When you read "Cat" on a cable, it means "Category." In the case of network cables, these are performance categories. The number after the "Cat" indicates the cable's quality, in terms of speed, bandwidth, signal loss, and shielding.

Below we describe the most important categories of cables from old to new.

Cat.1 and 2 cables

Category 1 cables are the network cables with which telecommunications began (Class A). A single twisted pair of copper wires, suitable for the telephone network. In English, they are called "POTS," or Plain Old Telephone Systems. This used to be in the walls of every home and office. The speed is a maximum of 1 Mbps (bandwidth 0.4 MHz), and therefore cannot transmit data.

Cat. 2 cables (Class B) have four pairs of twisted pairs. Speeds increased to a whopping 4Mbps (4MHz bandwidth). This was sufficient for faxing, for example.

Cat.3 cables

A Cat. 3 cable has a maximum speed of 10Mbps, with a bandwidth of 16MHz (Class C). This cable is also known as "station wire." It's designed to reach multiple rooms from a single transmitter. Useful for a school or fire station, for example. Cat. 3 cable was used as network cable in the early 1990s. It still has a TIA-568-C certification, as Cat. 3 cable is still used as standard telephone wiring. This category of cable is too slow for modern computer networks.

Cat.4 cables

Compared to Cat. 3 cables, Cat. 4 cables offer higher speeds, reaching 16Mbps (at 20MHz). Cat. 4 also guaranteed speeds up to a maximum length of 100 meters. It was previously used in networks such as Token Ring (introduced by IBM in 1984, which later became the IEEE 802.5 standard for Ethernet) and the first 10Base-T networks. Cat. 4 is no longer used.

Cat.5 and Cat.5e cables

Category 5 cables have been the most commonly used Ethernet cable since 2001. This is where things get interesting. If you have one lying around, it's most likely a Cat. 5. There's also Cat. 5 E (enhanced) cable (Class D). This offers better protection against crosstalk and radiation. Both have 100MHz bandwidth, but Cat. 5e offers 10x the speed (1Gbps vs. 100Mbps). Therefore, Cat. 5e is typically used in large systems like 100Base-TX (Fast Ethernet) and 1000Base-T (Gigabit Ethernet). Cat. 5 is still a good cable for normal network speeds. Check out all Cat. 5e network cables here .

Cat. 6 and Cat. 6a cables

Category 6 (Cat6) is the fast and stable network cable for Gigabit networks. The cable is backward compatible with Cat3, Cat5, and Cat5e cables in a network. Cat6 (Class E) has a much higher specification than Cat5 (Class D). If the Cat6 cable is under 37 meters (121 feet), you get 10Gbps speed at 250MHz bandwidth. If the cable is longer, you still get 1Gbps. In addition, it is much better protected against interference and radiation, making data transfer very stable.

Cat6a is even faster (Class EA), with the "A" for "augmented." This means a doubling of bandwidth, up to 500MHz. Even the most demanding applications have sufficient speed with a Cat6a cable.

Cat.7 cables

A Cat 7 network cable is a bit of an odd one out. It was specifically designed for the fastest internet connection, namely 10 Gigabit at 600 MHz (called Class F). But only with specific connectors. And that makes it practically unusable. Cat 6A was designed around the same time, and it achieves 10 Gigabit at 500 MHz, but with standard connectors. Much easier to use. A Cat 7 network cable can make all the difference for some networks (if you have that special connector on both your devices and your cable). But you can already achieve 99% of the speed with Cat 6A, so why bother?

These are the different categories of network cables and their key features. Within each category, there are different versions, with varying degrees of protection, for example. In short, there's quite a lot to choose from. Know what you want? Buy your cable in our webshop!