Today technology is changing at a very fast pace and so are the networking options and cabling standards. Whether your requirement is as small as connecting your printer to the computer, or as big as wiring your entire office, you need the right cables for it to function properly. Its not just the length that you need to decide, rather a whole lot of factors need to be taken care of including the connectors, the quality of the cable, specific features, performance etc..

You need to select the right cable, but when you hear of terms like coaxial cable, fiber optics, shielded twisted pair, unshielded twisted pair Cat-3, Cat 5/5e Cat 6 cables you are sure to get confused. Before you purchase your network cables you should be aware of a lot of things and this article will serve as the right guide to help you take your decisions.

Firstly you need to decide whether you yourself want to handle all the details of the cabling infrastructure or hire someone to do so. For handling it all by yourself, you should have sufficient knowledge of the different cables available like cat 5, cat 5e, cat 6 etc. While outsourcing this work may involve a lot of expenses and may be a huge burden for a small company.
If you wish to select the cables yourself, you should keep in mind some important points.

1. To start with you should analyze your requirements to understand what you should look for in the cables. Cabling for a network with a few computers is an entirely different story from cabling the entire enterprise network. Identify the speed and the bandwidth required in the network to select the right category of the cable. For higher speed applications such as 10 Gbps you require a robust cabling system. Cat 6 supports 10 Gbps for small distances.

2. Make sure that the specifications of the cables should be equal to or above the specifications of the existing equipments. If you use Cat 5 cables to expand your network that is currently running on cat6 standards, the performance of this section will be limited to Cat 5 Cable.

3. Use Plenum rated cables if your cables run through places like above-ceiling air-handling spaces. These cables emit very less amount of toxic fumes when burnt.

4. Cables, such as cat5e cable, usually have a life of around 10-15 years. You should predict your future network needs and implement a cabling system that will be able to support your system till that time rather than those that are inexpensive. If in future your network requirements exceed the system's capacity it will not only be inconvenient but also expensive to replace your cables. On the other hand if you put a high performing and robust system in place from the start, it is sure to support your needs for a longer period.