Wiring up house - Which Cable (Cat 6/6a)

[Minato]

Hi Gents,

Doing a side extension to the house and I want to have the rooms wired up with ethernet so no need to faff about in future with drilling holes and running cables.

From reading Cat 6 should be ok as the longest run is <20m, but is there any benefit to going with Cat 6a?

I'm looking at 100m of "External Cat6 UTP PE Solid Cable" from a reputable retailer. External because there'll need to be some runs on the outside/roof.

Currently got a pair of XT12 and a pair of AX92Us as my mesh wifi system, with a Synology DS920+ NAS. Got a Ring Elite hard wired doorbell, and might get some security cameras in future.

Planned map will basically be:

ISP WAN -> XT12

-> Unmanaged Gigabit PoE Switch​

----> XT12 #2 -> PCs, Devices​

----> AX92U -> PCs, Devices​

----> AX92U #2 -> PCs, Devices​

----> Ring Doorbell​

----> NAS​

​

Any further advice/suggestions highly welcomed. I've got FTTP Gigabit internet.

 

[Minato]

• If you are terminating the cables yourself, get a decent punch tool, keystones, crimp and cable ends. Whatever costs are saved getting the cheaper ones will not be worth it (Your hands will thank you for buying decent ones)

All of the above is great advice, many thanks. Just wondering if you had any particular recommendations for above tools? As will need to buy from scratch. I figured it'd be easier (and cheaper) to buy a 100m coil of unterminated cable and do it myself rather than pre-terminated RJ45 Cat6.

 

[Minato]

In terms of reccommendations for tools, you can go quite expensive but for me I found the following tools to be "good enough" that I don't end up with cramp at the end of the day

You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Solid Copper Core 100m of External Cat 6 ordered from CableMonkey with above tools and ends.

In a domestic environment there really isn’t any benefit to going beyond CAT6 but if you want then CAT6A is a higher standard IF you terminate it properly. And that’s a huge if. If you want to future-proof your install put in optical fibre because it will carry 100GbE and more.

I like Cable Monkey for anything infrastructure related. They have a really straightforward website and they’re basically the retail arm of Connectix Cable Systems (CCS) and their gear is about as good as it gets.

I think optical fibre is a bit too future proofed even for me, I still get a bit stressed seeing the turns and (gentle) bends in the fibre line coming into the house and terminating at the ONT!