Wiring Up Your Home Network: Cable Choices

With the price of copper on the rise, network cables are getting progressively more expensive.  There are a lot of choices of types of network cable too.  Do you get Cat5? Cat5e (”e” for “enhanced”)? Cat6?  Plenum rated?  Shielded?

Well, I’m going to give you advice assuming you don’t live directly under too many power lines.  Cat5e is probably the most cost efficient way to go if you think there’s at least the possibility of upgrading to gigabit speeds.  Cat5 without the “e” won’t support above megabit speeds, and Cat6 will but is much more expensive. If you are using video baluns (Video Extenders), however, Cat6 is sometimes a good idea.  Unless you live in a place with a lot of electro magnetic interference, like near a transformer grid, you probably won’t need shielding.

Since wiring an entire house will get expensive, I’d also suggest getting bulk cat5e cable.  You’ll probably have to learn to crimp your own cables, but you’ll probably save hundreds of dollars.