Cat 8 cable?

Soldato
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No not the avalon guy on here but avalon networks uk who i spoke with and said that their cat8 cables are recommended since with other brand cables they send the packets via skin effect on the surface of the conductor and like a train can derail if the track hits a 90 degree sharp bend. They claimed with their own cat8 cables the packets travel through the conductor like a tunnel and can be bent any way, the packet has no where to go other than out the other end of the cable.
I was like :eek:

Oh, that guy. It’s all coming back to me now. The came to my CAT8 - WTF British Rail training session. It was really good. Maybe I got a few things mixed up. I remember something about Virgin Trains not running quite at full speed because they were using 802.11af instead of 802.11bt PoE into the overhead CAT8 cables. I got £5 off train tickets for them being late for months... Good times :)
 
Man of Honour
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Kenable wouldn't be on my list of quality suppliers.

Heh - Kenable are OK if you want something cheap and cheerful which isn't a complete lottery quality wise for something not too serious. I wouldn't want to use them in commercial application however.
 
Soldato
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Going back to the fibre question on page 1, you can get lengths of pre-terminated OM and OS (armoured too if needed). Not too bad cost wise and no need to splice and terminate yourself.
 
Soldato
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hmm, usually copper is copper like cheapo speaker cable vs expensive ones. as long as conductor size and material is the same performance should be equal. im guessing with network cables the outer jacket quality can vary the most. but then again iv had ubiquiti tough cable fail before due to jacket splitting over time and water getting in.
 
Permabanned
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some people say you cant do 90 degree bends on these cables since its like a railway track and if the packets hit a corner at gigabit speeds they can "derail" as such . lol

It's kinda true. EMR travels in straight lines and when it hits a corner it's up to the cable to ensure the losses are at a minimum. If you bend the cable too much you may encounter unacceptable losses. The higher the frequency the greater the problem. Thing is that the cable is specifically designed to avoid problems like that so I am sure the losses are small enough to be tolerated, otherwise there would be huge warnings all over the reel of cable.
 
Soldato
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Going back to the fibre question on page 1, you can get lengths of pre-terminated OM and OS (armoured too if needed). Not too bad cost wise and no need to splice and terminate yourself.

Agreed, but the termination kit for optical fibre is less than £20. Anyone with a bit of patience and reasonable hand mobility can terminate optical fibres. It's only the fancy splicing gear that costs thousands. I did both the courses at Cable Monkey in Essex. Best money I've ever spent on training. Literally they just take you through copper cables on one course and optical fibre on the other. Obviously they'll try and sell you an overpriced toolkit at the end of it, but equally the trainer tells you what tools you actually need and you just buy those.
 
Man of Honour
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It's kinda true. EMR travels in straight lines and when it hits a corner it's up to the cable to ensure the losses are at a minimum. If you bend the cable too much you may encounter unacceptable losses. The higher the frequency the greater the problem. Thing is that the cable is specifically designed to avoid problems like that so I am sure the losses are small enough to be tolerated, otherwise there would be huge warnings all over the reel of cable.

As a concept there is some science to it - but not to that degree - hence why you tend to see traces on PCBs not taking 90 degree bends in many cases, etc.

hmm, usually copper is copper like cheapo speaker cable vs expensive ones. as long as conductor size and material is the same performance should be equal. im guessing with network cables the outer jacket quality can vary the most. but then again iv had ubiquiti tough cable fail before due to jacket splitting over time and water getting in.

How well the cables stand up to movement and being plugged and unplugged can vary hugely though - some of the cheaper ones will fray, etc. easily.
 
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hmm, usually copper is copper like cheapo speaker cable vs expensive ones. as long as conductor size and material is the same performance should be equal. im guessing with network cables the outer jacket quality can vary the most. but then again iv had ubiquiti tough cable fail before due to jacket splitting over time and water getting in.

There are differences in the quality of the copper but it is crazy to spend too much on a cable. The high frequency performance of cables varies, which gives each cable a different sound, but it is no reason to spend more, rather to just select the one you like.
 
Associate
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Why the discussion ? cable prices are pretty similar , so just buy CAT 8 and be done with it , might cost £1 more than other cable . Only difference I have noticed is although overall speed is not faster ( obviously cant be ) it GETS to the max speed FASTER( when being measured .) . Again this makes little or no noticeable difference in usage . I have tested this with multiple cables and results are always the same .
 
Don
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Only difference I have noticed is although overall speed is not faster ( obviously cant be ) it GETS to the max speed FASTER( when being measured .) . Again this makes little or no noticeable difference in usage . I have tested this with multiple cables and results are always the same .

Just lol? cable doesn't accelerate up to a maximum speed
 
Associate
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Just lol? cable doesn't accelerate up to a maximum speed
I am only saying what I see . I don't know enough about cables to describe what is happening , only that I got consistent results across 4 different ports on 2 PC`s with 6 different cables . on average the difference was 1.5 seconds to 500Mbps . So maybe someone can explain why I see this result consistently . My only idea was that it is like comparing a 2 lane motorway with a 5 lane motorway, you cant go any faster than 70mph but on the 5 lane you can get MORE there at that speed ?
 
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