Cables, maximum lengths for ethernet cables and cable categories

CATEGORY SHIELDING MAX TRANSMISSION SPEED (AT 100 METERS) MAX BANDWIDTH
Cat 3 Unshielded 10 Mbps 16 MHz
Cat 5 Unshielded 10/100 Mbps 100 MHz
Cat 5e Unshielded 1000 Mbps / 1 Gbps 100 MHz
Cat 6 Shielded or Unshielded 1000 Mbps / 1 Gbps >250 MHz
Cat 6a Shielded 10000 Mbps / 10 Gbps 500 MHz
Cat 7 Shielded 10000 Mbps / 10 Gbps 600 MHz
Cat 8 Shielded 25 Gbps or 40Gbps * 2000 MHz

 

SPECIFICATION CABLE TYPE MAXIMUM LENGTH
10BaseT Unshielded Twisted Pair 100 metres
10Base2 Thin coaxial cable 180 metres
10Base5 Thick coaxial cable 500 metres
10BaseF Fibre optic cable 2000 metres
100BaseT Unshielded twisted pair 100 metres
100BaseTX Unshielded twisted pair 220 metres