What type of Ethernet cable for inside the walls?

[Filingo]

Soon the infrastructure company installs fiber to the building, and also we doing renovation in the house. Right now the Ethernet cables are hanging on the walls.

If I want to put it in conduits inside the walls, what should I look for?

 

Is CAT6 enough? Solid core? Stranded, and something else?

Thanks

[Sharpie888]

Cat 6a would probably be the best 

[Filingo]

18 minutes ago, Sharpie888 said:

Cat 6a would probably be the best 

thank you.

I remember reading somewhere that CAT6A (I think it was this one) is a "fake cat spec" - why is that?

[mariushm]

No, cat7 and higher are "kind of" fake spec . They have often better specifications than cat6a but they're not "officially recognized" standards.

 

Anyway, cat5e is enough up to 2.5 gbps at 100 meters,  cat6 is enough for 5gbps at 100 meters or 10gbps up to 55 meters, and cat6a is good for 10gbps up to 100 meters. 

 

I'd say the price difference between proper cat5e and cat6 is small enough that you should go for minimum Cat6.  If you're unlikely to have more than around 30-40 meters of cable from the wall socket to the switch, you will be fine with plain Cat6. If the price difference is small, go with Cat6a.

 

Avoid ethernet cables which are CCA ( copper clad aluminum or copper coated aluminum, whichever version you prefer).

 

Proper ethernet cables good for up to 100 meters are supposed to be full copper.  Some companies make the cables cheaper by using an aluminum wire which is coated with a thin coating of copper.  Such wire has higher resistance so the signal quality degrades over bigger lengths, and the wire is also more sensitive to bending (the coating of copper can break at the bends)

 

On short lengths like 10-15 meters,  maybe even 30 meters or so, such CCA cables are fine, but for long distances you should use proper full copper cable. 

 

May want to also have a read about various types of cable insulation... if the cable's gonna be in the walls, you may be required to get cable with the proper ratings (LSZH - low smoke, zero halogen , or with flame retardant properties so that if it starts burning, you won't have flames spread over the length of the cable)... 

 

Solid core would be better if you use wall sockets as you can use a punch down tool to quickly punch the wires into the ethernet socket on the wall socket.

stranded is better if you need more flexible cable, easier to bend, and it's usually more popular for patch cables (short length wires)

 

[Filingo]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

No, cat7 and higher are "kind of" fake spec . They have often better specifications than cat6a but they're not "officially recognized" standards.

 

Anyway, cat5e is enough up to 2.5 gbps at 100 meters,  cat6 is enough for 5gbps at 100 meters or 10gbps up to 55 meters, and cat6a is good for 10gbps up to 100 meters. 

 

I'd say the price difference between proper cat5e and cat6 is small enough that you should go for minimum Cat6.  If you're unlikely to have more than around 30-40 meters of cable from the wall socket to the switch, you will be fine with plain Cat6. If the price difference is small, go with Cat6a.

 

Avoid ethernet cables which are CCA ( copper clad aluminum or copper coated aluminum, whichever version you prefer).

 

Proper ethernet cables good for up to 100 meters are supposed to be full copper.  Some companies make the cables cheaper by using an aluminum wire which is coated with a thin coating of copper.  Such wire has higher resistance so the signal quality degrades over bigger lengths, and the wire is also more sensitive to bending (the coating of copper can break at the bends)

 

On short lengths like 10-15 meters,  maybe even 30 meters or so, such CCA cables are fine, but for long distances you should use proper full copper cable. 

 

May want to also have a read about various types of cable insulation... if the cable's gonna be in the walls, you may be required to get cable with the proper ratings (LSZH - low smoke, zero halogen , or with flame retardant properties so that if it starts burning, you won't have flames spread over the length of the cable)... 

 

Solid core would be better if you use wall sockets as you can use a punch down tool to quickly punch the wires into the ethernet socket on the wall socket.

stranded is better if you need more flexible cable, easier to bend, and it's usually more popular for patch cables (short length wires)

 

thanks! love your answers!!!

[Filingo]

Update:

I measured all distances inside the walls with fish wire.

They placed the network box in a nice place, close to all the rooms. farthest room is 10 meters, but the other rooms are max. 5 meters away. So I guess no matter what cable I use it should be OK.

 

But, since it's DSL, and in one of the conduits there should pass a telephone wire as well tightly along the ethernet cable - can it cause interference? thus I should use CAT7 because it's shielded?

 

 

[mariushm]

Stick to Cat6 or Cat6a. proper solid core copper.  If you're paranoid, you can get FTP cable, it's UTP cable with a foil of aluminum surrounding the pairs as a shielding. THere's also STP (shielded utp) but it's really not needed... at most FTP is plenty.

 

Example : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JAVN1C8/

 

A phone line won't make much noise, and whatever noise would manage to go through multiple layers of plastic sleeves and wire insulations, it will be easily rejected by the ethernet cable pairs.

 

Extra shielding is recommended/required when you route the ethernet cable along with power cables or old fluorescent lightning (the high voltage pulses through the starter and  the neon tubes can introduce noise in the cable)

 

[jec6613]

3 hours ago, mariushm said:

A phone line won't make much noise, and whatever noise would manage to go through multiple layers of plastic sleeves and wire insulations, it will be easily rejected by the ethernet cable pairs.

More to the point, a phone line runs is a completely different frequency range compared to Ethernet, kHz versus MHz, so if there's interference you have much bigger issues with harmonics than just the twisted pair.

 

The shielding protects against high frequency harmonics, it really does almost nothing for lower frequencies unless there's mains current involved.

[Sir Asvald]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:30 AM, Filingo said:

thank you.

I remember reading somewhere that CAT6A (I think it was this one) is a "fake cat spec" - why is that?

CAT6A isn't fake. You can buy it from online or your local shop, if they sell them

[Filingo]

Thank you guys this is perfect!

 

2 hours ago, Sir Asvald said:

CAT6A isn't fake. You can buy it from online or your local shop, if they sell them

Thanks, I understood that the "fake" one is CAT7, that's why the next official spec is CAT8 (after CAT6a)

 

One more thing, Since all the solid copper sold on Amazon are very long, and I measured that I just need 100ft +/-, with longest being about 40ft (little house), will this stranded, but pure copper (not cca) cable also do the job? OR that's bad (might be hard to pull since it's flexible):

 

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Ethernet-Bulk-Cable/dp/B015QJ40AU/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=monoprice+solid+copper&qid=1638700211&sr=8-3

 

OR, buy this patched 100ft, which is exactly how much I need, and cut the heads:

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Ethernet-Patch-Cable/dp/B008I8A1XM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=monoprice+100ft&qid=1638700550&sr=8-1

 

(I just read that stranded cables can rip easily while being pulled)

 

They don't seem to sell bulk solid CAT6/CAT6A for short distances 

 

 

Edit;

:

 

  

14 hours ago, mariushm said:

Stick to Cat6 or Cat6a. proper solid core copper.  If you're paranoid, you can get FTP cable, it's UTP cable with a foil of aluminum surrounding the pairs as a shielding. THere's also STP (shielded utp) but it's really not needed... at most FTP is plenty.

 

Example : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JAVN1C8/

 

A phone line won't make much noise, and whatever noise would manage to go through multiple layers of plastic sleeves and wire insulations, it will be easily rejected by the ethernet cable pairs.

 

Extra shielding is recommended/required when you route the ethernet cable along with power cables or old fluorescent lightning (the high voltage pulses through the starter and  the neon tubes can introduce noise in the cable)

 

 If I use FTP, I need to crimp it correctly otherwise it might do the opposite in terms of quality right? If I don't crimp with the ground properly

[Lurick]

1 hour ago, Filingo said:

Thank you guys this is perfect!

 

Thanks, I understood that the "fake" one is CAT7, that's why the next official spec is CAT8 (after CAT6a)

 

One more thing, Since all the solid copper sold on Amazon are very long, and I measured that I just need 100ft +/-, with longest being about 40ft (little house), will this stranded, but pure copper (not cca) cable also do the job? OR that's bad (might be hard to pull since it's flexible):

 

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Ethernet-Bulk-Cable/dp/B015QJ40AU/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=monoprice+solid+copper&qid=1638700211&sr=8-3

 

OR, buy this patched 100ft, which is exactly how much I need, and cut the heads:

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Ethernet-Patch-Cable/dp/B008I8A1XM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=monoprice+100ft&qid=1638700550&sr=8-1

 

(I just read that stranded cables can rip easily while being pulled)

 

They don't seem to sell bulk solid CAT6/CAT6A for short distances 

Cat7 isn't fake it's just an ISO and not a TIA/EIA spec and while that doesn't really matter much the important thing is the spec that does exist calls for TERA connectors and not 8p8c you see on traditional cables. Cat8 is an ISO and TIA/EIA spec and allows for the use of 8p8c connectors OR TERA connectors.

[Filingo]

43 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Cat7 isn't fake it's just an ISO and not a TIA/EIA spec and while that doesn't really matter much the important thing is the spec that does exist calls for TERA connectors and not 8p8c you see on traditional cables. Cat8 is an ISO and TIA/EIA spec and allows for the use of 8p8c connectors OR TERA connectors.

thank you! understood things much better now

[mariushm]

There are other stores besides Amazon, which allow you to buy shorter length spools.

If you spend a bit of time and do some searching, with a bit of luck you may even be able to find some online stores that specialize in telecom stuff and networking stuff, and they'll have various kinds of networking cable.

 

FS.com has a decent reputation for example, and it's specialized on networking things.

Cat6 bulk cables : https://www.fs.com/c/cat6-bulk-ethernet-cables-1133

 

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have smaller spools ... but they do offer custom patch cables, so you could make them the lengths you want (stranded wires though) : https://www.fs.com/products/64194.html

 

 

Wall plates and jacks : https://www.fs.com/c/ethernet-wall-plates-jacks-24

 

Wallplates from 1 to 4 jacks : https://www.fs.com/products/20225.html?attribute=2253&id=278238

 

There's keystone jacks that are tool-less, they don't need a punch down tool, but probably require solid core copper wires... here's an example : https://www.fs.com/products/72285.html

 

You could get keystone coupler connectors that don't need you to use a punch down tool, and just use a regular patch cable and plug it in the coupler, here's an example : https://www.fs.com/products/41312.html

But these are a bit "deep" so it may not work if the wall is not thick enough. They're often used on patch panels, you buy the patch panel separately and then plug these keystone connectors on the patch panel, so that the cable weight doesn't press down on the actual switch jacks, and so that the weight of the cable won't weaken the jack over time (you can route the cable behind patch panel and zip tie them so that its weight doesn't pull on the jack, the front of a a switch doesn't give you these features)

[Filingo]

5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

There are other stores besides Amazon, which allow you to buy shorter length spools.

If you spend a bit of time and do some searching, with a bit of luck you may even be able to find some online stores that specialize in telecom stuff and networking stuff, and they'll have various kinds of networking cable.

 

FS.com has a decent reputation for example, and it's specialized on networking things.

Cat6 bulk cables : https://www.fs.com/c/cat6-bulk-ethernet-cables-1133

 

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have smaller spools ... but they do offer custom patch cables, so you could make them the lengths you want (stranded wires though) : https://www.fs.com/products/64194.html

 

 

Wall plates and jacks : https://www.fs.com/c/ethernet-wall-plates-jacks-24

 

Wallplates from 1 to 4 jacks : https://www.fs.com/products/20225.html?attribute=2253&id=278238

 

There's keystone jacks that are tool-less, they don't need a punch down tool, but probably require solid core copper wires... here's an example : https://www.fs.com/products/72285.html

 

You could get keystone coupler connectors that don't need you to use a punch down tool, and just use a regular patch cable and plug it in the coupler, here's an example : https://www.fs.com/products/41312.html

But these are a bit "deep" so it may not work if the wall is not thick enough. They're often used on patch panels, you buy the patch panel separately and then plug these keystone connectors on the patch panel, so that the cable weight doesn't press down on the actual switch jacks, and so that the weight of the cable won't weaken the jack over time (you can route the cable behind patch panel and zip tie them so that its weight doesn't pull on the jack, the front of a a switch doesn't give you these features)

thank you!

I found two local stores, both sell slightly different cables with difference pricing:

First store:      CAT6, UTP, 23AWG, solid copper, 100ft = $38

Second store: CAT6, FTP, 23AWG, solid copper, 150ft = $26

 

So it's weird that the pricing of the FTP is much lower even though it's longer. I wonder if that means the cable quality is bad.. or just that the first store is too expensive..

[mariushm]

Could be one of them is CCA (copper coated) and the other one is pure copper, and they just copy pasted descriptions

Could be they bought a ton of FTP cable a while ago when copper was cheaper and they're still stocked at the old price .. could be it's on clearance (may they just have a couple of 1000' spools left and want to remove item from inventory

 

If you can see the cable in person, cut a couple inches from the cable or remove the insulation from the wire and either scrape the wire with a knife or heat up the wire with an open flame ...  if it's copper coated, the knife would break the copper coating revealing the aluminum core ... if you burn the wire, aluminum would coil up, while copper would just go black.

[Filingo]

7 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Could be one of them is CCA (copper coated) and the other one is pure copper, and they just copy pasted descriptions

Could be they bought a ton of FTP cable a while ago when copper was cheaper and they're still stocked at the old price .. could be it's on clearance (may they just have a couple of 1000' spools left and want to remove item from inventory

 

If you can see the cable in person, cut a couple inches from the cable or remove the insulation from the wire and either scrape the wire with a knife or heat up the wire with an open flame ...  if it's copper coated, the knife would break the copper coating revealing the aluminum core ... if you burn the wire, aluminum would coil up, while copper would just go black.

You are so right, I just said it in my other post (where I asked about crimper).

The store of cheaper FTP is actually CCA! And I thought CCA has to be stranded. Now I know it can be solid. And they do not mention that it's not CCA until I asked them! What a scam.