Computer Experts Blog

With the increased speeds online, companies are looking at ways to ensure that their networks are performing at peak efficiency. To ensure high speed data transfer, cat6 cables are often used as opposed to cat 5e cables. When comparing cat5e vs cat6 cables there are several things to keep in mind:

Increased Speed

Cat6 cable, due to how it is constructed, is twice as fast as cat5e cable. This is due to separators within the cable that ensure that none of the pairs of wire touch which helps to increase the speed of the cat6 cable. This is just one of the differences of cat5e versus cat6 cable. Cat6 cable is capable of speeds up to 1 gigibit, which is much faster than standard cat5e cable.

Scalability

With cat6 cable, you can rest easy knowing that your network infrastructure will be scalable as your company grows. To fully utilize the benefits of cat6 cable, all of your network devices will need to be upgraded. You can do this over time, but it all starts with upgrading your existing cabling to cat6.

Compatibility

When comparing cat5e versus cat6 cabling, it is important to realize that cat6 cable is completely backwards compatible with cat5e cabling. This means that anywhere that you can use cat5e cable you can also use cat6 cabling. Obviously if there is any existing cat5e cabling, you will not get the full speed benefits of cat6 cabling, but you should not run into any compatibility issues when using both cat5e and cat6 cabling.

There are many benefits of using cat6 cabling as opposed to cat5e. If you are moving to a new office or completely upgrading your networking infrastructure, it would be wise to invest in cat6 cables instead of cat5e. Even if all of your peripherals will not be able to utilize the increased speeds of cat6 cables, you will appreciate these capabilities when you decide to upgrade your equipment in the future.