People know that setting up an Internet connection or a business/home network requires a lot of extra attention. For every package they choose, they have to pay a monthly fee, and in this case everything matters (from the modem to the router that they will be using). A very important element of any network connection is the cable. It can impact the speed of your connection, although not as much as the other elements. That’s why it makes sense to learn as much as possible about the cable used in your connection: the Cat5e cable.

The Cat5e cable

This is an extremely popular kind of cable (Ethernet), which is used frequently today and can be utilized to carry out data, video or voice. It has a long lifespan and it is not very expensive. Thus, it is the perfect choice for the businesses that have barely started, but also for simple homeowners. Curious to know why the price is so low? The reason is that it is unshielded. In normal cases, this would mean that the signal is degraded over short distances. However, the twisted design of the wires assures its users that noise interference is not a problem. It can surely be utilized on the long-term, and it can still offer good signals without slowing down the connection speeds.

Compatible

A big plus for this cable is the fact that it is compatible with the older versions: the Cat5 cables. This means that it can replace them anywhere and at the same time it can be used to upgrade any Cat5 cable in order to improve the performance of the network. When it comes to fast performance, the backward compatibility helps the Cat cable to extend the lifespan of the network.

Length

Finding a Cat5e cable that is longer than 50 m will be quite hard. That’s because this length is the limit for its signal quality, and using greater lengths might affect the quality. Although this problem could be solved with the use of a signal booster. The most common solution for lengths beyond 50 meters is a shielded cable. This type of cable will carry the signal with a better quality, but its purchase will cost you more.

Colors

If you need to set up multiple connections, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy cables in various colors. Purchase them in colors like yellow, black, white, red, or blue because it will help you determine faster which one goes where. If you have to set up for voice, data, or video, you will know which cable is responsible for each task due to the different colors. Most likely, you are already using one Ethernet cable at home of office, without knowing it. But be sure that you will need more cables at some point in the future.