The various types of Ethernet twisted pair cable. All categories of Ethernet cable (5, 5e, 6, and 6a (sometimes improperly called 6e)) have a maximum length of 100 meters (328 feet) as distances beyond that experience too much loss of signal to be useful for networking purposes.
Now having said this, the practical maximum length can be cut much shorter due to interference from high-voltage power lines, crimps or twists in the cable runs, or bad sections within the cable. As such, it is always best to test each run to insure that it is functional before relying on it in a production environment. Further, it is highly advisable to run a second cable when installing long cables so as to save time and hassle later in case one of the two cables either is bad or goes bad over time. In that case, it is a simple issue of terminating the second cable (if it hasn't been already) and getting back up and running. This is a common practice professional network engineers and electricians employ.
The differences in each of the categories of cable have to do with the frequencies of signal for which they are designed and, therefore, the maximum throughput speed that they can deliver. Specifically, the standards are:
Category 5: 100 MHz, 100 Mbps (Gigabit is possible but at shorter lengths only)
Category 5e: 100 MHz, 1 Gbps
Category 6: 250 MHz, 1 Gbps (10 Gbps is possible but at shorter lengths only)
Category 6a: 500 MHz, 10 Gbps
There are also cables allegedly labelled category 7 and 7a but they are not yet recognized by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and, therefore, are not mentioned further in this answer.
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