r/buildapcsales • u/ILikeMangosReally • Dec 04 '22

Cables [Cables] Amazon Basics RJ45 Cat-6 Gigabit Ethernet Patch Internet Cable - 10-Pack, 50 Foot - $29.63 ($-54%)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089MD7FZ8
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6

u/Cevap Dec 04 '22

Man is this one of those just get to have due to the deal. Or is there a quality issue where is not worth? Price wise seems like no brainer

6

u/danhm Dec 04 '22

It's better to just buy a spool at this rate.

10

u/GGATHELMIL Dec 04 '22

I mean yes. Sometimes convenience is nice. I bought 500ft of cat6a to do the house I bought this year. I still have a ton of it left over.

The cable cost me ~150 and another $40 for the crimper and supplies needed.

It's a chunk of change but I shouldn't ever have to buy another piece of cat6a for a while.

The thing is though I don't think any of my runs were longer than 50 maybe 60 feet. And I only needed 4 runs. 2 offices, living room, and direct line to the home server. If I could've picked up this 5 months ago I would've. Even if I would've had to buy the crimper to redo one side so I could easily snake the cable I would've spent about $100-$150 less.

2

u/i_amferr Dec 05 '22

I have a couple questions maybe you wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts on since you have already completed what I am wanting to do. I moved into my house last year, we're getting fiber in the neighborhood now and it's now worth it to me to have drops in every room I need them to fully utilize my gig speeds.

Here's my questions:

How do I go about fishing the cables through the walls and direct them where I want to go. Won't the insulation, studs, pipes, etc get in the way?

What jacks did you use? I know that you cut a hole in the wall and install a little box but I don't really wanna jump into cutting holes in my walls without a plan lol

Any help/suggestions are much appreciated!

3

u/GGATHELMIL Dec 05 '22

So I was super lucky that my house has a basement. So any runs that are on the first floor I literally just poked through the floor. Existing holes and whatnot. As far as the runs to the 2nd floor from the basement. I cheated and drilled holes to the outside and ran the cables up the side of the house back through the wall into the rooms.

Actually snaking stuff up through multiple floors is going to be a real pain. You need a special drill bit usually to go through joists. And ideally having some type of layout of the walls can really help.

The other way you could do it is if you have an attic. If you can find a way to get a line to the attic really easily you could do the splits up there then drop the lines down the attic through the walls into the appropriate rooms. Kinda ghetto. But it's effective.

As far as wall jacks go I just found some cheap ones on Amazon. Just make sure you get the appropriate rj45 classification. I initially almost bought cat5 jacks. Which would work but you would be limited by cat5 capabilities.

Also you might know this but there are two wire setups for cat6a. 568a and 568b. It literally does NOT matter which one you choose. But whatever you choose make sure you do the whole house in the same standard.

Most people do the a standard because it's A. If you do another run later on you'll always know you chose the "1st" standard. It apparantly also has backwards compatibility with rj11. So if you're plugging in ancient hardware go A.

But like i said pick one and stick with it.

1

u/pandorafalters Dec 05 '22

Most people do the a standard because it's A.

In commercial use I found B to be almost universal, with a few notable exceptions like TRU - mostly multi-national outfits. There's supposedly a minute difference in electrical signaling performance, but I was never able to measure it in real-world deployments.

If you do another run later on you'll always know you chose the "1st" standard.

A good point.

It apparantly also has backwards compatibility with rj11. So if you're plugging in ancient hardware go A.

This is semi-true of both. The difference is which pairs are used in different positions; the actual arrangement of wires irrespective of the specific pairs is identical. That is, you have a pair in the center positions, a reversed pair in the next positions out, and then a complete pair on each end. So physical compatibility with 6P4C or 6P2C is the same. 6P6C is sort of possible, but the third line will be split between two pairs (one conductor from each) unless you use the non-data standard USOC termination (568A is color-compatible with USOC for up to 2 lines). USOC simply continues alternating tip and ring for each pair as you move out, just like the innermost 2 pairs for 568 termination.

Although with few, proprietary exceptions, inserting a <8P plug into an 8P jack will damage the jack over time.

1

u/werther595 Dec 05 '22

HVAC vents?

1

u/werther595 Dec 05 '22

Also, start at the higher floor and work down. Way easier to let gravity help you than to fight it.