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Post #3 by tooki
Source ForumCat 5 — #3
CategoryNetworking
Post DateSun, 29 Sep 2002 - 04:25
Original URLhttps://web.archive.org/web/20050522191757/https://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=125589
Post
Yes, a Cat 5 is what you probably need.

The categories (Cat 3, 5, 5e, and 6 are the ones in use for ethernet) refer to the quality of the cable used to make the cable. (Specifically, the categories describe how many twists per inch there are in each pair of wires... 16 twists per inch for Cat 3; 24 for Cat 5, 32 for Cat 5e, I don't know how many for Cat 6.) 10BaseT ethernet requires Cat 3 or better, while 100BaseT and 1000BaseT require Cat 5 or better.

FYI, the reason they're not sold as "ethernet cables" is that the same cables have other uses, too, like token ring networking and some telephone applications.

tooki
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