Flat cat 6 cables vs round

[quotidian]

Anyone used them before as I want an ethernet connection from the master socket at the front door to the back of the house in the dinning room so the nas can sit there instead of right at the front door.

If I use round cables it'll need to go upstairs into the attic and then down whereas the flat cable would go straight down the hall way under the carpet. So the flat cable would probably half the distance of the run but I'm not sure how good the flat cable would be?

 

[ZXSpectrum]

I use them at home but they are under the laminate flooring. They are only about 2-3mm thick so easily hideable under a rug or carpet. If you can remove the skirting put it behind there

 

[Tealc]

I think you lose some noise suppression with flat over round but if it's decent category rated cable then you should be fine.

 

[Caged]

It doesn't really matter how it's built - as long as it's claiming to be Cat6 and that isn't a complete lie then it will work fine.

 

[:(Rhodri:)]

I think you lose some noise suppression with flat over round but if it's decent category rated cable then you should be fine.

Bang on, just try and avoid running several of them right next to each other and directly next to the mains and EMI won't be an issue.

 

[Tomsk]

Flat ones are great if you're going in a straight line.
They're not good going around corners.

 

[GeX]

I've run them upstairs and across landings without issue.

 

[R3X]

I have googled this before and flat cables do loose speed and performance over the round ones.

From what I recall one guy said he got 12meg with flat but with a round one got like 18meg speeds.

I was surprised he mentioned so much dip in performance frankly... mind you it was just one random comment I don't think anyone has done any real thorough testing between flat and round ones.

 

[quotidian]

We ended up using round and just lifted some floor boards (Which we would have needed to do anyway for a section of the flat) also managed to shorten the run a bit as its all on the one floor now.

Haven't terminated it yet because dad's going to see if the bt installer will move the master socket with the cat 6 we've put in.

 

[panyan]

I think you lose some noise suppression with flat over round but if it's decent category rated cable then you should be fine.

I have googled this before and flat cables do loose speed and performance over the round ones.

+1

Unless you absolutely need a flat cable, go with a standard cable

 

[GeX]

I have googled this before and flat cables do loose speed and performance over the round ones.

From what I recall one guy said he got 12meg with flat but with a round one got like 18meg speeds.

I was surprised he mentioned so much dip in performance frankly... mind you it was just one random comment I don't think anyone has done any real thorough testing between flat and round ones.

Those speeds are naff for round cable never mind the flat stuff. I'd take anything they've said with a large pinch of salt.

FWIW, my flat cable worked fine - it was a gigabit link from the office to my file server, I don't recall the speeds but I tested it with iperf when I put it in (i've since moved house and left the cabling there).

We ended up using round and just lifted some floor boards (Which we would have needed to do anyway for a section of the flat) also managed to shorten the run a bit as its all on the one floor now.

Haven't terminated it yet because dad's going to see if the bt installer will move the master socket with the cat 6 we've put in.

Lifting floorboards wasn't an option for me (concrete downstairs, had to go up the stairs and upstairs was big plywood boards instead of 'normal' floorboards.

WRT moving the socket - what kind of internet connection do you have? When I had FTTC installed, the master socket wasn't moved but the BTO bloke ran an ethernet extension into the cupboard under the stairs. If you're on FTTC then just use that new cable to run from the master socket to where you want it - or just leave the modem where the master socket is. I don't think BT will move the master socket for 'no' reason without a large fee!

 

[DRZ]

Flat cables can't reject interference, so avoid running parallel with any other cabling at all! The fact all the pairs are running in parallel in itself means there is crosstalk between them as it is - pretty severely affecting performance over a long run. Long run is anything over around 10m in my book but things will get drastically worse the longer you go. I'd expect the fall-off to be pretty dramatic with a flat cable.

 

[Tealc]

As I understand it flat cables have the pairs twisted as normal but they lie next to each other, rather than twisting around each other. There will he noise and crosstalk suppression with this type of flat cable. The truly flat non twisted pair cable will act like an antenna for noise and crosstalk and would be dire in comparison. A length more than a few metres would begin to have issus.

 

[quotidian]

WRT moving the socket - what kind of internet connection do you have? When I had FTTC installed, the master socket wasn't moved but the BTO bloke ran an ethernet extension into the cupboard under the stairs. If you're on FTTC then just use that new cable to run from the master socket to where you want it - or just leave the modem where the master socket is. I don't think BT will move the master socket for 'no' reason without a large fee!

We're on EE adsl broadband at the minute but we're getting bt infinity. I'm not 100% sure since dad dealt with ordering it but he told me that the bt sales rep said that moving the master socket would be included in the installation.

If it doesn't look like they'll move the master socket we can make the power sockets beside the master bt socket disappear behind blanking plates.

 

[HighlandeR]

Those speeds are naff for round cable never mind the flat stuff. I'd take anything they've said with a large pinch of salt.

FWIW, my flat cable worked fine - it was a gigabit link from the office to my file server, I don't recall the speeds but I tested it with iperf when I put it in (i've since moved house and left the cabling there).

If all this talk of cross talk and interference perhaps its better to stick with the good old round cables

 

[Twirlywoos]

I run flat ethernet up the stairs and into my room, getting no loss in packets and my upload and download speed is the same as connecting a laptop direct to the router.

It hides well under underlay and carpet with no bumps. The only problem you will find is going around corners and hiding the cable under door grips, I only had one corner to tackle but it is well hidden so causes no problem.