STP vs. UTP. What cable do I need?

[Krueger81]

Hello,

I have been wrestling with this for over three days now. I really need to get an internet connectionupstairs to my room. My parents Rig is downstairs and the cable run would be around 100 FT or so. I have run Cat 5 UTP to a location and put a Wiresless Ethernet Bridge there. I know that connection to that point is fine. but if I use a couple and connect the end that goes into my room I get no connection at all.

There are some power wires and stuff in the way of the second run that might be affecting that is there any way I could test that? Would STP Cable work. and if so where could I find that? Locally . I do have access to lowes and Menards. The sell plenum there but I am not sure if that is the same.

Thanks
Phil

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I guess the mystery is exactly what this statement means:

I know that connection to that point is fine. but if I use a couple and connect the end that goes into my room I get no connection at all.

If you have a broadband router downstairs, the most desirable way to solve the problem is just run a CAT5 cable directly from the router to your location. If you want to continue the connection from that wireless bridge, why not obtain a cheap 4 or 5 port switch for $15 or so, and connect the wireless bridge and an extension cable to your room?

For runs more than 30-40 feet, the recommended cable is the solid wire, not stranded. If you run solid wire, it's desirable to terminate it in a wall jack so that the wire isn't continually flexed, since it's more fragile than stranded wire. You then use a short patch cable to connect to the wall jack. Lowes or Home Depot have a nice selection of wall jacks and wire.

 

[Krueger81]

what is stranded wire?

The run is from teh cable modem/router to a wireless bridge. from there I connect to a wireless access point upstairs in my room. Anything else won't work so there must be tons of interference between downstairs and upstairs.

Phil

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

It takes some serious EMI to seriously impact a properly wired CAT5 cable run, and most home environments won't be an issue. I've run a few thousand feet of CAT5 in a lot of homes and small offices, and I've yet to run across an issue with interference with the signal. I'll admit, most of it's been 10/100mbit stuff, only a couple of gigabit installations, but for what you describe, I doubt it's the environment.

I suggest you beg/borrow/steal a cable tester and find out why you can't connect after you run the wires, my guess is it's something pretty simple.

 

[Soybomb]

Plenum is not stp. Plenum is cable that is often required to be used when it is run in the airspaces of a building so when it burns it won't give of (as) toxic fumes as regular utp. Probably unnecessary for your use. First rule with stp is if you have to ask, its probably not for you. Among other things it must be grounded on one end which means your device must support that. If run improperly you'll get more interference. Use regular utp. Solid refers to the copper core of the cabling, its solid instead of stranded. Use stranded for your patch cables that will be moved, solid for the non-moving runs. For such a short distance and for home use you can get by with either, just don't play jump rope with the cable.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I really don't see the need for shielded cable for this application, and improperly installed, STP will make noise problems worse, not better.

 

[zTargeTz]

Originally posted by: gunrunnerjohn
I really don't see the need for shielded cable for this application, and improperly installed, STP will make noise problems worse, not better.

Plus its hard to find the stuff!

if your really worried about it, just make sure none of your cat5 is running parrelel to any powerlines /flourecent lights.. that helps a bunch with induction/noise

 

[NetWareHead]

Does anyone even install STP anymore? Hasn't fiber taken its place for environments with alot of interference?

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I truly think you have to go out of your way to encounter an EMI issue with standard CAT5 cable. I've run it across a dropped ceiling with tons of flourecent lights right under it, and it was never an issue. I think you're looking for trouble where none exists. Just run the cable and be done with it. The biggest issue most uses face is proper crimping of the connectors, not EMI.

 

[Abzstrak]

Originally posted by: gunrunnerjohn
I truly think you have to go out of your way to encounter an EMI issue with standard CAT5 cable. I've run it across a dropped ceiling with tons of flourecent lights right under it, and it was never an issue. I think you're looking for trouble where none exists. Just run the cable and be done with it. The biggest issue most uses face is proper crimping of the connectors, not EMI.

yea, it'll work, but run a sniffer and watch for those 01010101010101 packets.... ;-) sure, it works, but will runs faster without all the retransmissions.

I agree with everyone here though, if its not working you probably didn't crimp it right or you tore the crap out of the cable running it.... but even a pretty crappy looking cable still works alot of times.

 

[Krueger81]

yeah it was the connectors. must have been my brother in laws way of saying screw the standards

Phil

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

That's where I fix 99% of cabling issues when I go to a customer location.

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Does anyone even install STP anymore? Hasn't fiber taken its place for environments with alot of interference?

fwiw we use stp for delivering cas t1's and pri's to our co-located customers (at least the ones that don't have a ds3 or more)