There is a special type of Category 5, or Cat 5, cable that can be used to connect two computers without the use of a router or switch. These cables are known as crossover cables and they have ...

Cat5 may still be an option, but Cat6 is faster, safer, and more durable Cat5 cables were the best option for wired networking (also called Ethernet) for a long time. But since the release of Cat6, ...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. When it comes to high-speed data transfer, Cat-8 Ethernet cables are the gold standard at present. They're not only the fastest but also the ...

I'm doing some rewiring of my house, and I want to use Cat5 wherever possible, including phone connections. My question is this: does the standard ethernet computer connection use all of the wires in ...

Welcome to another in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has more than 20 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly. This post ...

This article was updated March 31, 2023. It was originally published Jan. 8, 2016. Engineers and designers who don’t regularly work with CAT data of cables, and even some that do, can get confused ...