We about to upgrade our network with a gigabit switch and are close to finalizing the purchase, but I'm hung up on the cabling issue. Supposedly, Cat 5 only transmits up to 100mb/s, Cat 5e up to 1000mb/s, and Cat 6 up to 1000mb/s (possible 10k) but at a higher frequency.

We're already spending a good chunk of money on the switch, but is it necessary to bump the cabling up to Cat 6? I've been reading article after article after article, but nothing has been completely definitive as to what should be used. Anyone have any expertise on this that they would be willing to share?

As always, thanks in advance.

In case anyone is wondering, 5e and 6 work just fine. We have both and they are operating at 1.0 G/s.

So far I've not had any issues using any of my CAT5e cabling to enable 1gb either.

I have a mix of both CAT5e and CAT6 cabling now and there doesn't seem to be an ill effects....