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RJ 45 cable vs cat 6?

post #1 of 15
11/5/12 at 10:13pm
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Hey everyone,

I recently bought the Asus RT-N66U Dual band router. It comes with something called an RJ 45 cable (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320091)

I bought a cat 6 ethernet cable separately because i didn't think the router would come with a cable, but I was wondering what the difference was between these cables. Will the cat 6 be the better cable to use to connect my router to the modem?
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post #2 of 15
11/5/12 at 10:18pm
They are basically the same (IIRC) I think the cat6 is just shielded better. More then likely won't notice the difference.
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post #3 of 15
11/5/12 at 10:18pm
Theoretically yes but then again your internet speeds will never reach the cables max speeds.

so unless you are running a really long cable cat 5 should be good enough. but cat6 wouldn't hurt anything lol.
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post #4 of 15
11/5/12 at 10:25pm
RJ45 is just the connector type, used by all types of Ethernet and phone cables. A cat 6 cable IS an RJ45 cable.

The cable that came with the router is probably a cat 5 cable(if it's not cat 6), as the others have said the difference is just the shielding. Cat 6 is backwards compatible with cat 5.
Edited by TheYonderGod - 11/5/12 at 10:52pm
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post #5 of 15
11/5/12 at 10:31pm
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I'd look here http://www.networkcablingdirectory.com/articles/structured-network-cabling-id_1151.htm

Pretty much in most cases you won't need Cat6 but the lowdown is that Cat5e supports gigabit but Cat6 is certified for gigabit. But they're so close together in price most of the time on a small scale you might as well go all Cat6

Edit: To get a true benefit of Cat6 gigabit EVERYTHING has to support gigabit: router, switch, pc's, etc...
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post #6 of 15
11/6/12 at 12:46am
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Thanks everyone for the replies!
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post #7 of 15
11/6/12 at 8:53am
Usually the cable will have some sort of printing down it's length indicating what spec of cable it is.

As stated, if it's for the WAN interface you likely wouldn't notice a difference, unless your bandwidth package is >100 mbit.
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post #8 of 15
11/12/12 at 12:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheYonderGod View Post

RJ45 is just the connector type, used by all types of Ethernet and phone cables. A cat 6 cable IS an RJ45 cable.
The cable that came with the router is probably a cat 5 cable(if it's not cat 6), as the others have said the difference is just the shielding. Cat 6 is backwards compatible with cat 5.

You're pretty much right, however (if you don't mind) I'd like to clarify a couple of points:
  1. phone cables wouldn't use RJ-45 (well, not unless they're VoIP). Phone cables traditionally use a different plug (still part of the RJ family - but I can't recall the spec number).
  2. And the router cables are likely Cat5e rather than the older cat5 spec. Cat5e would give him the same performance as cat6 (given the typical home set up), but there's no harm in using his cat6 cable instead.
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post #9 of 15
11/12/12 at 12:44am
There is a minimal difference in speed actually, CAT6 provides Gigabit speeds whereas CAT5e technically provides "Gigabit" on paper it doesn't. CAT6 is generally used between rooms and in walls and such whereas CAT5e is generally used from the wall to the PC/Router. etc.

Why? Simply because yes CAT6 has better shielding for one and because it holds it's speed up over distance better compared to CAT5e. CAT5e is a fair bit cheaper to make (and buy) then what CAT6 is and CAT6 is generally found in the harder type of cable, whereas CAT5e is found in the softer stuff though not always.

Either cable will work and you might only see a small difference if you're copying mass amounts of files between two PC's on the network if they both have CAT6 cables, but even then I doubt it.
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post #10 of 15
11/12/12 at 2:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt-Matt View Post

There is a minimal difference in speed actually, CAT6 provides Gigabit speeds whereas CAT5e technically provides "Gigabit" on paper it doesn't.
Cat5e provides gigabit fine; it's cat5 that doesn't. What you're perhaps thinking about is how Cat5e provides a theoretical 10GbE which doesn't pan out practically.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt-Matt View Post

CAT6 is generally used between rooms and in walls and such whereas CAT5e is generally used from the wall to the PC/Router. etc.
Why? Simply because yes CAT6 has better shielding for one and because it holds it's speed up over distance better compared to CAT5e. CAT5e is a fair bit cheaper to make (and buy) then what CAT6 is and CAT6 is generally found in the harder type of cable, whereas CAT5e is found in the softer stuff though not always.
Actually neither cat5e nor cat6 use shilding - they use twisted pairs to balance out interference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt-Matt View Post

Either cable will work and you might only see a small difference if you're copying mass amounts of files between two PC's on the network if they both have CAT6 cables, but even then I doubt it.
You wouldn't notice any difference in speed unless either one of those cables were poorly constructed. In which case the issue isn't with the specification but the manufacturer and thus moot from any discussion about the quality of cat5e vs cat6.

That all being said, I do agree with your point that cat6 is better for future proofing. However for your immediate average home set up; it wouldn't really make a whole lot of difference.
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