How to choose a more suitable cable? You have to know the basic cable info like
ethernet categories and labels, wire materials, wire winder density, etc, before buying an ethernet cable. And it would be easier after reading the guide below.
1. Check the wire material
All cable wraps are almost the same, but the internal materials are different, including pure copper wire, aluminum wire, copper clad aluminum wire, copper clad iron wire, iron wire, hybrid wire, etc. What’s the difference among those wires?
1.1 Pure copper wire is the best, the smallest resistance, the best quality cable, suitable for PoE power supply, the resistance is small to avoid the loss of electricity in the transmission process.
1.2 Aluminum wire is second only to copper wire, slightly larger resistance, short-distance use is not a big problem, suitable for home or small office terminals, or for short-range PoE power supply.
1.3 Copper clad aluminum plating a layer of copper outside. Because of the skin effect, the conductivity of the aluminum wire has a certain increase. Due to the larger resistance for short-range PoE power supply.
1.4 Copper coated wire outside the iron plating a layer of copper, the conductivity of the wire has improved to some extent, but the resistance is larger, not suitable for PoE power supply.
1.5 Iron core wire has larger resistance, only suitable for short-distance transmission, not suitable for PoE power supply.
1.6 Mixed wire inside the part of the wire using copper part of the wire using aluminum, only for short-distance use, can be used for PoE power supply, but the production of crystal head must be strictly in accordance with the line order, or copper can not be used for power supply, will increase the resistance , affect the power supply effect.
2. Check the label of the network cable
There are several
ethernet categories you should know before purchasing.
2.1 CAT3, is the label of Category 3 cable. It is used for bandwidth 10M, for ten trillion network, but almost eliminated.
2.2 CAT5, is the label of Category 5 cable. It is used for bandwidth 100M, for the following hundred million network.
2.3
CAT5E, is the label of Category 5e cable. It is used for bandwidth 155M, and is the mainstream in ethernet categories.
2.4
CAT6 is for Category 5 cable, it can be used for bandwidth 250M, used to set up Gigabit Ethernet, which is the future trend of development.
3. Cut and check the wires
It is necessary to remove the plastic wrap wrapped around the wire and to check four pairs of wires inside, at the same time to observe the winding density of four pairs of wire. True category 5 / ultra category 5 has the moderate winder density, and the direction is counterclockwise. While fake lines are usually low density and may be clockwise (less likely), mainly because of the ease of production, which reduces the production costs.
