Nowadays, CAT 5, CAT 5E, CAT 6 and CAT 7 cables are ubiquitous in our lives. While CAT 5 cables have already been replaced by their enhanced version CAT 5E, and CAT 7 cables are rarely used due to high costs. We, as a well established cable manufacturer, is now very delighted to give a brief introduction about the difference among above cables.

<Network cable types and differences>

　　Category 5 Cables: 100MHz transmission bandwidth, aimed for data transmission at a speed of 100Mbps and voice transmission. Mainly used for 100BASE-T and 10BASE-T networks and has been replaced by Category 5E cables.

　　Category 5 enhanced cables: With low attenuation and low crosstalk noise, bandwidth is up to 100MHz. Mainly used for Gigabit Ethernet.

　　Category 6 cables: transmission speed is far quicker than the last generation, thanks for its 250MHz bandwidth, suitable for the scenarios that requires 1Gbps transmission rate.

　　Category 6 Augmented Cables: an improved version of CAT 6, mainly used in 10 Gigabit networks. 500MHz transmission frequency with transmission speed up to 10Gbps.

　　Category 7 cables: it was created to adapt to the rapid development of 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology. It is no longer unshielded, instead, it is shielded twisted pair cable. Thus, boost its transmission frequency > 600 MHz and transmission rate up to 10 Gbps.

　　That is to say, if we want to build a gigabit network, we need to use at least Category 5 network cables, and using Category 6 cables is more suitable. But when the transmission distance is long ( >100meters), it is necessary to use category 6 or above.

　　Different cables may have different appearances. Generally speaking, it is difficult to distinguish between Category 5 and Category 5E in terms of appearance, while the difference between Category 5E and Category 6 is quite significant. There is a cross frame inside of Category 6 cables. While 
Category 7 are shielded twisted pair cables. In addition to having a shielding layer inside its PVC outer sheath, each pair of wires has a shielding layer too, making it easier to distinguish, cat.5e for Category 5 enhanced cables and cat.6 for Category 6 cables.

　　Cables are mainly made of pure copper or oxygen-free copper. Oxygen-free copper cables contain up to 99.9% copper, pretty low impurities. The pure copper cables actually are made by bronze, which have a non-negligible higher resistance compared with oxygen-free copper, this is why the majority of CAT5E cables are made of oxygen- free copper, please keep it mind when you purchasing cables.

　　There is also a difference in thickness between Category 5E and Category 6 cables. The core of Category 5E cables generally ranges from 0.4 to 0.51mm, while Category 6 cables range from 0.52 to 0.6mm. The crystal heads also different among the two categories.