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1000 feet of CAT6 = $80

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Be aware that this is solid-core, not stranded. Good stuff, but it is stiffer than stranded, and also might damage ordinary wire cutters (I learned the hard way).
 
Opportunistic question here, while we're at it.

I bought a 1000ft spool of this stuff from amazon a few days ago. It's supposed to be stranded, but I still found it to be far stiffer than some of the manufactured cables that came with my routers and such. What am I missing??
 
Jenova314 said:
Opportunistic question here, while we're at it.

I bought a 1000ft spool of this stuff from amazon a few days ago. It's supposed to be stranded, but I still found it to be far stiffer than some of the manufactured cables that came with my routers and such. What am I missing??
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That cable has a self extinguishing coating on it and that might be the reason it is stiffer.
 
First, this is solid core cable used for in-wall applications. So don't try and crimp patch cables with male ends with it. You need stranded core for that. Terminate it with female ends.

Second, don't crimp your own patch cables. Buy them premade.

Jenova314: in the title, your product is rated CM. Key words to look for to identify fire retardant cable for building codes are: CMP, CMR, CL3, CM, CMG
 
Gast said:
First, this is solid core cable used for in-wall applications. So don't try and crimp patch cables with male ends with it. You need stranded core for that. Terminate it with female ends.

Second, don't crimp your own patch cables. Buy them premade.
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Why? I've made all of the patch cables in my house with solid core and never had a problem.
 
SaurusX said:
Why? I've made all of the patch cables in my house with solid core and never had a problem.
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Well they need to be crimped with solid core RJ45 connectors, as the "standard" connector is designed to punch into the middle of stranded cable with a point. Using these points on solid core can lead to poor or finicky connections. So that's the first hiccup people run into.

The solid core isn't made to bend regularly and won't hold up to repeated unplugging, storing, replugging. They'll get brittle and weak in the middle of the cable where it was bent. So your cables degrade rapidly with little indication.

Cat6 specs are so tight, it's extremely difficult to crimp patch cables to code. And they're a flat out pain to crimp to begin with. When you factor the cost of the cable, the crimper, the connectors, wastage, it's almost the same cost to just buy the machine made and tested cable. That's not even taking your time into consideration.

Everything I've read says if you really need a custom length or emergency patch cable, that you should terminate it with female jacks and use premade patch cables to reduce network issues. And then you should focus on replacing that cable with a manufactured one asap. Without a proper cable analyzer/validation, bad cables can cause you all kind of intermittent networking issues that are near impossible to pin down.
 
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