Do I Need CAT6 Ethernet Cables?
Overview
Category 6 (Cat6) Ethernet cables are not necessary for the functionality of our recorder and cameras.
Cat6 Ethernet cables consist of four twisted pairs of copper wire and 250 MHz of bandwidth, supporting data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
Our systems typically use somewhere between 800 Kbps and 4 Mbps per camera. Refer to our OWS Network Requirements for more bandwidth information and requirements.
Cat5e Ethernet cables consist of 100 MHz of bandwidth, supporting data transfer speeds of up to 1 Gbps, and are more than sufficient to handle the data traffic of our cameras and recorder.
For cost effectiveness and needed performance we recommend Cat5e cabling for our cameras.
Future Proof
Although Cat6 cabling does not currently provide any performance advantages on our hardware, it can still be used for future proofing a site.