cat 5e brands...

[Mucman]

I am planning on installing a home network and I am wondering if brand name for cables really matter? Does plenum really matter or is that only required for commercial buildings? I have seen cables going from $60 - $200US for 1000ft of cat5e cables.

thanks in advance

 

[Russ]

I've never really paid any attention to "brand", just made sure it's UL rated. No, you don't need plenum for 99% of home installations.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Mday]

call your local fire department about fire codes regarding plenum.

i'm with russ. sometimes name brand is better, but as long as it's UL, it's good.

mucman, how do you plan on doing this?

i am about to do the same to mine. but via the external way, that is, NOT inwall, which does not require plenum.

home depot is a good source for your cabling... i remember seeing 1000' for like $50 or so...

 

[Mucman]

Yeah I just saw your post Mday! I am thinking of running it under the base boards... We want to have a jack in every room for expansion (I have several PCs handy). I even have a little storage room where I will store the switch + 486 router + other networking gear! I can't wait to do it, but I want to make sure I do it right. I checked out Home Depot and I saw 500ft of 1000Mbit cat5e for $65cdn + a quality crimper for $75cdn + jacks and wall mounts.

 

[macssuck]

Be careful a friend of mine bought some generic cat5 and the striped wires(well they are supposed to be striped) were all white... he donated the cable to my cisco class... several guys want to kill him.

 

[igiveup]

Unless you are going to run your cable through air conditioning duct you won't need plenum. The reason why the stuff is so expensive is that in case of a fire, when plenum cable burns it won't give off any toxic fumes into the air supply. This would be bad....😀 I would second the UL rating thing. If its not then you just don't want it. Good luck Mucman. When you get a project like this done there really isn't a feeling like it. It can be hard work, but worth it.

Quick question: Don't want to get too technical with you cause thats not what we are here for, but do you know about wiring standards? EIA/TIA 568B or 568A? It will matter if you are getting the wall jacks. Most of those are setup for 568B by default and once you start with one wiring scheme you need to finish the entire network the same way. Just trying to make sure you don't wire the whole thing funny and then spend a ton of time troubleshooting and then rewiring, which is not fun, believe me. If you already know this stuff then just ignore me. If not then post back. Its better to get this stuff nailed down now.

Luck with the project.

 

[Mucman]

Thanks for the headsup, Igiveup 🙂

I am going to be using wallmounts and running the cable under the base-boards, btw... Where can I find some more info on those wiring standards... like I said, I want to make sure I do this right the first time 🙂

 

[ScottMac]

Anixter.com has the TIA/EIA spec ( http://anixter.com/techlib/d0500p01.htm#2 )

Good LUck

Scott