The best way to tell the difference is on the sheath of the cable. The cable marking will have code numbers and other digits. However, it will also note if the cable is Cat5e or Cat6. In addition, the Cat6 cable will have a plastic central divider between the four pairs. Cat5e will not have this. However, this is dependent on different manufacturers, so not always 100% the case. Do Cat6 cables work with Cat5?

Solid conductor (solid-core) Cat5/Cat5e Ethernet cable tends to be used where longer runs need to be set up to achieve a more reliable and stable permanent wired network. This is more common in office buildings and other professional setups. Applications that involve running outdoor Cat5 cable, or passing it through sections of wall, will often benefit from the use of solid-core wiring. Cat5e has a maximum capability of 1 Gigabit Ethernet. The older standard of standard Cat5 had a limit of 100Mb transmission. However, this category of cable is not manufactured anymore. In addition, it is rarely seen in old installations, In rare cases, older phone systems may be wired in standard Cat5 and would not be suitable for Gigabit ethernet. Can Cat5e support 10 Gigabit Ethernet? We have written a more in-depth Cat5e cable FAQ explaining cabling costs in this article Cat5e vs Cat6Yes, Cat5e is capable of running PoE over its cable. Thus, the power and the signal are transferred over the same cable. However, as devices that receive PoE require greater power, the amount of power required to be sent via data cabling increases. Thus, as power increases, the possibility of noise interference increases. Therefore, with modern PoE systems, Cat6a is used more and more due to its shielded and better noise-to-signal protection.

You can use a CAT6 cable instead of a CAT5e cable in almost all situations. However, there are unusual cases where it is only sometimes valid. In a laboratory installation, we installed Cat5e cabling as the central plastic divider within Cat6 cables would have let pathogens escape the contained areas by travelling along the plastic core. A more detailed Cat5e cable FAQ explanation on Cat5e UTP vs FTP can be found in our knowledge centre HERE . What is Armoured Cat5e Cable

This Offer

Simply yes, you can. However, you would be using a more expensive connector and only achieving the lesser performance standard. You can also use Cat5e connectors on a Cat6 cable. However, in this case, you lose the performance of the Cat6 cable and only attain the lower standard overall. Can I use Cat6 instead of Cat5? However, in any data cabling installation, the overall link is only as good as its weakest part. Hence, Cat5 and Cat6 are compatible, but it’s not the desired solution. Therefore, if using different categories, the link will only work as well as the lowest grade element. This combination of different systems is sometimes seen when companies are moving and want to retain parts of their existing infrastructure and plan to upgrade at a later stage due to budgets. UTP stands for unshielded twisted pair, and FTP is Foil Twisted Pair. Therefore, FTP is similar to a standard UTP cable with a foil shield surrounding the inner cores. Thus, the shielding provides additional protection from external noise inference.