A Brief Guide to CAT6 Ethernet Cables and Their Workings Comments Feed (2)

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A Brief Guide to CAT6 Ethernet Cables and Their
Workings CAT6 Ethernet Cable is one of the most
popular Ethernet cables. It was standardized
by Electronic Industries
Association and Telecommunications
Industry Association (EIA). This article will
provide you with all the information about CAT6
Ethernet Cables and its types. The working of
CAT6 Ethernet Cables Being the sixth version of
twisted pair Ethernet cabling, CAT6 was built in
order to support the Gigabit Ethernet Data rates.
i.e 1 gigabit/second (Gbps) It has four pairs of
copper wires and all the copper wire pairs can be
utilized for signaling and obtaining
superior quality performance. The best part
about it is that it can support 10
Gigabit Ethernet connections for a distance of
50 meters or 164 feet. Here are some more facts
about it The enhanced version of CAT6, known as
CAT6A and it can support the speed of upto
10Gbps. Similar to the previous versions of
Ethernet Cables, ends of CAT6 cable use the same
RJ-45 standard connector. The cable cover of this
Ethernet Cable has CAT6 printed on it.
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CAT6 vs. CAT6A The Difference CAT6 supports 10
Gigabit Ethernet. However, it covers the
distance only of up to 50 meters. Category 6A of
Ethernet Cables was introduced to enhance the
performance of CAT6 cables. It also enables 10
Gigabit data rates on a single cable run but
runs up to 100 meters. This is twice as compared
to CAT6. Due to its higher performance, CAT6A
ethernet cable costs more than CAT6 and is
thicker in density. It uses the standard
RJ-45 connectors. CAT6 vs. CAT5e The
Difference In order to improve the previous
versions of CAT5 Cables, two efforts were made.
One out of them came to be known as
CAT5e (CAT 5 enhanced) and the next one
was named CAT6. Some technical
enhancements were lacking in CAT5e which were
than made in CAT6. However, if you are looking
for a cable that supports Gigabit Ethernet
installations at lower costs, CAT5e is a
good choice. As CAT5e cable offered a fair
performance for Gigabit Ethernet at cost
effective rates, it gained a lot of popularity
for wired Ethernet installations. Quite similar
to CAT6, CAT5e also utilizes a four wire pair
signaling to provide smooth data rates. CAT5
cables on the other hand have four wire pairs out
of which two remain inactive.
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Disadvantages of CAT6 Costs CAT6 is more
expensive as compared to Cat5e cable. Also, if
you can resolve the network speed issues
with CAT5e, it is better to buy that
instead of CAT6. CAT5e is economical and
offers a good quality performance. It can also
be obtained in different colors. Speed not
guaranteed Buying CAT6 cable doesnt necessarily
mean that you will get an entire gigabit network.
It can offer speed optimization only if every
element in your network works at gigabit speed.
If one of them is not gigabit rated, the network
will work at the slowest devices speed. There
are times when users end up buying CAT6 Ethernet
cables only because they are the latest
version. What they need to know here is
whether they will be suitable to their network.
Hence, make sure you conduct proper research
before buying these cables.