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This is the most important thing to consider, as different ethernet categories can carry wildly varying speeds and levels of interference. The options you’re mostly likely to see are Cat5e (the ‘e’ stands for enhanced), Cat6 and Cat7.

As you might have guessed, higher numbers tend to mean faster speeds. Cat5e is rated for 1Gbps and bandwidths of 100MHz, Cat6 offers up to 10Gbps at up to 250MHz bandwidth, and Cat7 can go as high as 100Gbps with bandwidths up to 600MHz.

The other major difference is that Cat7 cables are always shielded, which helps reduce interference and crosstalk. Cat6 cables are sometimes shielded, though retailers often aren’t clear when they are and aren’t, and Cat5e cables never have shielding.

Since most ethernet cables are fairly cheap, there’s an argument for buying Cat7 cables – especially for shorter (and thus cheaper) cables. However, most users won’t see any real speed benefits from Cat7, so Cat6 is probably the sweet spot for most – unless you want to be certain you’re future-proofing your cabling.

Alongside category, length is the next most important element of an ethernet cable. Partly that’s obviously just a question of how far you need the cable to reach, but it also relates to speed and performance.

Speeds can drop off over longer distances, especially with the more modern cables – for example, that Cat7 speed of 100Gbps is only up to a range of 15m, while a Cat5e maintains its highest speed for up to 100m.

Still, the average consumer isn’t likely to be cabling anything anywhere 100m, and even 15m is probably longer than many people will need for their homes, so we wouldn’t worry about this too much – just try to avoid buying a 50m cable when you only need it to stretch across one room.

Rather than the traditional round look, some ethernet cables are available in a flat design. This may bump up the price ever so slightly, but could be well worth it if you expect to thread the cable under any doors or lay it under a rug or carpet. You’ll thank us later.

The advice above applies mainly to cables for indoors. However, if you’re going to run cables externally, it’s not a great idea to buy standard indoor Cat5, 6 or 7.

Outdoor cable should have a PE coating which won’t degrade and turn brittle as standard PVC coatings will. Also, outdoor Ethernet cables have solid copper wires, not the multi-strand wires that indoor cables have.

This means outdoor network cabling isn’t as flexible, but it’s designed to be tougher and for those solid cores to be installed into Ethernet faceplates. And it’s a good idea to use faceplates instead of just attaching RJ-45 connectors to the ends. Faceplates are inexpensive and lend a much more professional finish.

If you’re going to run the cable in the ground, then you’ll need ‘direct burial’ cable which is designed to withstand moisture. It’s also possible to buy shielded outdoor Ethernet cable which prevents interference.

Outdoor cable generally comes on reels from 20m up to 305m, and you’ll need a special ‘push-down’ tool to push the wires into the connectors on the faceplates. When choosing, watch out for cheaper ‘CCA’ cable – copper-coated aluminium. This will not carry power, so is no use for conntecting CCTV or PoE (power-over-ethernet) devices.