Data Cables

Categories and Cables

The three classifications of Ethernet cable we sell are Cat 5e, 6, and 6a. The principal difference between these three categories is bandwidth; Cat 5e is built to meet performance specifications (set out in TIA-568-C.2) up to 100 MHz, enabling it to handle common 100Base-T and 1000Base-T wired networks. Cat 6 goes much farther, with performance confirmed to 250 MHz; and 6a goes to 500 MHz, which, together with PAM-16 encoding, gets bandwidth all the way to 10 Gigs. To do this requires highly consistent bulk cable manufacture AND quality termination work, but the vast majority of patch cords on the market are cheap Chinese product, manufactured to very lax quality standards. We take specification compliance seriously here; not only do we use top-quality bulk cable and connectors, but we certification-test every cable assembly to ensure that every assembly we ship meets spec.

Our principal offerings for these three categories are all Belden-manufactured, bonded-pair cable. Belden's patented bonded-pair technology goes beyond conventional data cable pair twisting and actually bonds the two conductors of each pair together for exceptional impedance stability and low skew, especially under real-world flex and strain conditions. For Cat 5e, we use Belden 1700A, a stock Belden cable. For Cat 6 and 6a, Belden doesn't sell patch cord stock in its standard catalog (the cables you may be familiar with are designed primarily for "horizontal" use), so we've asked Belden to manufacture special patch-cord-optimized Cat 6 and Cat 6a cable stocks for us which we terminate and sell under the Blue Jeans Cable brand. With all of these cables, we use Sentinel brand RJ-45 connectors, manufactured in York, Pennsylvania. We also offer, as a more economical alternative, Belden 1583A--this is a conventional non-bonded pair Cat 5e cable, with a Panduit RJ-45 bootless but "snag-proof" connector. Regardless of the cable stock used, all of these cables are assembled and tested right here in Seattle by American workers.

Jacks:

Jacks for use with horizontal cable, and keystone-style wallplates in which they can be mounted, are available below and in our Wallplates department. These include an economical Cat 5e jack as well as Cat 6 jacks from Panduit and Cat 6a jacks from Belden. The Panduit jacks are pricier than the generic 5e, and the Belden jacks, while superb in performance, are extremely pricey, and as most home networks are not running speeds which require Cat 6 or 6a performance, there's a good chance that the 5e jacks will be all you really need (and, of course, if you give yourself a bit of slack on installation, they can be replaced with 6 or 6a jacks at a later date if needed).