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Conanius

Conanius

Conanius

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18 Oct 2002
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So,

Our house has walls clearly lined with lead filled faraday cages, so wireless signals are poor.

I've currently got 2 Airport Extremes (well, 1 time capsule and 1 airport extreme) pumping out lovely wifi signals, but the placement isn't ideal, and in moving them I dip to lower connection speeds.

I'm going to run some network lead from the bedroom to the lounge, and the easiest way is going to be for the cable to go outside. I'm curious as to what 'spec' cable I should use for this. The Airport Extreme can cope with Gigabit speeds, so I guess I need Shielded Cat6E. I've used some Cat6 cable before that had a plastic core which made bending it an absolute nightmare. Will all cable suitable to do this run be like this?

The run is probably about 25 meters ish, of which say 15 meters will be outside.

Looking forward to answers !
 
Cat5e will do gigabit and doesn't have a central spine. Most if not all Cat6 cable has that plastic down the centre, but it doesn't make it harder to run in my experience if you buy decent quality cable.

You don't need shielded, but you should probably get external grade cable or the UV will break the jacket down relatively quickly.
 
If it's being put in permanently with little chance of ever re-running it I'd aim for external grade Cat6 for that length. (Cat6 over 40m should be fine for 10gb in the future.)

Won't need to be shielded unless you're running a hell of a lot together or it's going next to power lines.
 
One thing you can't do with Cat 6 is tight bends, they need to be a swept bend, a long gentle bend.

Had friend who installed Cat 6,nearly every bend he did was a tight 90 degree bend & he wonder why some of his drops didn't work.:eek:

Well worth using External Cat 6, will give a you a bit of future proofing.
 
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Depending on the quality of your electrical wiring if your only doing one point to point run I would just opt for gigabit homeplug, much less agro and no drilling holes and whatnot.
 
What's a good brand for cat6? I have seen some different brands and there could be as much as £80 difference in price.
 
ubersonic said:
Depending on the quality of your electrical wiring if your only doing one point to point run I would just opt for gigabit homeplug, much less agro and no drilling holes and whatnot.
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Yes, my thoughts too. When we moved into our current house 10-ish years ago I ran some cat5 cabling from ground to top floor to connect room which I use as study where main PC etc is to room on ground floor where 2nd-ary PC is and where VM cable comes in so that's where cable modem is. However, a couple of years or so ago when we got a PS3 which was going in a room on the middle floor gave some thought to putting another cable to that room then saw someone (may have been OCUK) doing a special offer on a pair of 200Mb homeplugs and that was so much simpler! Though, to some extent, doing the cabling, putting in trunking etc etc gives you a much better "sense of achievement"
 
Scream said:
What's a good brand for cat6? I have seen some different brands and there could be as much as £80 difference in price.
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Excel, Nexans, Belden, Velocity, Brand-Rex, ADC Krone. 305m of Cat6 solid core should be about £75 + VAT.
 
A number of people recommended Gigatrue cat 6 so I ordered some of it. Their grey cable is on offer for £59 + vat as it is normally £75-£80 + vat.
 
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