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10Base2 Coaxial
The 10Base2 is the original network cable type which has now been all but obsoleted. This cable was made from a coaxial wire (RG-58A/U or equivalent) and terminated in a BNC connector. Each segment of the cable was connected to the network using a BNC T connector and at the end of the cable a 50 ohm terminator was required. The maximum distance specified for this type of network was roughly 600 feet.

10BaseT Cat5
The next major change in networking cable came when the coaxial cable was replaced with the twisted pair cable type which typically consists of four pairs of wires terminated with an RJ45 connector. This is referred to as Cat5 cable. The maximum distance specified for this type of network cable is roughly 300 feet.

100BaseTX Fast Ethernet Cat5
Moving up from the 10 Mbps (Megabits per second) 10BaseT is the 100BaseTX (100 Mbps) standard (also known as Fast Ethernet) which utilizes the same cable (Cat5) as the earlier (slower) 10BaseT network and conforms to the same distance limitations. There is also a Cat5e cable that is manufactured which is built to a more stringent quality standard and allows for increased lengths of up to 1,000 feet. Another excellent reason to use Cat5e is that is can be reused should the 100BaseTX be eventually upgraded to a 1000BaseT network.

1000BaseT Cat5e/Cat6/Cat6e
The leap to the 1000BaseT (Gigabit) standard brought a similar twisted pair cable with a need for closer tolerances in the cable manufacturing process. At a minimum, Cat5e cable is required with an available Cat6 cable type now offered. At the time of this article's writing there has not been a formalized Cat6 standard adopted, instead leaving the industry's manufacturers to set and adhere to their own manufacturing standards. There is also an enhanced Cat6 cable known as Cat6e. The maximum length of a Cat6 cable is set at 1,800 feet whereas Cat6e is capable of a maximum distance of 3,300 feet. But these distances will vary depending on the manufacturer.

Fiber Optic
Fiber optic network cables are a different category completely, replacing the copper wiring with a glass or plastic transfer medium. These cables are terminated using a Fiber connector which is very different that the RJ45 connectors used on twisted pair cable. At the most basic, fiber cables are broken down into two main categories, single mode and multi-mode but there are significantly more detail in working with fiber cable than the scope of this article allows for.

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