Cat 6 cable connected to a device supporting 3mbps internet speed
Cat 6 cable connected to a device supporting 3mbps internet speed
Your local network operates separately from your internet connection, ensuring smooth functionality, though it won’t improve your actual internet speed.
Your internet performance won't influence what your computer identifies as working or not. The cable should function properly. In fact, speeds below 5mbps would have stopped Cat6 operation, yet my 50kbps connection wouldn’t cause any issues. Since all cables are essentially the same wires with minor differences, it doesn’t matter much—the connection will work. You don’t need Cat6 unless you require a specific bandwidth for that device. Also, avoid shaking the cables; otherwise, they might get damaged.
In the future I plan to switch to a faster connection of 25 MBPS. Could this improve your experience, or would you prefer to keep using your cat5e setup?
Cat5e should easily support 25MBps and definitely handle 25Mbps without issues. Switching to Cat6 would be a smart move too, as it tends to be more dependable and avoids the need for future cable upgrades. While I’ve seen gigabit speeds on Cat5e in my lab, Cat6 offers better performance now that prices have dropped. It won’t cost much more than Cat5e either.
Someone likely had a funny habit of smoking. Cat5e and Cat6 support up to 1Gbps over 100 meters. Discussion concludes here. It's a standard, that's the way it is. You wouldn't notice 1Gbps unless your network cards, switch, router, or gateway have slower connections. Ethernet depends on the slowest device. Typical speeds are 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps (Cat6a). Most consumer devices handle up to 1 Gbps, though some budget routers or switches may only offer 100 Mbps ports. The actual internet speed doesn't control your internal network performance. What matters is whether traffic from your network reaches its destination as quickly as your ISP promises. Cat5e should work. As @Lurick suggested, avoid cheap CCA cables—they're low quality.