Does the LAN cable affect the quality of the game?

Although wireless technology is developing day by day, any network connection needs to be connected via wire. Cat is an acronym for “category” and usually means the speed the network line can transmit. We are talking about Ethernet cable (LAN): The higher the Cat, the higher the transmission speed, the better the stability. Those are essential requirements for playing online games, as well as downloading and watching streams. When the Internet system develops like it is today, you will definitely need a good and stable LAN wire. So the next question is which wire should we choose? There are many different network cables available in the market.

If in the past, when asking any network expert, the answer would often be “Cat5” (actually, it should be “Cat 5e”). The number behind “Cat” is the type of wire. And just for you to know, the longest range for an Ethernet cable is 100 meters. Such size is still not really limited if we only use Cat 5e indoors.

But out of the house, everything will be used by telephone copper wire. This type of wire was originally designed to carry only sound, but was later introduced to be used for data transmission. The old cables had no protection and were called Cat1. They have full speeds of 1Mbps, but no one uses this connection anymore.

How to determine what is the current network wire in our house?

The vast majority of Ethernet cables have information printed on their cables: like how fast the transfer is. Also you can tell the difference based on the color as well as the thickness of the wire, but it will be much more difficult. It is best to check the information printed on the wire or ask the seller.

So what types of wires are there on the market?

Cat5

Although there are a few more types of wire between the Cat1 and Cat5 lines, they are not really important. Cat5 is a fairly popular Ethernet standard, but is now obsolete. It achieves a pretty good transmission speed of 100 Mbps with a maximum distance of 100 meters. No one uses Cat5 wiring anymore. The article also recommends that you do not buy them to use.

Cat5e

The next standard version is Cat5e, where the “e” stands for “Enhanced”. The Cat5e instance is of a higher standard, and is designed to reduce “crosstalk” – unintended data exchange that slows down transmissions. Cat5e has a speed of 1000 Mbps, and is used by many homes and companies that have Gigabit Ethernet technology. This is the lowest standard cable that everyone should use to install a new LAN line. Its biggest advantage is its low cost.

Currently, the world is planning to increase the speed of Cat5e to 5 Gbps with current network wires, known for the standard IEEE P802.3bzthis technology will be applied to Cat6.

Cat6

The next standard is Cat6: the internal structure is tighter, nylon is added and protected to minimize “crosstalk” and impact. Obviously, the biggest advantage of Cat6 is the amazing speed of 10 Gbps, but this speed can only be achieved if the distance does not exceed 55 meters, which is shorter than the 100-meter distance of Cat5 and Cat5e. If the distance is longer, the speed will still be 1Gbps. While the speed of Cat6 is faster if used at short distances, the disadvantage of this line of wires is that they are difficult to bend or twist and the thicker wire also makes wiring more difficult than Cat5e. Cat6 is basically more expensive, but compared to Cat5e, their price has dropped significantly compared to when it was first released.

Cat6a

Cat6a is the successor, still the letter “a” is equivalent to “augmented” (also means enhanced). They’re thicker, and more heavily protected, virtually eliminating the crosstalk issues that were limited to previous versions. The speed of Cat6a is 10 Gbps, but the difference is that this speed can be reached up to 100 meters. Thicker cables, better protection are more suitable for businesses. But in return, it lacks flexibility, making installation in households quite difficult.

Cat7 and higher

The latest version is currently Cat7, protected and requires a GigaGate45 connection. Incredibly fast speeds at close range, can go up to 100 Gbps (!) if the distance is shorter than 15 meters and back to 10 Gbps if beyond that range. Currently the Cat8 standard is nearing completion but without hardware support, it is expected to reach speeds of 40 Gpbs over longer distances. The next generation of cabling after Cat7 is certainly more suitable for data centers than for indoor use.

So we will choose…?

At this point, everyone has a temporary knowledge of the different types of network cables, now we only have to decide which one to choose. This is similar to not having the most powerful computer, it depends on many different factors.

In terms of price, Cat5e has the best price, Cat6 is a bit more expensive and each higher series is more expensive. Remember, Cat5e has the best flexibility, making it easier to wire to the door or corner of the wall, suitable for those who want to set up their own network wiring in the house. Meanwhile, Cat6 and the following lines are very thick and more difficult to wire. Finally, with current internet speeds, Cat5e can completely live well for the next many years.

But we also need to consider the future case. Wiring can be expensive and requires experts to install the network, resulting in increased costs, sometimes more than the cost of wiring. This makes some people want to invest a little more to ensure the network will last for a long time. For those who want option 2, Cat6 or Cat6a are good choices.

We need to understand that the vast majority of current consumer devices such as modems, motherboards, routers or network cards have a maximum speed of 1000 megabits or 1 Gbps. Therefore, for the time being and for many years to come, ordinary users still cannot take full advantage of the 10 Gbps speed that Cat6a and subsequent versions bring.

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