Thread: cat 5 cable

anyone familiar with a white colored cat 5 cable. Any way you can determine cat5 from basic phone/fax line wiring. This house had white cables with 6 or 8 little colored wires inside. I thought cat5 was blue?

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Cat 5 has a wider plug than standard phone jacks. It will not fit into phone equipment.
Cat 5 comes in many colors.

I think he is asking about cat5 distribution in a house.

Cat5 patch cables (not inside the walls) do have the wide plug for ethernet use.

When you wire a house with cat5, 5e, 6, you can use regular telephone jacks and equipment. The advantage is extra/spare wire pairs, each pair is twisted 3 times per inch and eliminates crosstalk and provides for a higher signal quality.

Cable comes in many colors and I am sure it is coded for different applications. Your cable was probably CAT5E if it was in a residential setting. Here is a link that will surely muddy up the waters even more, or maybe, at least, show you the many choices that are available. Bulk CAT5e, Solid, Stranded, Plenum - ComputerCableStore.com

Cat 5 or Cat 6 can come in almost any color of sheath. The multi-strand you described can be even Cat 3 (old original telephone cable).

Cat 5 or 6 can be used for original voice communications or for data (IE: ethernet - LAN connections).

Original telco wiring (known as Cat 3) has typically only 4 strands of copper in the sheath and is a tad heavier gauge than what is used with Cat 5 & 6 wiring.

In my former life I was responsible for the design/development/construction of internet web-hosting data centers. Managed bunches of folks wiring the data centers for customers (IE: Yahoo, Amazon.com, etc.) and all their servers. Ran tons of copper (Cat 5 & 6) and fiber.

Have had some customers that requested specific color (sheath) of Cat 5 & 6 to synch up with certain ways the cable was routed for prime and backup, etc., etc.

Cat 5 has 8 twisted pairs of conductors, not 6. The jacket - which can be any color, anywhere - has markings on the jacket as to the rating and application. For example, it may say "5E ..... Riser ..... etc."

This does NOT mean the house has "Cat 5" internet. Such a statement can be made only after actually testing the system for data transmission, and so certifying it. Such testing is clearly in the realm of a specialty contractor.

Correction: I meant to say 8 wires, in 4 twisted pairs. Thx, all who caught this.

Originally Posted by Nolan Kienitz

Cat 5 has 8 twisted pairs of conductors

I think you mean 8 conductors in 4 pairs.

Some houses today are even being constructed using Cat 6 Cable.