Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of mtzsw
mtzswFlag for United States of America

asked on

Network Cable colors CAT5 & CAT6

Can anyone tell me what the different color of the CAT5 & CAT6 means

Is there specific standard for using the different colors. ie Cables come in different colors like Blue, Red, Yellow, green, etc... what should you use every color for Is there standrs for that.

What is the different between CAT5 & CAT6

Thanks

Avatar of wylie_uk
wylie_uk

network cables come in lots of pretty colours, the colours dont mean a thing.

The general difference between category 5e and category 6 is in the transmission performance, and extension of the available bandwidth from 100 MHz for category 5e to 200 MHz for category 6. This includes better insertion loss, near end crosstalk (NEXT), return loss, and equal level far end crosstalk (ELFEXT).

These improvements provide a higher signal-to-noise ratio, allowing higher reliability for current applications and higher data rates for future applications.

Because of its improved transmission performance and superior immunity from external noise, systems operating over category 6 cabling will have fewer errors vs. category 5e for current applications.

less errors mean faster networks

:)
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Lee W, MVP
Lee W, MVP
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I was mistaken about the MHz ratings... have a look over this:
http://www.lanshack.com/cat5e-tutorial.aspx
whilst it is true the better cables transmit faster, it is because of less errors, so even 100mb networks wil run faster on Cat 6 cables.
Standard is simply this -- follow it exactly on both ends of ethernet, you never go wrong.
1.  ahve the gold pins looking up at you on the connector before you crimp.
2.  leftmost to right most colors are as follows --

orange/white -- orange -- green/white -- blue -- blue/white -- green -- brown/white -- brown.

It is as simple as that.  Make both ends of connectors identical for normal ethernet.  If you need cross over cable, you just invert postion of blue vs. blue/white and green vs. green/white on ONE end of the connector only.

Remember to use 100 base ends today.  These are engineered to a little better specs than 10 base connectors.

Have fun and buy a good crimper for 8 conductor, only cost you $19.99 last a long time, it is worth it!