CAT5 cables contain four pairs of twisted pair copper wires and can supprt speeds up to 100 Mbps, CAT5 cable runs are limited to a maximum recommended length of 100 metres.The wire pairs in CAT5 cables are not twisted as tightly as CAT 5e making it more vulnerable to signal interference
CAT5e (enhanced) design to support Gigabit Ethernet speeds of 1000 Mbps over short distances and is backwards compatable with Fast Ethernet equipment.
CAT 6 cables support Gigabit Ethernet data rates of 1 gigabit per second. It can run 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections for short distances (up to 50 metres), CAT 6 cable contains four pairs of copper wire and uses all the pairs to obtain its high level of performance.
CAT6a supports up to 10 Gbps for up to 100metres and is slightly thicker but sill use standard RJ45 connectors
CAT7 Ethernet cables are capable of higher speeds (up to 600 MHz)for Gigabit Ethernet over 100m, they will work on any device a Cat6 or Cat5e cable will work on,CAT7 is thicker than CAT 5 / 6 and is backwards compatible with CAT5 and CAT6
CAT7a operates at frequencies up to 1000 MHz,.40 Gigabit Ethernet will work up to 50 metres and 100 Gigabit Ethernet is possible up to 15 metres.
