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What is the difference, between CAT5e, and CAT5e-plus, cabling ?

What is the difference, between CAT5e, and CAT5e-plus, cabling ?

Posted on May 20, 2018 8:06 AM

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Posted on May 29, 2018 2:15 PM

Not really. They're rated for the same speed, it's just a wiring difference.


T568A and T568B are the two color codes used for wiring eight-position RJ45 modular plugs. Both are allowed under the ANSI/TIA/EIA wiring standards. The only difference between the two color codes is that the orange and green pairs are interchanged.


More precisely, the interchanged wires make it a cross-over cable. Meaning, a wire is in the orange position on one end of the cable, but in the green position on the other end. The green wire crosses over to the orange position. Diagram here.


Generally, you don't need a cross-over cable for most things anymore. Way back in the G3, G4 days (and I think G5), to connect one Mac directly to another with an Ethernet cable required it to be a cross-over. Many older DSL and cable modems also used a cross-over cable between the modem and your router (most early modems were modems only).


So, your A cable would be the one (in most cases) you want to use. If you get no connection and everything else is correct, then you probably need a B cross-over cable.

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Question marked as Best reply

May 29, 2018 2:15 PM in response to rsblanchard

Not really. They're rated for the same speed, it's just a wiring difference.


T568A and T568B are the two color codes used for wiring eight-position RJ45 modular plugs. Both are allowed under the ANSI/TIA/EIA wiring standards. The only difference between the two color codes is that the orange and green pairs are interchanged.


More precisely, the interchanged wires make it a cross-over cable. Meaning, a wire is in the orange position on one end of the cable, but in the green position on the other end. The green wire crosses over to the orange position. Diagram here.


Generally, you don't need a cross-over cable for most things anymore. Way back in the G3, G4 days (and I think G5), to connect one Mac directly to another with an Ethernet cable required it to be a cross-over. Many older DSL and cable modems also used a cross-over cable between the modem and your router (most early modems were modems only).


So, your A cable would be the one (in most cases) you want to use. If you get no connection and everything else is correct, then you probably need a B cross-over cable.

What is the difference, between CAT5e, and CAT5e-plus, cabling ?

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