The Basic types of Ethernet networks are twisted pair Ethernets, Coax cable Ethernets, Fiber optics networks, and Wireless networks.
The twisted pair Ethernet will carry 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps or one Gbps data.

CAT5 or category5 is an Ethernet network cable, which is defined by EIA/TIA (Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunication Industry Association). Category 5 is the most useful twisted pair and it belongs to fifth generation. CAT5 cable contains copper wire of four pairs. Only two pairs are used in Ethernet network. The newer one in CAT5 is CAT5e (Category 5 enhanced), which is used in Gigabit Ethernet of speed 1000 Mbps. CAT5 mainly contains two types, one is Solid and second one is Stranded. This Solid CAT5 twisted pair is used in office building. Stranded CAT5 cable is suitable for shorter length.

CAT6 or Category6 is also an Ethernet network cable, which is defined by EIA/TIA (Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunication Industry Association). This is the sixth generational twisted pair cable for Ethernet.

This also contains copper wires of four pairs same as fifth generational cable CAT5. However, Ethernet networking CAT6 uses all four pairs. This is mainly used in Gigabit Ethernet connections, which speed is 1 gigabit / Seconds or one Gbps. The speed of this cable is double than the CAT5e. CAT6a is the enhanced version in CAT6, which support the speed of 10 Gbps. The maximum length supported by CAT6 is 100m or 328 feet.

You can use this CAT5 or CAT5e cables for long run, for example you can connect your computer and yours next building computer. The ordinary Ethernet Network cable will not work for such distance. In particularly, direct burial or exterior CAT5 cables are used for long distance and not the ordinary CAT5 cables. The cost of the direct burial CAT5 cable is more. This is designed only for outside use. You need not use conduit for exterior-grade CAT5 cable because they are made with waterproof technology.

Both the CAT5 Ethernet cable and direct burial CAT5 Ethernet cable will attract the lighting strikes. Burying the cable is not the solution to avoid the lighting strike. You should install surge protectors with the cable for outdoors Ethernet networks to get the protection from lighting strikes.

Install your network with CAT5 and above cables.

What we need:
• You need a twisted pair wire approximately 100-foot reel
• You need ‘RJ45’ sockets
• You need modular plugs for hubs
• An Ethernet hub

• Ethernet cards
• And patch cables

The wires are commonly of two types. One is shielded (“STP”) and other one is Unshielded (“UTP”). For most of the application, we use UTP where STP is very hard to work. You can find the sockets in many types such as Radio Shack, or Phone Sockets or Home Depot. You can also get sockets for CAT5. This socket is useful for major things such as Ethernet, phone, audio, and video. Get modular plate to fix the Socket. The modular plate may come with two, three, four, six or twelve holes. Get modular plugs for your twisted pair cable, the modular plugs look like phone plugs. These plugs are different for Solid and Stranded wire, shielded, and unshielded. You can easily get hubs from any computer house, or good electrical shop. The hubs may vary in speed like some hubs supports 10 Mbps and some hubs will support 100 Mbps. They may also vary in number of ports in it like some hubs come with eight ports and some have 12 ports and other hubs may have higher number of ports. Get eight-port hub for your network.

For Assistance you may contact one of our friendly technical staff for a free quote on designing your local area network so we can help you choose between cat 5, cat5e, cat6 and/or cat 7 type of cabling. If you are in the Toronto, Ontario Canada area you may drop by our office. Alternatively you may contact us at info@connectsim.com