Best/most reasonable cat5e cable?

[Andehh]

I am looking at centralising a lot of my AV /network gear and will therefore need a good 150m+ of networking cable.

I'm gunna give crimping it myself a go, and have bought the right tools, but now I'm struggling to find acceptable cable.

The most it will be used for is modem to router, router to network switch and network cables for general inter et ready devices, then a few runs for hdmi over cat. Nothing too extensive!

Can anyone suggest reasonably priced, shielded, cat5e? I'm fed up of dodgy eBay reels and the gamble most look to be!.. Thanks

[Cardiff_Exile]

With the faff of putting it on it's not worth buying cheap no name imo. Excel is pretty good stuff and you should be able to get a 300m box for around £50 from an local electrical wholesaler likewise faceplates etc

[buggalugs]

You're not gonna need shielded as most modems, routers etc. aren't even grounded so you won't see that much benefit from it. Just do not buy CCA, it's st to work with.

I use this a lot it's fine

http://www.minitran.co.uk/pages/products/list.mhtm...

[Andehh]

Thanks guys.

Only reason for shielded was when we turn the bathroom extractor fan on and off, the TV in the bedroom (running off 2xcat5e to hdmi from sky box downstairs) flicks off then on again!

I figure the power cable obviously runs near these cat5e (cheap-o ones) and is causing issues, and shielded might reduce this?

[bitchstewie]

I don't know masses about cable but Belden is supposed to be excellent quality and made to last.

[Magic919]

I'm still making my way through a reel of cable I bought from Black Box years ago.

I think crimping is best avoided and leave that to the experts. Punching down cables on faceplates and a term panel proved reliable. Then I buy patch cables to plug into the switch or the equipment.

[0000]

I used this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/305m-scan-cat5e-enh...

[SwissJonese]

A couple of weeks ago I cabled up my house. I used Konig CAT6 Shielded Twisted pair.

I also purchased:-
Crimping tool
Lindy Connectors
Silverline cable access tool

Crimping is really easy just a little bit fiddly at the beginning. I followed this guys instructions which worked a treat - How to make RJ45 Network cable

Also make sure you get a cable tester I bought one from Maplins for about 12 quid.

[megaphone]

As already said, go for solid copper cable rather than cheaper CAA (copper clad aluminium). I would not bother with shielded. Just standard UTP.

[0000]

SwissJonese said:

Crimping tool
Silverline cable access tool

Crimping is really easy just a little bit fiddly at the beginning. I followed this guys instructions which worked a treat - How to make RJ45 Network cable

I used these too, all good although I wouldn't say crimping was really easy but it was only the first time I didn't get the wires positioned right and another time I managed to get two in the wrong place that it went wrong. Worth doing if only to get the lengths you want. Nice little job to do in front of the TV in the evenings.

Also bought this punch down tool and this patch panel. I was only doing cat5e though.

[a7x88]

I just bought a box of this to do my house;

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/18142-bt-...

[EnthusiastOwned]

Cardiff_Exile said:

With the faff of putting it on it's not worth buying cheap no name imo. Excel is pretty good stuff and you should be able to get a 300m box for around £50 from an local electrical wholesaler likewise faceplates etc

I work for an ISP and our contractors use Excel cat5e where they guarantee it for a minimum of 25 years!

[ZesPak]

Magic919 said:

I think crimping is best avoided and leave that to the experts.

It takes some practice but I'll hardly call it "work for experts". Plugs cost less than 40c, so nothing to worry about if you don't get it right from the first try.

[jjlynn27]

http://www.blackbox.co.uk/gb-gb/1233/Bulk-Cable

[0000]

^
Last time I looked their registration page seemed to require you to give company details. Do they not sell to consumers?

[jjlynn27]

Bought 300m roll + 40patch leads as a non-business purchase. Their customer service (ime) is fantastic. I've ordered roll of blue cable, for some reason they couldn't get that so they asked if I'd be happy with diff colour at 1/2 price. Needless to say, there are a lot of orange cable behind my walls.

[anonymous-user]

OP, when terminating the shield make sure you get a full 360 degree connection between the connector body and the shield in the cable otherwise you won't get best performance out of the shielding. Just taking the drain wire and connecting it to the body of the connector will give poor performance.

The RJ45 connectors linked to on Amazon aren't very good for terminating shielded Ethernet cable, something like this is much much better.

https://avalanche.tessco.com/productimages/250x250...

[AMST09]

Rather than buying shielded keep the cables a minimum of 150mm from all power cables

[AMST09]

Rather than buying shielded keep the cables a minimum of 150mm from all power cables

[Who me ?]

Bit of help to thev OP- decent cables have the length marked on the sheath. most installers write the start length on the box prior to pulling in cable and at end change this to the new length. Helps when pulling in to prevent short lengths being p[ulled in to find you are short. In the case of using a few metres now and again- it'll give you an idea of what;'s left in box.