Question [Uk] Quality ethenet cable

[Sajvinder]

Howdy

A quick one to ask for suggestions on a quality ethernet cables to buy.

My interest is cutting in and out alot and it was suggested to replace the cable.

 

[DelenaСhelsiecain]

Cat5e or Cat6 cables are usually solid choices for most home setups. If you're looking for reliable brands, you can't go wrong with options like Belkin, AmazonBasics, or Mediabridge. They offer decent quality cables at affordable prices.

Now, remember that cable length also plays a role. Try to keep it as short as possible, as longer cables can sometimes introduce signal degradation.

 

[Sajvinder]

Cat5e or Cat6 cables are usually solid choices for most home setups. If you're looking for reliable brands, you can't go wrong with options like Belkin, AmazonBasics, or Mediabridge. They offer decent quality cables at affordable prices.

Now, remember that cable length also plays a role. Try to keep it as short as possible, as longer cables can sometimes introduce signal degradation.

Thanks. Is there any harm in going for a CAT 8 cable. I know most homes won't make use of it but the price difference for a 1m cable is so minor I thought might as well get it if there is no draw backs in connection and speed

 

[bill001g]

There will be a major price difference in actually certified cat8 cables. Almost everything you find on the internet is fake cables. It is very hard to know who sell real cat8 cable. It is only used in data centers where they need 40gbit. Like all things used in data centers it is expensive stuff...think about 10 times the cost of a similar cat6a cable.

If you are talking patch cables just buy cat5e. They are easily replaced when you get equipment that needs more than 1gbit. The ends are fairly easily damaged so you might replace cables. Cables you run inside the walls you might consider cat6a.

What is key is the cable must be pure copper (no cca) it also must have wires 22-24 awg (no flat or thin cables).
Read the fine print and do not buy any cable that you can not clearly find this information. The vendor that sell quality cable know about all the fake cables and want you to know why you pay a bit more for real cables. Copper metal is expensive.
Monoprice tends to be a brand of cable you can find in amazon on the uk. Be careful even they sell those thin cables that you should not use.

You generally only need cat5e for home use.

Cat5e is rated to 1gbit at 100 meters. It can also run 2.5 and 5g.

Cat6 is a dead standard since it was invented. It is was to carry 1gbit over 2 pair or wires but nobody built devices that did that. It can run 10gbit at shorter distance. Since there is little difference in price to cat6a you should use that if you have 10gbit.

Cat6a is the main cable used for 10gbit and can go 100 meters

Cat7 is a standard that was never finalized that runs 10gbit. It provides no advantage over cat6a but is more costly.

Cat8 is only really used in data centers but if you want bragging rights with your friends and can find real cat8 cable it will do 1gbit just fine.

Anything else you see like "cat6e" are made up names and indicate it is a fake cable.

 

[Sajvinder]

There will be a major price difference in actually certified cat8 cables. Almost everything you find on the internet is fake cables. It is very hard to know who sell real cat8 cable. It is only used in data centers where they need 40gbit. Like all things used in data centers it is expensive stuff...think about 10 times the cost of a similar cat6a cable.

If you are talking patch cables just buy cat5e. They are easily replaced when you get equipment that needs more than 1gbit. The ends are fairly easily damaged so you might replace cables. Cables you run inside the walls you might consider cat6a.

What is key is the cable must be pure copper (no cca) it also must have wires 22-24 awg (no flat or thin cables).
Read the fine print and do not buy any cable that you can not clearly find this information. The vendor that sell quality cable know about all the fake cables and want you to know why you pay a bit more for real cables. Copper metal is expensive.
Monoprice tends to be a brand of cable you can find in amazon on the uk. Be careful even they sell those thin cables that you should not use.

You generally only need cat5e for home use.

Cat5e is rated to 1gbit at 100 meters. It can also run 2.5 and 5g.

Cat6 is a dead standard since it was invented. It is was to carry 1gbit over 2 pair or wires but nobody built devices that did that. It can run 10gbit at shorter distance. Since there is little difference in price to cat6a you should use that if you have 10gbit.

Cat6a is the main cable used for 10gbit and can go 100 meters

Cat7 is a standard that was never finalized that runs 10gbit. It provides no advantage over cat6a but is more costly.

Cat8 is only really used in data centers but if you want bragging rights with your friends and can find real cat8 cable it will do 1gbit just fine.

Anything else you see like "cat6e" are made up names and indicate it is a fake cable.

Was a little suspicious why data centre grade cable was being sold like it was candy.

Atleast on amazon it seems most wire don't have pure copper and the 22-24awg. As you say even monoprice.

A little dubious/wary of picking one now.

From your description and the thread 6 or 6a would suit my needs (online gaming mostly).

Any suggestions of specific wires that meet the pure copper 24 awg spec? Only needs to be 1m or 2m - a lot of the ones I've found are for 10-50m


Rhinocabl looks like it meets the criteria?

Ugreen
Guessing this is a fake one. Ant ide why it is so popular.

 

[BFG-9000]

Well not very many customers are actually going to be able to test that Cat8 at 2GHz to see if it is real.

Given it's only easy to find bulk cabling from the real quality cable manufacturers such as Belden or Superior Essex instead of finished patch cords, your best bet for good quality is probably by some networking supplier. For example Panduit has blue 24ga Cat6a as UTP6AX7BU for 7' length (I see green on Amazon as well as black but search there is dreadful and the price seems really high).

Companies like Blue Jeans cable use Belden 24ga Cat5e to assemble custom lengths, and do ship internationally but standard length patch cords are commodity products available worldwide so it would be far better to source them locally. That said, Monoprice does ship to the UK and has a far larger selection in their store than on Amazon--for example here are their pure copper 23 and 24ga cables from China. The common brands in big-box home-improvement or electronics stores such as Leviton will usually be 26 or 28ga.

 

[kerberos_20]

Any suggestions of specific wires that meet the pure copper 24 awg spec? Only needs to be 1m or 2m - a lot of the ones I've found are for 10-50m

for this short range, you dont need any fancy cable, even CCA is sufficient, for longer ranges you will need proper copper cables

 

[bill001g]

My guess would be the rhino cable is ok. Be really nice if they said it was copper wire. Amazon though changed the rules a bit and made them list if it was CCA. Not all vendors are honest.
This is where you get the cable and look at what is printed on the cable it normally says CCA. A lot of copper cable will say CU on it but not all. amazon has a no questions ask return policy

The price is pretty close to this monoprice cable so it is likely ok.

Amazon.co.uk

I really wish amazon would crack down on fake computer gear as much as they do on a fake purse or watch.

 

[bill001g]

A little more looking but this company seems to sell valid cables in amazon uk.
It is mostly a matter of finding what they actually have in stock.

StarTech

StarTech Home Page - Connectivity Accessories for the IT Pro

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Misgar]

Buy two identical cables. Chop one in half, strip back the insulation and scrape the individual "Copper" conductors. If you see dull silver under the copper, it's Copper clad Aluminium. I know it's a waste of money but it should give you some confidence in the supplier's claims.

An expensive cable tester might also weed out bad cables, if it can measure DC resistance/AC impedance, cable capacitance, crosstalk, etc., per 100m. Cheap testers just show continuity and correct plug wiring.

 

[BFG-9000]

There's probably nothing wrong with good quality CCA, provided the ends are compatible with it. It has to be way harder to engineer the teeth on those since aluminum has a different expansion rate so they'll tend to get loose over time, leading to similar unreliability issues as using ends intended for solid wire on stranded.

Theoretically, the copper layer only has to be around 6.5μm thick for the up to 100MHz that normal gigabit runs at, to cover skin effect. It can actually be thinner for 10Gbit or 40Gbit cables! But CCA is primarily made to be cheap and so is made cheaply with varying thickness of plating. That can be bad as aluminum only has 61% the conductivity of copper so electricity travels through it at a different velocity factor, leading to echoes and reflections. I'd rather have too thin a gauge of all-copper wire than proper thickness cheap CCA--I mean the resistance may be just as high but at least it is consistent throughout. If the ends can reliably attach to 30ga, well then that's good enough for just a short cable.

With all the error correction in networking you're not going to notice anything, although it may benchmark detectably slower. One of those places I mentioned actually includes a high frequency certification test report with each cable, while most manufacturers will only test for continuity.