CAT 6 Ethernet Cable

CAT 6 Ethernet Cable

We purchased this CAT 6 cable of 5 m length, precrimped with RJ45 plugs (8P8C modular connector) at both ends. An RJ45 coupler was also purchased along with it to extend the existing home local area network (LAN) to another room. But unfortunately it did not work, may be because the RJ45 plug in the existing CAT 5 cable, which is decades old, may not be functioning well. I am buying CAT 6 cable for the first time and that too because CAT 5 was not available! So I decided to learn more about CAT 6 cable. On the cable it is written that it has four pairs of 24 AWG (American Wire Guage) wires. Of course, I do not wish to open up this new cable and check!

CAT 6 can perform up to 250 MHz frequency compared to the 100 MHz upper limit for CAT 5 cable. There is a CAT 6A cable with 500 MHz performance. The maximum length for CAT 6 cable when used for up to one GBPS is 100 m. Care should be taken during installation that it should not be kinked or bent too tightly. It is mentioned that the bend radius should be larger than four times the outer diameter of the cable. The wire pairs should not be untwisted. Maximum length to which the outer jacket may be stripped back is 13 mm.