Best Ethernet Cable?

[bones467]

Happy New Year iMore people!!
First question of 2017, which ethernet cable would be best to join my appleTV to my router? They are so close to each other seems silly not joining them just don't want to buy a cheap rubbish cable if it will slow things down.

 

[anon(9602380)]

I would go with a Cat 6 cable. It is a better cable and will support faster speeds.

 

[bones467]

Thanks for that!!!

 

[gregtommy]

Cat 6 flat cable. It's easier to manage than round cables

 

[metllicamilitia]

Depends on your speeds really. You don't need anything other than a regular standard cheap CAT 5E cable for the Apple TV though, the Apple TV ethernet port is capped at 100mbps anyway. If you have faster than 100mbps wifi, you're better off using wifi since the Apple TV has the 802.11AC wifi chip which allows up to 866mbps download. In this age of speed it baffles me Why Apple did not put a gigabit ethernet port on the Apple TV.

Source: I do some networking for my job.

 

[metllicamilitia]

Also, if you pay any more than $10 for any ethernet cable, maybe $15 for CAT 6, you've been duped. In fact, flat cables are bad design and wouldn't technically fall under the advertised category specification. The category number indicates the twists per inch on the cables, and they are meant to be twisted around each other to prevent noise, that is interference. You can buy spools of CAT 5E for relatively cheap, considering you have to buy it in a 500 foot or 1,000 foot spool, and a box of RJ45's to make the ends runs about $20 for 50-60 connectors. A cheap RJ45 crimper would run around $30 as well. So if you bought in bulk and made your own 6 foot ethernet cables, it would end up somewhere around $3.60 per cable.

 

[Tech198]

I would go with a Cat 6 cable. It is a better cable and will support faster speeds.

Actually, 'future-proof' would be better..

Cat5 can easily handle these speeds, but ya, for some reason i found myself replacing all my Cat5/e cables at well with Cat6... I guess the media got to me *that* much.

You'll only get Cat6 speeds if ports on router are also Cat6 as well.. Otherwise, nope. Most are nowdays. Unless u have one of those 2005 based routers

 

[metllicamilitia]

Actually, 'future-proof' would be better..

Cat5 can easily handle these speeds, but ya, for some reason i found myself replacing all my Cat5/e cables at well with Cat6... I guess the media got to me *that* much.

You'll only get Cat6 speeds if ports on router are also Cat6 as well.. Otherwise, nope. Most are nowdays. Unless u have one of those 2005 based routers

Well it's not just the router that has to support those LAN speeds, the device does too. If the router and device have 1/100/1000 gigabit ethernet ports and your service is over 100mbps then I would recommend a CAT 6 cable. However if you look at the Apple TV, yes gen 4 the newest one, it only has a 10/100 ethernet port limited the tethered connection speed to 100mbps and there's no need for a CAT 6 cable, CAT 5E is more than sufficient. Apple is pushing wireless hard, I would actually be surprised if the gen 5 Apple TV had a 10/100/1000 gigabit ethernet port.