CAT 6 or 7?

You may find that cat 7 does not have the flexibility to get around the house. Worth speaking to installer to establish if there are any limitations.

All you need is Cat-5e,  but Cat-6 probably a bit more robust & future proof.  And +1 for be careful over the flexibility & bend radius limitations of Cat-6 & above.    If you are planning this as DIY,  a warning that anything over Cat-5e gets progressively more difficult to terminate,  & if its not terminated correctly the performance/headroom of whatever Cat you have will get knocked back to Cat-5 or even lower.   And if you do use an installer,  be sure that they are qualified or at least well experienced with ethernet installs.

As Mike says, Cat5e UTP is certainly fine for streaming audio, and probably anything else that most people will do with a domestic LAN. Minimum bend radius, and correct termination, are important as they can both affect performance. 

Thanks for the advice. I am not planning it as a DIY project — one should know his limits... Our electrician will do the job when he does the electric rewiring — catch two birds with one stone... Should I be worried? He has done ethernet before — but to be honest, I don’t know details of his record. Shall I be worried?

The point about flexibility is probably a good one. I’ll ask him whether a firm cable might be problematic.

For someone who knows little about IT, what does Cat 6 do that Cat 5 might fail to deliver (in the future)?

To make sure that a good quality cable is used, I want to provide the cable myself. Are certain cable makers recommended? I have started browsing the net for cables, and I have to admit I am bit confused about solid cables, solid core cables and patch cables. I believe to remember to have read about patch cables here in the past — is this the right cable type?

Timo posted:

Thanks for the advice. I am not planning it as a DIY project — one should know his limits... Our electrician will do the job when he does the electric rewiring — catch two birds with one stone... Should I be worried? He has done ethernet before — but to be honest, I don’t know details of his record. Shall I be worried? 

To make sure that a good quality cable is used, I want to provide the cable myself. Are certain cable makers recommended? I have started browsing the net for cables, and I have to admit I am bit confused about solid cables, solid core cables and patch cables. I believe to remember to have read about patch cables here in the past — is this the right cable type?

Just be cautious,  ask him how many installs he's done & develop some chat on how to correctly terminate into the wall sockets,  talk about keystone jacks.  If he seems vague,  look elsewhere.   

A patch cable is one that has the RJ45 plugs installed,  the Cat cable stuff we all chat about on the forum such as Chord & AQ are all patch cords.    Solid core is best suited for fixed domestic installs.   I don't think you need look further than Belden ethernet cable for bulk buy

Patch cables are typically flexible as they are intended for use where they will be moved around, disconnected and reconnected, such as in the final connection to a peripheral device. Not what you want for in-situ LAN cabling, although it would still work. 

The quality of the termination is important, and if you are using off-the-reel cable and terminating it with RJ45 wall sockets, the installer needs to get this right. When I networked my house, I worked out what lengths I needed, and bought them pre-terminated with RJ45 plugs, so that I could connect those directly into switches without the need for in-situ terminations.

Mike's suggestion of Belden is a sound one, they are a reputable manufacturer. If you are buying in the UK, you could do worse than to give Cable Monkey a call, I have found them to be very helpful in the past. 

Thanks guys!

I guess I'll need to have another chat with the electrician to establish his experience -- don't want the job to be a failure. Does the difficulty to terminate refer to the RJ45 plug or also to the termination at the socket? At the socket it looks a bit more straightforward -- but what do I know...

Cheers!

Yeah another one that says for home networks Cat5e is all most likely all  that is required .. it provides 1Gbps link speeds for upto 100 metres. You can buy shielded or unshielded Cat5e .. the former can help reduce emitted noise in Hi-Fi situations where your cable dressing means your Ethernet leads run close or along side signal leads. If you can buy Cat6 or Cat6A cables for the same price at Cat5e then get those instead.. there is certainly no harm in using them. They do use thicker wires so are stiffer, but less of an issue for infrastructure wiring in your house.

For future proofing I would use ducting in your house so you can swap cables out at some point , as almost certainly for house infrastructure the future will be fibre not copper, but right now fibre with consumer equipment is rather niche, so lay runs of Cat5e.

However talk to your electrician about running dual runs of Cat5e in your trunking. This gives future proofing options of aggregation for throughput and/or resilience... just remember if using consumer equipment don’t connect parallel Ethernet connections unless it specifically supports it otherwise your network will come to a grinding halt.

Simon

This is a very well timed thread for me too. My electrician is currently installing SFX brand Ethernet cable. Product is EN50575 2014, SFX/C5-UTP-CCA. I’d appreciate any thoughts or views on whether this is suitable?

cheers, Kevin

Timo posted:

...................Does the difficulty to terminate refer to the RJ45 plug or also to the termination at the socket? At the socket it looks a bit more straightforward -- but what do I know...

When I said termination can be an issue I had in mind into the wall sockets,  I would expect the RJ45's to be refitted on the patch leads.    

The importance of the wall socket connections is with maintaining the twisted pair orientation right up to the socket pins,  & by right up to I mean snug tight right up to.      The picture shows the stages of how it's done correctly.  

kevin J Carden posted:

This is a very well timed thread for me too. My electrician is currently installing SFX brand Ethernet cable. Product is EN50575 2014, SFX/C5-UTP-CCA. I’d appreciate any thoughts or views on whether this is suitable?

cheers, Kevin

Looking at that product code, it’s probably fine. C5 presumably refers to Cat5, you might want to check that it’s Cat5e rather than just Cat5. UTP means it’s unshielded, which is fine, but as Simon pointed out above, shielded (STP) can be worth using it the cable runs parallel to mains cables etc. CCA is a fire rating which is required for cables installed within the fabric of the building (as opposed to patch cables.)

Yes that product code is SFX CAT5E UTP

Its classified as low cost suitable for ducting.  Looking at the specs I see the conductors are copper coated aluminium,  plus all I see available are 305m reels.  Considering the cost for the short runs needed in a house install I would change that & go for all copper & 100m reels.   Again I would not look further than Belden.  

Avoid copper clad aluminium, as this has slightly worse specs and deteriorates faster

Mike-B posted:

Yes that product code is SFX CAT5E UTP

Its classified as low cost suitable for ducting.  Looking at the specs I see the conductors are copper coated aluminium,  plus all I see available are 305m reels.  Considering the cost for the short runs needed in a house install I would change that & go for all copper & 100m reels.   Again I would not look further than Belden.  

Thanks All. Mike, do you have a product code for the Belden you’d recommend ? There will be a few sections of the runs where it will run parallel with power and/or speaker cables. 

kevin J Carden posted: 

Thanks All. Mike, do you have a product code for the Belden you’d recommend ? There will be a few sections of the runs where it will run parallel with power and/or speaker cables. 

Parallel runs alongside power is not that much of a problem as the urban myths might lead you to believe.  A even less with speaker cables.         EN 50174-2 and (EMC) Directive 2004/108/EC previously allowed for the final 15m of horizontal 230V single phase <32A power & IT/ethernet do not require separation. The latest rev of EN 50174-2 has been even more simplified and if power is single phase 230V & <32A,  no separation is required between power and IT/ethernet wiring.    However some separation can always be considered worthwhile & following are useful guidelines taken from the specs for large installs over long distances in industrial trunking with no divider:   20cm with unscreened power cable & unscreened ethernet,   5cm with unscreened power cable & screened ethernet,   2cm with screened power cable & unscreened ethernet & 0cm with screened power cable & screened ethernet.

The cable spec is up to you,  unscreened Cat-5e or Cat-6  or screened Cat-6A,  a problem is you might struggle to get Cat-6A from Belden in 100m lengths,  it looks like 300m or more.     Rather than get too fixated on Belden, get it if you can but alternatives from people like RS & Farnell will all be good quality.      Just look for solid core copper & F/FTP for the 6A screen if you choose to go for that.

I think I might have a word with my local computer store, tell them what you propose and do they have any advice and could they supply appropriate cat cable. Perhaps get your electrician to lay the cable if he's doing other work for you but get the computer shop to correctly terminate the network. Rich

Thanks Mike. Very helpful. Kevin

Mike-B posted:

kevin J Carden posted: 

Thanks All. Mike, do you have a product code for the Belden you’d recommend ? There will be a few sections of the runs where it will run parallel with power and/or speaker cables. 

Parallel runs alongside power is not that much of a problem as the urban myths might lead you to believe.  A even less with speaker cables.         EN 50174-2 and (EMC) Directive 2004/108/EC previously allowed for the final 15m of horizontal 230V single phase <32A power & IT/ethernet do not require separation. The latest rev of EN 50174-2 has been even more simplified and if power is single phase 230V & <32A,  no separation is required between power and IT/ethernet wiring.    However some separation can always be considered worthwhile & following are useful guidelines taken from the specs for large installs over long distances in industrial trunking with no divider:   20cm with unscreened power cable & unscreened ethernet,   5cm with unscreened power cable & screened ethernet,   2cm with screened power cable & unscreened ethernet & 0cm with screened power cable & screened ethernet.

The cable spec is up to you,  unscreened Cat-5e or Cat-6  or screened Cat-6A,  a problem is you might struggle to get Cat-6A from Belden in 100m lengths,  it looks like 300m or more.     Rather than get too fixated on Belden, get it if you can but alternatives from people like RS & Farnell will all be good quality.      Just look for solid core copper & F/FTP for the 6A screen if you choose to go for that.

From what I read one always needs to keep a distance of at least 50mm, according to BS 6701:2004, which overrides the BS EN 50174-2 standard. 

Cable Monkey has a number of very helpful guide. Until yesterday I had no clue whatsoever, and I am still pretty clueless. But I have been reading a bit today and of course followed the discussion here, and have started to build up some basic knowledge.

Thanks to all who supported me here in the Forum -- it's a great place!! 

Timo posted:

From what I read one always needs to keep a distance of at least 50mm, according to BS 6701:2004, which overrides the BS EN 50174-2 standard. 

 

That's partly correct,  however the standard i voluntary & is more specific to large industrial/office type installs & also calls out numbers of power circuits, power (amps) & voltage & changes separation distance accordingly.      But nothing wrong with 50mm separation    

Gosh Mike -- you are like a technical Wikipedia!  

T

Not exactly Timo,  I used to apply this stuff in my previous life,  fast track to insanity,  glad to be out of it.

I did my house with cat5e and laterly for the main trunks (between garage and shed and garage and sitting room, Cat6e in lag between switches.

As a geek I found the whole thing interesting and a proper project to get ones hands dirty with, perhaps the OP could consider just getting the cables ran and terminate them himself?

Work out how many ethernet sockets you will need in each room, then quadruple that amount. (in my experience)

If I can add my 2p worth, when running cables run two. I recently did this (under new flooring) and for what ever reason at a certain time in the evening there were ethernet disconnects, must have been a very fine break in the cable, switched over to 2nd cable and no issues...cable is quite cheap, taking up floors is not.

Simon, I'm curious as to how you think this move to fibre LANs might be implemented. To most people, a home network and WiFi are one and the same thing, and improvements in WiFi from 802.11ac to Mesh systems cater for this, not to mention the dreaded Powerline stuff that the likes of Sky are building into their hardware without even telling us it's there. Personally, I'm all in favour of a move to fibre, but I wonder how the idea would be sold to the general public?

I agree and as I said earlier when running Cat 5e shielded or unshielded run two (not a single) parallel runs in its own trunking (best not run parallel to mains cables or other cables).. this allowes aggregation and/or resilience. This becomes more relevant for future applications... and is harder to do retrospectively.. but use trunking.. almost certainly in a few years (10 to 15)  copper will be mostly for patching (local host connections) and infrastructure/house wiring will be fibre.. trunking allows (relatively) easily swap out.. ok this is the view from my current professional perspective, but I can’t see why it won’t apply for home consumer networks.

i agree with the comment about terminating the cables yourself.. really straightforward, but get a cable tester.. it’s what I use for all my own home infrastructure cabling...lot of myths and mystic about common or garden copper Ethernet cabling perhaps put people off... if you feel comfortable wiring a 13 amp plug, a RJ45 plug is only 2.67 times harder.... 

I wouldn’t bother with Cat6A, as that has larger cable diameters  which means they are stiffer... it had the advantage of higher bandwidths in electrically noisy conditions which is an unlikely requirement in most homes.. and would really only be typically used for structured cabling.

For home use a quality UTP  5e cable will be optimal. If you are running many parallel Ethernet cables together in a duct over any sort of distance .. again unlikely in a home, then go shielded.