# Cat 5E cable with a Cat6 jack?



## Argofx (Jun 8, 2008)

Greetings:

First of all, thank you very much in advance for reading this posting and answering my question. It will definitely help me out a lot. Anyway, I am planning to wire my house with Ethernet cables since all my walls are opened at the moment. However, when I went to the store for jacks, they only had the Cat 6 jacks. I have Cat 5E cables, so I was wondering if it was okay to mix the two?

I've checked some websites and they indicated that both are part of 568A standard, but I wasn't entirely sure if I can have a Cat 6 wall jack with Cat 5E cables running behind it.

Thanks again for your help and take care!


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

Cat 6 is backward compatable with cat 5.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable


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## golfboy (Aug 31, 2007)

No problem, wire with the 568B standard and not the 568A. Usually only government agencies and for certain VOIP applications is 568A used. Good luck with your wiring and happy networking to you.


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## Courtneyc (Dec 7, 2003)

Cat is a cable standard, not a terminator standard. Both Cat 5e and Cat 6 use the same terminators. 568A and B are standards for terminating the cable. Neither is better or worse than the other. However, make sure you use ONLY one or the other. A cable with A on one end and B on the other is called a crossover cable. Pins 1, 2, 3, and 6 are the transmit/receive cables. A and B just swap the orange with the green.

Courtney


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## Argofx (Jun 8, 2008)

Thank you everyone for all your help and support. I will definitely have fun this weekend and hopefully everything will work properly. If not, it'll be fun to find out the problem as well.


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