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There are several varieties of cable you can choose from, but the most common is called twisted-pair. It’s called that because inside the outer sheath of the cable are four pairs of small insulated wire. The wires are 24 gauge, which means they’re about half a millimeter in diameter. These pairs are color coded: blue, green, orange, and brown. For each pair, there is one solid color wire and one striped wire — so, the blue pair consists of a solid blue wire and a blue-and-white striped wire.

The two wires that make up each pair are twisted together in a way that prevents the electrical signals within each pair from interfering with the other pairs. To accomplish this, each pair is twisted at a different rate.

The maximum length of a single run of Cat-5e cable is 100 meters.

Cat-5e cable is able to carry network data at speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). The newer and somewhat more expensive Cat-6 cable can carry data at up to 10 Gbps but can sustain that speed for only 55 meters.