Network Cable Length?

[ProDave]

Someone wants me to run a network cable to their studio at the end of the garden.

I reckon it's about 150 metres total cable run.

2 Q's:

Where can I buy a 200 metre drum of cat5 or cat6 cable?

Will one of the network ports on a standard BT home hub drive a cable that long or does it need something better?

 

[roys]

Screwfix 68577 is a 305 meter drum of cat5e. Presume you didn't need armoured. They will even deliver to you up North

Not sure about the BT hub driving the 150m.

 

[Apache]

I looked into something similar and was told max length is 100m, but would likely work fine (if a tad slower) for very much longer distances.

305m rolls of Cat 5/e are how it comes as far as I know. That's what I bought from CPC

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Yup 305m is the standard (from some imperial yank measurement)  Dont buy screwfix cable. Buy only copper and not cc, copper clad.

 

[steptoe]

305m is 1000' iirc, no idea why it's that length, but it is,

Oh, and you want cat5e, or 6,  deffo not cat5 , 

And as above

for that sort of length make sure it's copper, and not copper clad, 

 

[Badger]

I'd got cat 6 if I was you

 

[ProDave]

Never used Cat 6

Is it the same colours? same make up? what's the difference?

 

[Badger]

Cat6 is just bigger but on a run over 100 meters you'd need a booster anyway

 

[Andy™]

Never used Cat 6

Is it the same colours? same make up? what's the difference?

£

 

[pickleye]

I was told 100m Max on data, a "proper" tester I believe will fail a cable longer than 90m, (100m plus 2 x5m patch cables)

I'm sure longer would work, but cross talk and other stuff I don't know about would increase reducing speeds.

"Never used Cat 6

Is it the same colours? same make up? what's the difference?"

Higher transmission rates are possible on cat 6, I think there's more copper in cat 6 and a filler/separator core. Slightly bigger diameter than 5.

 

[kerching]

Standard is 90 m fixed

10m patch leads

100 total

Hiwever I have a site with a 230m total,length....no problems YET.....but they are only sending data files and NOT BFO picture files

Make sure you use GOOD quality cable and not CCA as that is formed from the diarrhoea of all Beelzebubs syphillitc concubines mixed with Barrymores pool water and Max Cliffords personality

Use decent connectors and pray

No,offence

 

[M107]

Dave

Kerch has beaten me to it......

But here is some info for you..

https://www.blackbox.com/resource/genPDF/White-Papers/CAT6A-FUTP-VS-UTP.pdf

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Cat 6 is orrible stuff to terminate and you cant get a tight radius on it.

I understand higher speeds are possible, but is that the case when its just an extension of an existing home or small office network using standard router, pc,s etc ?

 

[M107]

No matter what cable you use, your network will only be as fast as the slowest piece of hardware it is routed through.

Cat 6 is orrible stuff to terminate

I'm currently at 10 stations down with the network upgrade, in the region of 5 miles of cat6 installed so far.......................only 7 more & the training centre left to go.

Deep joy............all that kroning at patch panels & RJ45 outlets, not as mind numbingly boring as PAT'ing ................but close!

 

[ProDave]

Okay I did this job today.

It got delayed by other stuff, holdays etc.

I bought a 305M drum of copper cat5e outside cable from ebay for £60

Pacing it out again, I think the run was about 120 metres in total.

Connected it up, plugged the computer in, nothing, squat, "no network connected". ******.

I then spent an hour chasing the problem, and found no problem.

I belled out the pairs end to end individually. Each pair has a resistance of 13.9 ohms, all identical (if someone cares to look up the resistance per metre of cat5e we can work out the actual length from that)

Plugged it back in again and started playing with windoze 8 network diagnostics (customers laptop) First time I have seen windoze 8, hopefully the last time as well.

Now it got puzzling here.  I couldn't find anything "wrong" except it said "no network connected".  Oh hang on it briefly said "network connected" then "not connected again". What's going on?

The longer I left it, the more it stayed on "network connected" until after 20 minutes or so it was connected all the time.

So I left it "working" but all a bit unsatisfactory.  I don't know if it's going to come back and bite me or just carry on now.  Does a network connection "learn" and adjust over time to a poor connection?

 

[Sidewinder]

The "theoretical" maximum length for an Ethernet connection is 100m.

Anything beyond that is down to luck.

Also, it's not just down to dc resistance as the tx frequency is well above dc.

You will eventually get a connection I suspect, as yes, a computer will "learn" to "adapt" to a bad connection, but, the rate will be dire.

Better cable will probably give you a better result.

Good quality Cat5E screened would probably do 120m, as probably Cat6 would, but even these are borderline on the standards.

Best option is to put a Smart Switch part way down unless you are going to change the cable.

 

[steptoe]

just a thought,

could you double up the cores?

would that make any difference?

a normal connection only uses 4 cores AFAIAA,

obviously you would need to work out what twisted pairs to combine, and might have to deviate from normal colours,

might be worth a try though,,,,,,,,

 

[binky]

as a thought, well 2 thoughts:-

1/ is there any merit in using something like a 0.75mm 7 core flex for the bulk of the run and splicing / soldering to cat cable for the start / finish f the run? I'm thinking more copper = lower resitance = better transmission speeds

2/ a decent wireless set-up?

Or taking Steps idea, using 2 cat cables?

 

[ProDave]

I thought all 4 PAIRS were used? I certainly connected and tested all 4 pairs.

 

[Andy™]

I thought all 4 PAIRS were used? I certainly connected and tested all 4 pairs.

nope, 2 pairs are generally unused for 10/100. 1000 uses all 4 pairs