Which one to choose, CAT5e or CAT6?

Hello,
I am going to buy the cable to connect my device, and is confused by the types.
Not familiar with it, consider choosing CAT5e or CAT6.
I searched on Google and see the blog, is this blog true or not?
Can anyone kindly advise and also tell me the reason?
Thank you in advance.

It’s simple. Buy CAT6.

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If it’s for simple home use, Cat5e might make more sense - the cable is more flexible (“softer”) so manipulation with it is more convenient.

Both Cat5e and Cat6 will achieve the same speeds with Turris (unless there is very strong electromagnetic noise around the path of the cable, but I assume you don’t run it through a microwave).

Indeed. I would go with CAT6 as well. A little bit of redundancy, perhaps, for now - but it will be handy in the coming days.

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Cat 6A minimum for me; haven’t used 5e in years.

Category Standard Bandwidth Max Data Rate Shielding
Cat5e 100MHz (up to 350) 1000Mbps UTP or STP
Cat6 250MHz (up to 550) 1000Mbps UTP or STP
Cat6A 500MHz (up to 550) 10Gbps UTP or STP
Cat7 600MHz 10Gbps Shielded only
Cat8 2000MHz 25Gbps or 40Gbps Shielded only

(Skip Cat7 as it uses non-standard connectors, and Cat8 is significantly over-provisioning your home network for today.)

Generally speaking, the higher the Cat the more bandwidth the cable will support. It’s more technical than that, but it generally holds true.

If you are running cables permanently and will be in the property for years, have a look at Cat6A for better future compatibility. Turris may go no higher than 1Gbit/sec today, but 2.5Gbit, 5Gbit and 10Gbit are not far round the corner.

I use Cat6A as it reaches 10Gbit/sec with ease.

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Not sure that is correct, the higher the Cat the higher the frequency a cable is specified, characterized and “guaranteed” for. So it is well possible (albeit not terribly likely) that a given piece of Cat5 cable would be well within the attenuation requirements for Cat6 (especially old cable from before Cat6 was specified). That said I think that “lay the best cable you are willing to afford” seems like the best advice.

2.5 Gbps ethernet was specifically deigned to work over 100m Cat5e, and even 5 and 10 Gbps ethernet are likely to work over cat5e, albeit probably only on shorter segments (IMHO most ethernet segments in home networks typically are considerably shorter than 100m, but maybe I am simply not rich enough :wink: ). But that is only relevant if there is existing cat5 deployment or the only affordable cabe is cat5, otherwise I fully aggree >= Cat6A seems the way to go.
(Cat7 cable is fine and probably a tad better than Cat6 and one can always use the sockets/plugs used on Cat6, even though the end result is then only guaranteed for 500-550 MHz and not Cat7’s 600).

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