Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms: Category 3 cable, Category 5 cable (etc.)
Category 3 cable, Category 5 cable (etc.)
a series of standards for 8-conductor unshielded twisted-pair network cables, which can also be used for telephone wiring. They are known in brief as Cat-3, Cat-5, and so on.
Category 3 cable is for 10base-T and other networks up to 10 Mbps. Category 5 is compatible with 100base-T networking at ten times the speed, and categories 5e and up are compatible with Gigabit Ethernet (1000base-T). Each successive category has better high-frequency performance and lower crosstalk. It is always desirable to use a higher category than originally specified, since performance may improve and will certainly be no worse.
