The 4 Ethernet cable myths you still believe

Credit: Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek Published Aug 30, 2026, 7:30 AM EDT Monica J. White is a journalist with over a decade of experience in covering technology. She built her first PC nearly 20 years ago, and she has since built and tested dozens of PCs. PC hardware is her main beat, and graphics cards and the GPU market at large are her main area of interest, but she has written thousands of articles covering everything related to PCs, laptops, handhelds, and peripherals. From GPUs and CPUs to headsets and software, Monica's always willing to geek out over all things related to computing. Outside of her work with How-To Geek, Monica contributes to TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Whop, and Digital Trends, among others. Her ultimate goal is to make PC gaming and computing approachable and fun to any audience. Monica spends a lot of time elbow-deep in her PC case, as she's always making upgrades, testing something, or plotting out her next build. She's the go-to tech support person in her immediate circle, so she's never out of things to do. Whenever she has spare time, you'll find her gaming until the early hours and hanging out with her dog. Sign in to your How-To Geek account In my experience, there are two kinds of Ethernet cable users: those who buy one cable and use it for the next 10 years without ever thinking whether it's good or bad, and those who overthink the topic of these cables into oblivion, almost min-maxing every purchase and upgrading every so often. There is some in between, but not a lot. The funny thing is, both groups are prone to believing various Ethernet facts, and some of them are just plain wrong. Here are some myths you should stop believing. Cat5e Ethernet is too old for a modern home network That old cable may still be perfectly fine Honestly, Ethernet cables are similarly confusing to USB-C cables in that there are a lot of different standards, and many people don't know how to make heads or tails of any of them. But, as with any other thing in tech, the mindset that old equals bad and lower number equals worse persists here. It's not untrue, but it doesn't need to apply to Ethernet cables. Cat5e cables have been around forever by networking standards, sure ... but they're still considered sufficient for Gigabit Ethernet over a standard 100-meter run. And the thing many people tend to overlook when replacing their cables is that the rest of their network might not be ready for the upgrade, making it irrelevant (but more on that later). Cat5e cables can even go beyond 1Gbps in the right setup. 2.5BASE-T and 5GBASE-T were designed, in part, to work with the huge amount of Cat5e and Cat6 cabling that's still in active use everywhere. Of course, this is more of a fun fact than a standard, as the vast majority will indeed cap out at 1Gbps. One way or another, if you've got old Cat5e cables lying around, they're still perfectly fine for most home networks. Power users can benefit from upgrades, but most homes don't need them, provided the cable itself is working fine. A higher category automatically makes your Ethernet faster That's not necessarily true Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek Tied to the point above, when you do upgrade that Ethernet cable to one of a higher category, you might not see the results you were hoping for. Let's say that you buy a Cat8 cable, the fanciest you can find, but your PC has a 1GbE port, or your router or switch is limited to that—then that's it. That's your ceiling, and no amount of fancy cables will change that. That's why just one slow link in your entire network can slow everything down considerably. The only way for an Ethernet cable to actually make a difference is if you've upgraded every other piece of the chain, but left the cable as its slowest link. The category number is simply a speed rating There's a lot more hiding behind it Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek As I mentioned above, it's easy to treat the Ethernet cable category number as an indicator for how fast the cable is, but there's more to it than that. Each category defines a whole set of performance requirements, and those include things like frequency, crosstalk, insertion loss, and performance over certain distances. That's why you'll see numbers alongside the category; such as 100MHz for Cat5e or 2,000MHz for Cat8. They're not Ethernet speeds, though; that'd mean that a Cat5e cable can only do 100Mbps, which just isn't true. The category is really there to tell you the entire level of performance the cable is designed to deliver and certified to meet under specific conditions. Cat5e is good for Gigabit Ethernet over a full 328-foot channel, but Cat6A can do up to 10GbE over that same distance. Quiz8 Questions · Test Your KnowledgeEthernet history and quirky factsTrivia challengeFrom coaxial cables to gigabit speeds — how much do you really know about the tech keeping the world connected?HistoryStandardsHardwareInventorsFun FactsBeginWho is widely credited as the primary inventor of Ethernet?AVint CerfBTim Berners-LeeCRobert MetcalfeDClaude ShannonCorrect! Robert Metcalfe invented Ethernet in 1973 while working at Xerox PARC. He co-developed it alongside David Boggs, and the technology was inspired by the ALOHAnet radio network used in Hawaii.Not quite — the answer is Robert Metcalfe. He invented Ethernet in 1973 at Xerox PARC alongside David Boggs. Metcalfe later went on to co-found 3Com, a company that helped commercialize Ethernet worldwide.ContinueWhat was the original data transfer speed of Ethernet when it was first developed in 1973?A1 MbpsB2.94 MbpsC10 MbpsD100 KbpsCorrect! The original Ethernet ran at approximately 2.94 Mbps, a speed chosen to align with the clock rate of the Alto computer at Xerox PARC. It wasn't until the commercial 10BASE5 standard in 1980 that Ethernet was bumped up to 10 Mbps.Not quite — the original Ethernet ran at about 2.94 Mbps, not a round number. This oddly specific speed was tied to the Alto computer's internal clock at Xerox PARC. The familiar 10 Mbps speed came later with the first commercial Ethernet standard in 1980.ContinueThe name 'Ethernet' was inspired by a 19th-century scientific concept. What was it?AThe luminiferous ether, a hypothetical medium thought to carry light wavesBEthanol vapor used in early telegraph insulationCThe Ethernet Sea, a fictional ocean in a Jules Verne novelDA Greek word meaning 'to connect from afar'Correct! Robert Metcalfe named Ethernet after the 'luminiferous ether,' a substance 19th-century physicists believed permeated all of space and carried electromagnetic waves. The Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887 disproved its existence, but the name lived on in networking history.Not quite! The name Ethernet comes from the 'luminiferous ether,' a now-debunked scientific concept that physicists once believed filled the universe and carried light. Metcalfe liked the idea of a shared, invisible medium carrying data — just as ether was once thought to carry light.ContinueWhat does the '10BASE-T' in the classic Ethernet standard name actually mean?A10 Mbps, baseband signaling, twisted-pair cableB10 GHz, broadband, T-connector requiredC10 Mbps, balanced signaling, terminated coaxDTenth version, base model, twisted topologyCorrect! In 10BASE-T, '10' refers to 10 Mbps transmission speed, 'BASE' means baseband signaling (as opposed to broadband), and 'T' stands for twisted-pair copper cable. This naming convention applies across many Ethernet standards, like 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T.Not quite — 10BASE-T breaks down as 10 Mbps speed, BASE for baseband signaling, and T for twisted-pair cable. This logical naming convention was carried forward into later standards like Fast Ethernet (100BASE-TX) and Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T).ContinueWhat type of cable did the original 'Thick Ethernet' (10BASE5) standard use, earning it a colorful nickname?AOrange coaxial cable, nicknamed 'the Pumpkin'BYellow coaxial cable, nicknamed 'frozen yellow garden hose'CBlue twisted-pair cable, nicknamed 'the Serpent'DGray fiber-optic cable, nicknamed 'the Spine'Correct! 10BASE5 used thick, rigid yellow coaxial cable that network engineers affectionately called the 'frozen yellow garden hose.' It was notoriously stiff and difficult to route through buildings, which is why the thinner and more flexible 10BASE2 ('Thinnet') became so popular later.The answer is the yellow coaxial cable nicknamed 'frozen yellow garden hose.' Early thick Ethernet cable was stiff, bulky, and awkward to install — hence the humorous nickname. Its inflexibility was one of the key reasons engineers pushed to develop thinner, more manageable alternatives.ContinueIn what year did the IEEE officially ratify the 802.3 Ethernet standard, cementing it as an industry specification?A1973B1978C1983D1989Correct! The IEEE 802.3 standard was officially ratified in 1983, a decade after Metcalfe's original invention. The standardization process was critical for making Ethernet interoperable across different vendors and hardware, which fueled its massive commercial success throughout the 1980s and beyond.Not quite — the IEEE 802.3 standard was ratified in 1983. While Ethernet was invented in 1973 and commercially launched in 1980, it took until 1983 for the IEEE to formalize the specification. That standardization was a turning point that allowed multiple vendors to build compatible networking hardware.ContinueRobert Metcalfe famously predicted the collapse of the internet in 1995 and promised to eat his words if he was wrong. What did he actually do?AHe published a formal retraction in a peer-reviewed journalBHe physically blended a printed copy of his column and drank it at a conferenceCHe resigned from his position at 3Com as a symbolic gestureDHe donated $1 million to internet infrastructure researchCorrect! At the 1997 WWW Conference, Metcalfe literally blended a printed copy of his 1995 InfoWorld column predicting the internet's collapse and drank the resulting slurry in front of the audience. It remains one of the most memorable 'eating your words' moments in tech history.Not quite — Metcalfe took the phrase 'eat your words' very literally. At the 1997 WWW Conference, he blended a physical copy of his doom-predicting column with liquid and drank it on stage. It's become a legendary moment of self-aware humor in the tech world.ContinueWhat is the maximum cable length for a standard Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable before signal degradation becomes a significant problem?A50 metersB100 metersC150 metersD300 metersCorrect! The IEEE 802.3 standard specifies a maximum run length of 100 meters (about 328 feet) for twisted-pair Ethernet cables like Cat5e and Cat6. Beyond that distance, signal attenuation causes errors and speed drops. Network installers use switches or repeaters to extend connections over longer distances.The correct answer is 100 meters. The 100-meter limit is a fundamental rule of thumb in Ethernet networking and applies to Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat6a cables. If you need to go further, you'll need a network switch or a fiber-optic connection to bridge the gap without signal loss.See My ScoreChallenge CompleteYour Score/ 8Thanks for playing!Try Again The cable category matters more than the length Distance changes what the cable can guarantee Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek Cable length matters a lot more than you might give it credit for, because the longer a cable is, the smaller the chance that it'll be able to meet its promised maximum speed. Shorter cables are generally better, but cables are rated to a pretty decent length. Go beyond that, and speeds may drop regardless of category. The familiar 328-foot (100-meter) maximum applies to a lot of common twisted-pair Ethernet standards, but higher speeds can cut into that limit depending on category. For instance, Cat6 can usually only do 10GbE over shorter runs than Cat6A. Cat8 is perhaps the best example of why a higher category doesn't automatically mean the cable is better, regardless of the situation. The advertised 25GbE and 40GbE speeds are only intended for speeds up to 30 meters, which is just under 100 feet. That makes them great for a short run from your router to your PC, but if you're keeping your router tucked away in a cabinet (which, by the way, huge mistake), you'll need to sacrifice some speed for length. Ethernet cables are simpler than people make them out to be In all the confusion of Cat5, Cat6A, Cat8, and all the rest of it, it's easy to forget that Ethernet cables are just ... cables. Whichever one you own, if you plug it into a port and it's not broken, it should work. If your home network just needs internet, it doesn't matter if your cable's 10 years old. I have cables that old that still work just fine, and I'm not upgrading them until they break, because not every network needs the latest and greatest tech available.