Help me choose a cat6 cable please

JasonD

JasonD

New member
Hi guys, I am currently rebuilding my house after being flooded by Hurricane Katrina, and am at the most fun part (in my opinion) of the building stage, wiring. I am about to wire my house for home networking, and want to utilize cat6 cable since all my computer systems and networking components are gigabit components. The thing is, I don't know enough about cat6 cable to know which kind to buy. Solid wire, Stranded wire, Insulated, Non-Insulated???



What should I be using?
 
Insulated Stranded with some EJ-RZ45 ends will make the task simple and nearly error-proof.



I recently finished making about 12 bundles x 10 cables x 65' ea at work and those EZ-RJ ends made it a breeze.
 
Okay, I think I just got my answer. I just found a site called lanshack.com and they had a cat6 tutorial on there.



According to this site, solid cable is meant for stationary type cabling, like in walls, while stranded cable is meant for patch cords or anywhere else it will be moved around a lot.



My only question left is shielded or un-shielded
 
shielded and unshielded mean utp and stp respectively.



utp is more widely used. I've never used stp and you don't really need it unless you are going to be running cable next to or very close to machines that generate a lot of emi.



since you said you are going to run this at home, you'll be good with utp (unshielded twisted pair)
 
I am seeing cables rated at different frequencies. Does this really matter or is it a marketing tool? 400Mhz, 500Mhz, 600Mhz, etc.
 
it's for future compatibility. iirc, cat6 is not a standard yet. the high the frequency the more "future proof" it will be. other cables like cat 3, 4, 5, 5e all run at different frequencies. any of the frequencies will work though.
 
Yeah, I even saw that there is a cat7 coming out. Each pair of wires within the cable is insulated vs. strips of insulation running through the twisted pairs like cat6, crazy.
 
what's crazy is that they are making cat7 and the same time as cat6.



yeah, the limitation of speed is crosstalk. with the frequencies in the cable being so high, data from one pair literally jumps through the air onto another cable making errors in the data. that's why cat7 has each pair individually insulated.
 
JDookie -



Shielded is very $$. Unshielded is fine. Just MAKE sure the runs are not paraller with electrical cable. To be frank, the costs of Cat6 vs. Cat5e is somewhat of a diff material wise. Better brands do make a difference. I tend to like the Nordx/Commscope/Berk-Tek brand of cabling.

Belden is good stuff too !



For a house run, I would just make sure you run *enough* since the walls are open and don't forget the coaxial for TV and stuff. If the walls are open, consider alarm as well !

It's ALOT easier, cleaner and cheaper to do it now.
 
ifoam,



That's exactly what I'm finding out as I'm researching. cat7 is definitely a bit ahead of its time mostly because it uses a completely different type of connector, not RJ45 like everything uses now, so the entire industry would have to make a change for that be mainstream. The next jump from gigabit will definitely be a big one!



chefwong,



I see that shielded is about double the price of the unshielded cable. You are exactly right, my walls are all open just like a newly built house, and I am running everything I can possibly think of now before I close them up. I'm running cat6 for network, double coaxial for both cable and satellite (don't ever know which is going to be the chosen method), telephone, alarm, and even speaker wire for my living room surround sound. :D



I guess this is enough research, now I just need to go out and buy some cable and get installing. Thanks guys!!
 
BTW, fwiw, Ebay is a great spot for the terminations *walljacks and stuff*, depending on what brand you prefer. For a *house* and if you're making it aesthetically blend, Lutron is as close as it get aesthetically. If not, Leviton or Seimon are great choices.



Another suggestion if I may.....try to run another coax and some alarm wire from the entrance/garage doors to your kitchen or basement. You may want to add a video door entrance phone at some point ! This was ONE oversight I made when I was doing renovations.



ERICO International Corporation



They make great cable support stuff you can use as you are running your wires.
 
Lowe's sells the Leviton products at pretty reasonable prices. They have all the quick clip type wall jacks and stuff that make installation pretty easy.



I'm going to check Ebay though and compare that to the prices from Lowe's. Thats a good tip. Thanks!
 
don't fall for those cheap jacks.



levition jacks are great! i think home depot sells them in packs of 10 for a great price
 
The packs of 10 are extremely competitive ! They're good stuff.



I prefer Avaya's or Siemon on commercial.

For residential, I like the Lutron's not per say for performance, but I can get them to blend in with the outlets and switches which are generally Lutron as well.



So stick with you're going with outlets/wallplate wise.

And btw, yes, the bundled cables is a lil pricey but depending on how many spools you buy, it's sometimes a real timesaver when you're pulling one bundle cable vs. 4-5 reels of cable at once *2 network, 2 coax, etc*.
 
I won't really need bundled cables. I have chosen a central location for my modem, and wired/wireless router to go, so all the cables are pretty much going different directions. It would be very nice though for long runs in one direction.
 
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