Network cabling my new house

[Humbie]

Hi guys,

 

For my new house, we've instructed the electrician to cable it with Cat6a cables for all network ports (about 40).

As far as I'm aware of, a Cat6a cable should have an X divider in the middle, separating the twisted pairs to eliminate/minimize alien crosstalk?

 

Yesterday I inspected the network cables my electrician installed, but I don't see any dividers between the twisted pairs...

Is he ripping me off & installed Cat5e instead or is there another differentiator between Cat5e & Cat6a that I can check?

The outer shell of the cable does not have any lettering, so I can't know by checking those...

 

Thanks for any & all feedback!

 

- Humbie

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, Humbie said:

wHi guys,

 

For my new house, we've instructed the electrician to cable it with Cat6a cables for all network ports (about 40).

As far as I'm aware of, a Cat6a cable should have an X divider in the middle, separating the twisted pairs to eliminate/minimize alien crosstalk?

 

Yesterday I inspected the network cables my electrician installed, but I don't see any dividers between the twisted pairs...

Is he ripping me off & installed Cat5e instead or is there another differentiator between Cat5e & Cat6a that I can check?

The outer shell of the cable does not have any lettering, so I can't know by checking those...

 

Thanks for any & all feedback!

 

- Humbie

the entire cable will list the category, check that and see if it says Cat6A.

[Lurick]

I'm pretty sure Cat6 doesn't need to have the divider but Cat6a is supposed to or usually should at least. Another way to tell is how easy it is to bend the cable. If it's pretty stiff, even without the divider then it's probably Cat6 or Cat6a but if it's pretty floppy then most likely Cat5e since they use different gauge wire with Cat6 and 6a using higher gauge, thus thicker and a bit harder to bend.

[Denned]

The core is just to make it more ridgid. That fact that there's twisted pairs, is what's eliminating the cross talk.

There will be some printing on the cable. The print will tell you (amoung other things) what category cable it is.

[Humbie]

So yesterday evening I found one cable where the lettering was actually visible, apparently it's a Cat6 rated at 250MHz instead of Cat6A rated at 500MHz.

The electrician did in fact admit to this fact and will now replace all the cables he placed incorrectly.

 

How much wil it matter that the cables are U/UTP and so don't have any shielding or foiling?

They're all individually placed in their own flex tubing, but a lot of these flex tubes run right next to the tubes for powerlines...

Will I get any noticeable interference or will this be limited as they're all in individual flex tubing?

 

Thanks for the information and advice guys!

[beavo451]

Shielded cables have little use in home or office environments.

 

If you are paying for 6A, then the installer should be using 6A along with appropriate 6A terminations and grounding. 

[scottyseng]

4 hours ago, Humbie said:

-snip-

In home use, unshielded cable is pretty normal. Shielded cable is a bit overkill for home use. 

 

That being said, I would make sure there's at least a foot apart between the networking cables and any electrical wiring to reduce interference. 

 

Also double check to make sure the terminals are actually 6A rated. 

[Humbie]

19 hours ago, scottyseng said:

In home use, unshielded cable is pretty normal. Shielded cable is a bit overkill for home use. 

 

That being said, I would make sure there's at least a foot apart between the networking cables and any electrical wiring to reduce interference. 

 

Also double check to make sure the terminals are actually 6A rated. 

Alright, thanks!

As stated before, the network cables are placed right next to the electrical wiring.

Example in the picture attached, this is our living room/TV corner.

In the bottom-middle of the picture you can see all our TV-/mediaconnections - LTR: audiocables, 4 UTP, 4 UTP, 2 electric, 1 coax

 

Will the flex tubing around the UTPs & electrical wiring provide enough "protection" from EMI?

[scottyseng]

12 minutes ago, Humbie said:

-snip-

Hmm, personally I would try to move it while the floor is still open (There's going to be concrete poured right for the floor?)

 

I think it should be safe, but I'd rather not push my luck especially since the floor is open (Though a fair bit of work). You can have electrical wires go across Ethernet cables at a 90 degree angle, but don't want to push your luck running parallel close to it.

 

I'm also surprised to see this much use of flex tubing (I don't know the electrical codes there). Usually we would use hard PVC pipes because flex tubing is extremely hard to feed wires through.

 

That's a strong looking house though.

 

@Donut417 Any further comment? You're good with networking installs.

[Humbie]

14 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Hmm, personally I would try to move it while the floor is still open (There's going to be concrete poured right for the floor?)

 

I think it should be safe, but I'd rather not push my luck especially since the floor is open (Though a fair bit of work). You can have electrical wires go across Ethernet cables at a 90 degree angle, but don't want to push your luck running parallel close to it.

 

I'm also surprised to see this much use of flex tubing (I don't know the electrical codes there). Usually we would use hard PVC pipes because flex tubing is extremely hard to feed wires through.

 

That's a strong looking house though.

 

@Donut417 Any further comment? You're good with networking installs.

Hmm, alright...

They don't seem to run in parallel next to eachother, just crossing at 90° for the final wallconnectors.

Problem is I'm "not allowed" to make any changes myself as I'm working with a construction firm that manages the planning & all the subcontractors.

Anyway, if it appears to be a problem later on I will probably replace it with S/FTP cables myself to counter any EMI.

 

Next step is they're going to insulate the floor using PUR (polyurethane), then floor heating and finally screed (I guess that's how it's called in English, if Google Translate is to be trusted).

Our house is not all that different from any other new houses here in Belgium (and probably the rest of Europe for that matter) as regulations for energy-neutral and passive building have become quite strict over the years.

[scottyseng]

2 minutes ago, Humbie said:

-snip-

Ah, then that should be fine.

Well, you're going to have trouble fishing out the Ethernet cable because it's in flex pipe (stuff is pretty hard to feed wire through bends when it's not straight). Though I don't think you'll have issues with EMI.

 

Yeah, in the US, codes are still pretty relaxed on energy efficiency sadly (Though new homes have the option of going more efficient...mostly up to the client). Floor heating sure sounds nice tough.

[Jay Deah]

I doubt that interference will be a problem for you. In office buildings we run this stuff next to high power power lines all the time with no issues. And anyway the Ethernet speeds and distances you’ll be using in a home setup will leave you loads of headroom for any interference anyway.

 

the big difference in cables people don’t realise is that the stuff you run in the walls and floors is far stiffer and less flexible than what you use in patch leads. If you’re only ever used to working with patch leads then seeing the stuff they use for cable runs will look odd to you. As for cat cables. Honestly even cat 5e will be fine let alone cat6 vs cat6e. At the sort of distances you’ll have in a home it doesn’t really matter.