Running cable in attic

Dru · 12 Nov 2020 at 16:26

I'm looking at running about 15m of cat6 from my office, up the wall to the attic so that I can ceiling mount an access point in a more central location in the house (it's a very old terraced house, awful for signal). I'm really just looking for a bit of confirmation on whether or not I need any special cable as I've seen mention of cm, cmr, plenum ratings etc.

I have a 15m cat6 cable already (which I assume is only cm) which isn't being used but I wouldn't want to throw it up there if I should be using something more fire resistant.

Thanks

ChrisD. · 12 Nov 2020 at 16:33

My UniFi AP wiring runs in my loft from my upstairs office, I just used cat 5e and it's been perfect.

bremen1874 · 12 Nov 2020 at 16:49

For a domestic install, especially in your own house, you can basically do what you want. Compared to mass of PVC mains cabling that'll already be up there a few metres of network cable isn't even worth thinking about.

Caged · 12 Nov 2020 at 18:00

You don't need any sort of low smoke cable, your loft isn't an air handling space.

Dru · 12 Nov 2020 at 23:32

Thanks for the responses guys! If I might ask one more thing, possibly a silly question but may as well be sure. The cable I have is 26awg and obviously the access point is going to be powered via poe. I've read that 24awg is generally favoured for poe due to the additional heat at lower cable diameters but I assume in this case, with it being a single cable rather than part of a bundle, that it's not worth worrying about?

bremen1874 · 12 Nov 2020 at 23:37

If it's 26AWG it's basically a junk cable. However, it isn't very long so probably won't be a problem. Also, an AP isn't going to be pulling much power.

Cat5e should be 24AWG, Cat6 should be 23AWG.