Network Cables Category

Cat 1 - voice only, household station cable.

Cat 2 - voice only, high-pair count feeder cable.

Cat 3 - voice or 10baseT data levels, available in 4-pair for workstation cabling or in high-pair count for feeders.

Cat 4 - voice or 10baseT data levels, no longer produced.

Cat 5 - voice or 100baseT data levels, available in 4-pair for workstation cabling or in a high-pair count for feeders (the one most often used in home network environments).

Cat 5e - enhanced Category 5 performance, normally only available in 4-pair workstation cable [the one I use on my home network, for less data collisions].

Cat 6 - gigahertz level data transmission (1000baseT),