Cable advice

EnzoSmithers · 23 Jan 2013 at 12:50

Afternoon all,

I have recently moved into a new build house. While the house was being built, I asked the builders to put in a duct from the loft room (my office) to the Living room. When we moved in, they have put blanking plates over standard boxes in the walls, and my tubing I provided (it is something my dad reccomended, has a pulley in it for pulling through cables etc).

No I have bought a gigabit router, i am coming to the point of wiring the whole thing up.

this is where I am confused about what to buy.

I need 2x faceplates for the 2 boxes. From these I will run standard cat 6 patch leads to my router and to the TV/Ps3?Raspberry Pi media streamer downstairs.

These face plates, do they require bare cable wired into them, or do they have a female RJ45 port that you just plug a full patch lead into?

If it is un-ended cable which I think it will be, do I need UTP or FTP cat6 cable?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Rob

bremen1874 · 23 Jan 2013 at 13:29

You'd normally get faceplates where you punch down bare solid core cable. It is possible to buy faceplates that effectively just act as a coupler for cables with plugs on, but they aren't common.

Assuming you use punch down faceplates you need solid core UTP cable.

You will see no benefit from running Cat6 rather than Cat5e.

EnzoSmithers · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:10

Thanks for the reply, would these punch down faceplates 'punch down' the bare wire into the relevant spots or do i need a tool or anything to wire them as well?

If the router is gigabit, as are all devices connected to it, would the CAT6 not allow faster transfer rates?

tezabeza · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:28

CAT5e is rated fro 1Gb network at lenghts of upto 100m. So as long as ALL the things on the network are 1Gb rated then you will get the speed. In fact CAT5e is rated to 10Gb on short runs if comments on other Posts are correct.

bremen1874 · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:31

You'd need a punch down tool, but they aren't expensive. If you've only got a few connections to make there a some very cheap plastic versions available.

Cat5e has exactly the same support for Gigabit as Cat6. There's no harm in using Cat6, but don't pay a premium for it.

Cat5e is also slightly easier to handle and terminate than Cat6.

EnzoSmithers · 23 Jan 2013 at 14:43

well you learn something every day, I thought you had to use Cat6 for gigabit!

I suspect the cable length will be approximately 15-25 metres, I do not know exactly the route it has went to get from my office to the living room.

I will only being doing this punch down twice where each end connects to the face plate, i will use prebought patch leads for the gaps inbetween.

thanks for all the help guys

bertles86 · 24 Jan 2013 at 07:36

I recommend colour coding it too, as opposed to standard grey cat5e, so should you come to renovate in a decade you know that the (e.g.) bright green cable in your walls is data...