I am needing a 25+ foot Ethernet cable for my modem to my new computer. I was looking on Tigerdirect and there are so many kinds of them. Catagory 5, 5e, 6, fiber optic....I just want a cable that will go from my modem to my computer and will let me surf the web. So, what kind do I get? Thanks

Catagory 5 will work just fine for normal use.

Read this
http://www.vpi.us/cat5-5e-6-standards.html

Cat 5 is designed with a maximum 100Mbps and your connection to your cable modem won't come near that. Cat 5e is considered enhanced Cat 5 and has some improvements to the specification (less crosstalk, less noise) so that is the one I would suggest.

Our whole building is cat5e and it will support gigabit speeds.

So I could use both cat5 or cat5e? I just don't want to get it and then realize that I can't connect it to my modem. Thanks

i would go with cat5e or cat6, i would Strong recommend against using cat5 considring how cheap cat5e is, look on ebay for a better deal .

although you are proberly using 10/100 base network infosturcture (albeit a modem/router) And cat 5 can deal wiht that fine you have no room to play. where as cat5e will room for expansion uo to Gigabit. as for cat6, this is comparatively expensive, however it offers the bet connection, with least loss of packet at gigabit, and is capable for 10gigabit. now at my place im using cat6 but that is proberly overkill. cat5 will be pushed, cat5e will work fine

hope this helps.

It's just 8 strands of copper wire. I'd love for someone to show me a reason NOT to use plain jane cat5 in the scenario the OP described. In a corporate setting... sure there is a difference... but in the home? Nah... they'll all work just fine (well, except the fiber optic cable the OP mentioned... pretty sure that won't connect to his PC or modem)

They are all the same. The difference is supposedly in the quality of the cable and how fast it will transfer data. Cheap cat 5 is all you need for your home PC.

Technically they are NOT all the same. Some manufacturers might just brand cat6 cables as cat5/5e so they don't have to support 2 manufacturing line, but that is another subject.

When we hear "quality", most of us think of the materials and/or the manufacturing process. For cat5/5e/6, the difference is in the maximum bandwidth the cable can support; not because the cable is "better", but simply because it was manufactured in a way to allow it. Electricity is a pain to work with, when you have 4 pairs of wires close together there is electromagnetic interference that must be taken into account; you can work with it or against it.

On a more down-to-earth aspect, cat5 is tested to support up to 100Mbps (~10 MB/s), cat5e 1Gbps (~100MB/s) and cat6 10Gbps (~1GB/s, supposed). If you just want to connect a cable modem to your PC or router, any would do since very few ISP offer even 50Mbps connections. If you were to connect a home network, I would go cat5e or cat6 all the way since file copy from PC to PC could reach ~50MB/s (500Mbps).

Are you sure it's Ethernet (RJ45 at each end)?

Thanks for taking the time to point all of this out, although as we have already pretty much discussed, for a home user NONE of it makes any difference. Kind of like paying $100 for "Monster Cables". Completely pointless for the vast majority. I would love to see a home PC on a MODEM (as the OP was talking about this cable was for) that would ever need anything more than a plain old cat5 cable.
It ain't happening in our lifetime zenthar.