CAT 6 Network Cable

This page has been written to simply explain what the Cat 6 Network Cable is and the different ways you can use it.

There are a number of different categories of ethernet cables, one of which is the Cat 6 cable.

Category 6 cables, commonly known as Cat 6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and are still backward compatible with previous categories of networking (Cat 3, Cat 5, Cat 5e).

These cables are designed to function at 1000 Mbit/s per second and are used for the more recent Gigabit networks.

Specifications of the Cat 6 Ethernet Cable

Cat-6 cabling supports frequencies of up to 250 Mhz and speeds of up to 1000 Mbit/s. This is a big improvement on previous network cabling speeds (CAT 3: 10 Mhz, CAT 5: 100Mhz). Cat 6a cables can perform up to speeds of 500 Mhz.

CAT6 cables are becoming increasingly popular, especially with their capabilites of performing at Gigabit Speeds. However, Cat 5e cables are still the most used and most popular network cable.

For more specific information on the Cat6 Cable go to Wikipedia.

Uses for Cat 6 Cables

Cat-6 network cables can be used for 1000Base-TX, 100Base-T & 10Base-T networking and Cat-6a cables can go up to 10Gbase-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet). It is important to remember that your network will not perform at Gigabit speeds, unless all of the components are validated at Gigabit speeds. So you will need not only need gigabit cables, but you will need a gigabit switch, router or hub and also gigabit network cards.

There are two types of Cat6 cables. One of them is a cross-over cable that is used to connect two devices directly to eachother, eg. a PC directly to another PC or a Hub to another Hub.

However, the majority of Cat6 cables are straight through cables, and these are used to connect computers to hubs and switches. You can read more about this on the computer network cable page.

CAT6 Cables Summary

CAT6 Cables can either be crossover or straight through cables
CAT6 cables are fairly new and becoming more popular
CAT6 Network Cables support frequencies of up to 250Mhz (CAT 6a up to 500Mhz) and speeds of up to 1000 Mbit/s (CAT 6a up to 10Gbit/s)

Conclusion

Well I hope that through this article you have managed to understand what the Cat 6 Network Cable is and how you might use it in your home or office network.

If you have any questions about computer ethernet cables or Cat 6 network Cables, be sure to let me know or leave your opinion in the form below.