAT6 also has four pairs of twisted copper wire which supports Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps) of up to 100m. Unlike CAT5, CAT6 takes advantage of all four pairs. CAT6 has a 2x transfer rate compared to CAT5 but due to the higher price tag of CAT6, it isn't used alot yet.

There is also CAT5e (enhanced). Like CAT6 is makes use of all four pairs but it isn't quite as fast at transferring as CAT6 but does support Gigabit Ethernet so is a popular choice.

There is also talk of CAT7, but thats going beyond your question.

Hope thats of some help.

k, that also means that cat6 is backwards compatable right. it just wouldnt us the two extra pairs right. and... tell me more about this cat7

There isnt really alot to say about the CAT7 cables because its not being researched in detail by TIA.

I dont know alot about CAT7 myself either so I had a look on the net and there isnt alot of information about it. I did find out though that TIA is looking into a CAT6e cable. If you want more information try googling for it.

CAT6 is worth the couple extra dollars. I added it to my home network, and even got a CAT6 patch cable from the router to the modem. So much faster now.

unless you are going to run a gigabit network no real reason to spend extra money on CAT 6. CAT 5 is fine, CAT 5e is more common right now though.

If you're willing to spend the extra bucs on a Gigabit Network you might as well just go all the way and go optical (realizing it has it's drawbacks)

I am assumeing you must be using a gigabit network, because CAT 5 or CAT 6 won't make a difference on a 100 mbps network. Also if you are using Cable or DSL for internet that only runs at about 3 mbps max, so if your home network is running at 100 mbps you are still able to pull the information from the router to your PC way faster than the modem can deliver it, so you really wouldn't see a diffrence in speed from the cableing. If you hardware can only run at 100 mbps and you use cableing that can run at 1000 mbps you still will run at 100 mbps, the speed increase you "see" is all in your head.

optical networking?....

...as in fiberoptical

sorry bit slow today....

Ethernet Cables
Comparison between CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT7 Cables

In the context of the 100-ohm UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) type of cable used for Ethernet wiring the only categories of interest are Cat3, Cat4, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat7. CATx is an abbreviation for the category number that defines the performance of building telecommunications cabling as outlined by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) standards. Some specifications for these categories are shown further down.

Up until the late 1980s thick or thin coaxial cable was typically used for 10-Mbps Ethernet networks, but around that time, UTP cabling became more commonly used because it was easier to install and less expensive. UTP CAT3 and CAT4 were used for a quite limited time since the emergence of 100Base-TX networks meant a quick shift to CAT5. By the year 2000, moves to gigabit (1000Base-TX) Ethernet LANs created a need for another specification, CAT5e. CAT5e is now being superseded by CAT6 cable and there is a developing standard for CAT7.

It might seem that CAT5 and CAT5e are the same. Pretty much they are, the CAT5e specification simply included some additional limits over the CAT5 specification. The reality is that most CAT5 cable is in fact CAT5e cable just not certified as such. Here is a comparison of those extra specifications.

if you're cabling a mission critical system or you want your network to be future proof, go for the CAT6 cables (and patch panels and connectors), but for the average home or small office network CAT5 or CAT5e will be just fine.

The Simple Answer:
CAT-5 is rated to 100M
CAT-5e is rated to 350M
CAT-6 and CAT6e is rated to 550M or 1000M depending on your source
CAT-7 is supposedly rated to 700M or presumably 1000M

do you need more information? go here http://www.connectworld.net/syscon/support.htm