I need to buy ~100 2' patch cables. Anyone have a recommendation for an online retailer? I'll be needing 3-4 different colors.
Places to buy a bunch of patch cable
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Anyone ordered from Great Cables before?
Or how about Buy Cables Now? Extremely cheap, but i don't know if the cables are worth a damn.
And NDS Cables?
Or how about Buy Cables Now? Extremely cheap, but i don't know if the cables are worth a damn.
And NDS Cables?
I'd rather not make over 100 patch cables. I feel much more confident in a cable that's manufactured
Garion
Platinum Member
- Apr 23, 2001
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I've bought a bunch of cables from ComReady.com and was quite satisfied with them. They sell a 100-pack of 3' Cat5E cables for $85. Shipping was reasonable when I bought from them, as well.
FYI, I don't remember the details, but a lot of people recommend 3' as the minimum length for a network cable. That's all I've ever used and it's rare to see anything shorter. Anything less and you don't have room to run them cleanly, in any case.
- G
FYI, I don't remember the details, but a lot of people recommend 3' as the minimum length for a network cable. That's all I've ever used and it's rare to see anything shorter. Anything less and you don't have room to run them cleanly, in any case.
- G
I get all my cables from Anixter
I suggest you don't make your own patch cables. They are a pain to terminate, and I bet that they won't meet up with cat5 spec. I just ordered 20
5' blue cat5e patch cables and the final price with shipping and taxes was $160cdn. The fact that I know they are made to spec is enough to justify
the extra cost.
I suggest you don't make your own patch cables. They are a pain to terminate, and I bet that they won't meet up with cat5 spec. I just ordered 20
5' blue cat5e patch cables and the final price with shipping and taxes was $160cdn. The fact that I know they are made to spec is enough to justify
the extra cost.
I don't know if you have a Fry's electronics store nearby, but I've bought cable from them before. They usually have some very long spools which you can cut and crimp yourself at a pretty good price. But then again that's a lot of do it yourself work.
If you make your own cables, how do you know if they meet spec or not? I have purchased spools of cat5e from Home Depot and terminated it with the IDEAL brand rj45 jacks and all of my cables have been fine. Yes, it does take time but if you have good lighting and don't get frustrated they are somewhat simple after you do a couple dozen of them. I am not saying that I am a pro by any means but when you can buy the cable for 13 cents a foot or cheaper and you plan on running a lot of it, I suggest making your own if you have the tools and knolwedge.
BTW: Here is a site with good reading on how to make the cat5 cables
Had to but in on this one.
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
Period, point blank, do not make patch cables. I'm sure some very good cable guys who have been doing it for years can make some darn good ones. Do you realise how hard it is to get a good crimp on stranded cables? If you don't do this for a living then making patch cables seems like a good idea, if you do, then you don't.
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
Please trust me on this. If you talk to other network professionals you will hear the same story. Want your cable plant and network to run smooth with no problems whatsoever?
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
Period, point blank, do not make patch cables. I'm sure some very good cable guys who have been doing it for years can make some darn good ones. Do you realise how hard it is to get a good crimp on stranded cables? If you don't do this for a living then making patch cables seems like a good idea, if you do, then you don't.
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
Please trust me on this. If you talk to other network professionals you will hear the same story. Want your cable plant and network to run smooth with no problems whatsoever?
DON'T MAKE PATCH CABLES!!!!!!
The cable spool you get from Home Depot is solid core cable, and isn't meant for patch cables. In fact my supplier refuses to sell spools of
stranded cables because they know that only a machine can make stranded patch cables to spec. Of course, if this is your home network, and
performance, and reliability don't matter; Go nuts
I understand that completely for network pros who have much money involved with this but if you are doing this in a home what are the downfalls? The bulk cable is much easier to run underneath the house and through walls to the plates. Also, when homes are prewired I am sure they do not use premade cables. I understand that they do this for a living, but if they use the same the tools and supplies that I do what is the difference in the termination or tohers. I am not trying to pi#s anyone off or step on toes, but I really want to know what causes the problems, the crimps, quality of bulk cable or what? Please let us novices know
What type of cable is meant for patch cable then?
I have wired my apartment at college and my parents' home with non premade cable and they have been operating flawlessly for over 3 years now. Granted my residences are not wired to an OC3 connection, but they have been perfectly operational for a broadband connection and being able to share files and printers successfully over the LAN. I am not saying that they are meant for huge amounts of data transfers but they fine IMHO for the home.
What is a test you can run to tell if your cables meet up to cat5 or cat5e spec? Please lmk the answer to this question. Thanks
Kehi,
The main rub is you are not using the same cable, tools and equipment that the pros use.
Can you finish your basement or redo your plumbing? Sure you can. Will it perform the same as a professional? Almost certainly not.
If you look at the EIA/TIA cabling standards there are a few things that stand out:
Horizontal cabling (the kind that is permanent, like wired jacks in houses you mentioned) are to use solid core cabling with rated jacks.
You are allowed 5 meters of patch cable on either end of this solid core cable. This is a patch cable - it is suitable for moving around and patching the panels into the end gear.
The reason why you don't make your own patch cables is that is extremely difficult to get one to spec that will last any kind of movement. Solid core will break when moved around much and stranded is near impossible to get a good crimp by hand. Also the RJ45 ends are very different for stranded wire than the RJ45 ends for solid core.
Hope this helps. Sure in a home environment where performance doesn't matter one can make cables. This post was about quantity 100 patch cables, meaning it is probably not a home. And to garions point, the spec calls for a minimum patch length of 1 meter - has to do with reflections you can get from an impedance mismatch between the patch panel and gear.
As for a test for cat5 cables you will need a cat5 cable certification device. Fluke makes a fine one.
To drive this point home I have installed no less than 40,000 network nodes. Most problems by far are from cable that is out of spec. 95% of them.
I did a quick google search (10 seconds) and came up with this...
http://www.kwhw.co.uk/spec_568a.htm
The main rub is you are not using the same cable, tools and equipment that the pros use.
Can you finish your basement or redo your plumbing? Sure you can. Will it perform the same as a professional? Almost certainly not.
If you look at the EIA/TIA cabling standards there are a few things that stand out:
Horizontal cabling (the kind that is permanent, like wired jacks in houses you mentioned) are to use solid core cabling with rated jacks.
You are allowed 5 meters of patch cable on either end of this solid core cable. This is a patch cable - it is suitable for moving around and patching the panels into the end gear.
The reason why you don't make your own patch cables is that is extremely difficult to get one to spec that will last any kind of movement. Solid core will break when moved around much and stranded is near impossible to get a good crimp by hand. Also the RJ45 ends are very different for stranded wire than the RJ45 ends for solid core.
Hope this helps. Sure in a home environment where performance doesn't matter one can make cables. This post was about quantity 100 patch cables, meaning it is probably not a home. And to garions point, the spec calls for a minimum patch length of 1 meter - has to do with reflections you can get from an impedance mismatch between the patch panel and gear.
As for a test for cat5 cables you will need a cat5 cable certification device. Fluke makes a fine one.
To drive this point home I have installed no less than 40,000 network nodes. Most problems by far are from cable that is out of spec. 95% of them.
I did a quick google search (10 seconds) and came up with this...
http://www.kwhw.co.uk/spec_568a.htm
Thanks for the info. That makes some sense now. So would it be ok to run the solid core under the house and up through the walls to keystone jacks in the respective rooms? Then I would need to use the stranded patch cables from the wall to the computers/gear, correct or no? Thanks for bearing with me
Kehi,
yes, that would be good. Its really easy to screw up RJ45 ends, pretty hard to mess up punch down jacks if you have a good punch tool.
yes, that would be good. Its really easy to screw up RJ45 ends, pretty hard to mess up punch down jacks if you have a good punch tool.
- Oct 25, 1999
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We have take into consideration that a lot of people can not convince their parents, or wife, or husband, or boy friend, or girl friend, to spend few hundred (and more) on Pro wiring the house.
If it is for a personal use, no damage to a functional business, and the choice is between doing your self, and not having it at all. Why Not to try?
However the silliest thing is to terminate patches. If some one would like to make 100 cables. I.e. 200 Crimping of RJ-45, in order to save the $40- $50. I would say go head and do it (LOL), you deserve the punishment.
If it is for a personal use, no damage to a functional business, and the choice is between doing your self, and not having it at all. Why Not to try?
However the silliest thing is to terminate patches. If some one would like to make 100 cables. I.e. 200 Crimping of RJ-45, in order to save the $40- $50. I would say go head and do it (LOL), you deserve the punishment.
I bought some one-foot patch cables. They're handy for devices that are right by the switch or router. Is that a bad idea though? Should I get nothing smaller than 3 foot?
As noted before, Cyberguys sells this stuff in bulk.
Eighteen inches is the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM length, but one meter/three feet is the recommended minimum length. As Spidey mentioned, there are some issues with the electrical characteristics (reflection / standing waves / SWR - just like in the old CB days) with shorter lengths.
Shorter cables are generally a pain to route on the rack (as mentioned by Garion).
There is no advantage (beyond possible cosmetics / cable management) to using shorter cables. If your system is within spec, the extra foot/feet of patch cable will have no negative effects on the system.
Cabling is not the place to be cost-cutting. I was just on an educational network (in a support role), twenty-something sites, most complaining of slow network speed / high latency. Looking at the router stats (all Cisco 2500s or 3810s), I saw a bunch of places with THOUSANDS of "Carrier Loss" (usually flakey connectors or broken solid-conductor hand-made patch cables) huge collision counts, thousands to tens-of-thousands of "Late Collisions" (usually indicates a cabling problem) in a router with only a couple weeks of up-time.
The cabling plants were installed by a non-professional organization that was apparently clueless to the specifications. Now it's going to cost 'em a buncha bucks to go back and have the plant fixed/replaced. You shoulda heard the squeal when it was explained to 'em (and the thought of the expense sunk in).
The media, copper or fiber, and all the associated components (jacks, connectors, panels...) are the absolute foundation that everything else on the network depends on. If the cable's flakey, the network is gonna be flakey (and a major pain to troubleshoot). It'd be like buying a Ferrari, putting $20 tires on it, then hitting a wet road at 140MPH - a really bad idea.
For home, who cares (well, actually, I do. My home cabling is @ Cat6, and includes MM fiber everywhere).
For a business / organization, not doing the cabling properly and to specification is gross negligence. People have been sued for screwing it up (includes time lost, and the cost to bring it up to industry standards).
Done right, cabling is a Good Thing; done poorly, it's The Most Evil Thing you can experience on a network (or other application running over structured cabling).
That's my two cents or so.....
Scott
Shorter cables are generally a pain to route on the rack (as mentioned by Garion).
There is no advantage (beyond possible cosmetics / cable management) to using shorter cables. If your system is within spec, the extra foot/feet of patch cable will have no negative effects on the system.
Cabling is not the place to be cost-cutting. I was just on an educational network (in a support role), twenty-something sites, most complaining of slow network speed / high latency. Looking at the router stats (all Cisco 2500s or 3810s), I saw a bunch of places with THOUSANDS of "Carrier Loss" (usually flakey connectors or broken solid-conductor hand-made patch cables) huge collision counts, thousands to tens-of-thousands of "Late Collisions" (usually indicates a cabling problem) in a router with only a couple weeks of up-time.
The cabling plants were installed by a non-professional organization that was apparently clueless to the specifications. Now it's going to cost 'em a buncha bucks to go back and have the plant fixed/replaced. You shoulda heard the squeal when it was explained to 'em (and the thought of the expense sunk in).
The media, copper or fiber, and all the associated components (jacks, connectors, panels...) are the absolute foundation that everything else on the network depends on. If the cable's flakey, the network is gonna be flakey (and a major pain to troubleshoot). It'd be like buying a Ferrari, putting $20 tires on it, then hitting a wet road at 140MPH - a really bad idea.
For home, who cares (well, actually, I do. My home cabling is @ Cat6, and includes MM fiber everywhere).
For a business / organization, not doing the cabling properly and to specification is gross negligence. People have been sued for screwing it up (includes time lost, and the cost to bring it up to industry standards).
Done right, cabling is a Good Thing; done poorly, it's The Most Evil Thing you can experience on a network (or other application running over structured cabling).
That's my two cents or so.....
Scott
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