Which of these supports speeds of up to 100 Mbps?

Which of these supports speeds of up to 100 Mbps?

• Cat 5
• Cat 2
• Cat 4
• Cat 3 

 

 

EXPLANATION

 

CAT3

The Category 3 or CAT3 standard was used heavily in the early 90’s for wiring offices and homes. It’s still used in two-line phone configurations, but has largely fallen out of favor for wired networking thanks to the Category 5e cable’s superior performance. CAT3 can be relied on to handle data speeds of up to 10 Mbps, but no more. Its maximum frequency clocks in at 16 MHz. Like many other cabling options, it relies on copper for data and power transmission. While theoretically limited to 10BASE-T Ethernet, it can actually support 100BASE-T4 speeds by using 4 wires instead of 2 to achieve 100 Mbps throughput.

CAT5

Around 2000 or so, CAT5 overtook CAT3 as the Ethernet cable of choice for LAN networking. CAT5 uses either the 10BASE-T or 100BASE-T standard for data transmission. Using two cable pairs to signal over copper wire, CAT5 is now largely archaic and isn’t widely used for Ethernet connections. It’s rated for a maximum frequency of 100 MHz and top speeds of 100 Mbps. CAT5 uses 8P8C modular connectors to connect devices together, and can be used effectively at lengths of up to 100 meters. Today, CAT5 cable has been replaced for the most part by CAT5e. 

CAT5e

While very similar to CAT5 in appearance, CAT5e introduces some new wrinkles in the equation. For one thing, CAT5e uses four pairs of copper wire rather than the two that CAT5 relies on. In addition, the wire pairs are twisted more tightly and are sheathed in heavy-duty shielding to eliminate crosstalk. Crosstalk cuts down on the speed at which a cable can transmit information. Thanks to its internal upgrades, CAT5e is capable of achieving 1000BASE-T speeds. In other words, it can handle up to 1 Gbps of throughput at a distance of up to 100 meters. As of today, it’s the most common type of cabling found in modern homes and offices for Ethernet purposes.