Which CAT cable do I use to wiring my home network?

[Julie Thomas]

Hello friends,

I plan on having an outlet installed in my home office so that I can network directly from my PC to our router downstairs. I an confused between CAT 5 and CAT 6 cable. I plan to go to Home Depot and buy a box but can you please advise on which cable I would use?

Any help would be highly appreciated here !!!

Thanks in advance
Julie Thomas

 

[JDFan]

For the majority of people and uses CAT5-e is the type of cable to use (be sure it is not the older CAT5 cabling but CAT5-e (CAT5 supports only 100Mb speed where CAT5-e also supports 1Gb speed so there is a big difference in the 2) -- Cat6 is quite a bit more expensive and does not offer any noticeable benefit at this time (as speeds increase over the next couple decades it may become more useful ) But at the current time CAT5-e supports up to 1GB network speeds which is more than most systems will use so going up to CAT6 is not really needed.

 

[mryoink]

I would also suggest using CAT5e cabling. For in the wall cabling you should also use solid core cable, not your typical patch cable type (stranded). Using the solid core will allow you to use a 110 punchdown tool to terminate the cable at an ethernet jack on your wall which is going to be the most professional solution.

Hope this helps.

 

[msdalem2]

For the majority of people and uses CAT5-e is the type of cable to use (be sure it is not the older CAT5 cabling but CAT5-e (CAT5 supports only 100Mb speed where CAT5-e also supports 1Gb speed so there is a big difference in the 2) -- Cat6 is quite a bit more expensive and does not offer any noticeable benefit at this time (as speeds increase over the next couple decades it may become more useful ) But at the current time CAT5-e supports up to 1GB network speeds which is more than most systems will use so going up to CAT6 is not really needed.

 

[msdalem2]

Thank you JDFan. I have been looking all over the internet trying to find an answer to this question. I have found a lot of technical information, but no explanations to simply tell me which one to buy. You have done that in just a short paragraph. I only wanted a 25 ft cable with the ends already attached, and now I know which one to get. Thanks, again.