CAT5E DATA CABLING SERVICE FOR INSTALLATION OR UPGRADE

Did you know that almost 750,000 miles of cable connect the internet around the world?

You may not need quite that much cable, but it proves that cabling is a key component of the internet infrastructure. If you are looking for a data cable solution for your business it’s easy to get lost in the terminology.

Maybe you have heard of Cat 5 and Cat5e? You may even have some spare cat5e cabling lying around in your office IT room. But is Cat 5e the way to go? What are the advantages of Cat5e? What do professionals use today?

Check out our in-depth guide to choosing a Cat5e data cabling service.

Cat5 is the shortened name of Category 5 cabling not to be confused with Cat5e. This cable category was introduced in the 1990s. This unshielded twisted pair data cable can carry data up to speeds of 10Mbps and 100Mbps. This was, of course, deemed very fast back in the day. Computing and data transfer speeds have advanced significantly since that time.

Cabling manufacturers have made claims in the past that gigabit, or speeds of 1000Mbps, are possible with the old Cat5 cable. While this is theoretically true with shorter lengths of Cat5, it is not guaranteed because well, Cat5 wasn’t designed to handle this speed.

The plain old Cat5 cabling has all but disappeared from the market and odds are you will probably not even find it for sale anywhere anymore.

Why not? Enter Cat5e.

Cat5e – or Category 5 enhanced was the next generation of data cabling and was introduced in 1999. Cat5 claims to support gigabit connections under certain conditions. Now, Cat5e is constructed specifically for the gigabit connection world.

However, this is not all. The creators of Cat5e have added more than just speed to their cables. The inner wiring of the cable is better constructed to prevent “crosstalk” or interference between the smaller wires.

Of course, your overall internet speed and experience is dictated by your internet service provider.

Cat5e cables can still offer more capacity than most internet connections available today. This ensures that your cabling most likely won’t be the factor slowing down your internet speed. Of course, your business local area network and the equipment (firewall, switches) handling your network traffic can also be a limiting factor.

Whilst Cat5 (and Cat3) cabling served faithfully for many years, its time has come to an end and it has all but disappeared from the market place.

Any business still using Cat 5 or worse Cat 3 cables will find themselves falling behind the pack and may experience difficulties using today’s video conferencing solutions or services hosted in the cloud which require faster speed and bandwidth.

If you need to upgrade your businesses cabling, you will need to employ a professional cat5e data cabling service. Here at Network Cabling Montreal, we provide cable solutions of every kind that can future-proof your facilities. We also offer Cat6 and Cat6a cable if you need the added bandwidth and speed.

Why not check out our blog or contact us to see what we can do for you.