Upcoming Network Cable Shootout - What Criteria Is Important To You?

IPVM • IPVMU Certified

We are doing a network cable shootout with 10 or 11 varieties of Cat 5e and Cat 6. We have purchased the materials needed and will be using a Fluke Networks DSX-5000 to measure compliance and performance.

Some criteria we have and data points we have discusses internally are:

Box/Reel Construction / Ease of Pull
Cable construction
Attenuation at 50ft, 150ft, and 300ft
Crosstalk at 50ft, 150ft, and 300ft
Pricing / Availability

What information would you like to see reported? Let us know if the comments.

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Shannon Davis

IPVMU Certified

Color of the internal conductors. Are the white/blue and so on conductors easily identifiable. Some cables the striped conductors are almost impossible to see so it is easy to mix up.

Footage markings. I think most category cables are plainly marked with the footage these days but having the footage countdown in my opinion is really important. Nothing is more aggravating than having to figure out how much cable is left on a reel.

If you are making making RJ45 connections how well do the conductors smooth out. Some have been hard to get smoothed out to keep the pairs in line.

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Undisclosed #2

In reply to Shannon Davis

Been awhile, but wasn't there a single manufacturer which claimed a patent on counting down backwards from 1000ft on each reel so you didn't have to keep track of the original foot marker and do the math?

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Shannon Davis

In reply to Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified

I never heard of that but almost sounds like Arecont and the multi-imager patent, which was done in the analog days back in the late 90's way before Arecont. I know we used to get General Cable and it had the count down on it. Not sure if they had a patent though.

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Ethan Ace

In reply to Undisclosed #2

There are multiple manufacturers who used to do this, but I've been out of the cable game awhile, too. I believe Mohawk or Superior/Essex used to do it. Those were the two we most often used at my old LAN cabling gig.

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Rob Dunham

Tailored IT Solutions

In reply to Ethan Ace

All cable manufacturers include footage markings. It's required for compliance.

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Undisclosed Integrator #1

Empty half the box, throw it across the room 5 or 6 times, put it in the back of your truck for 6 months and let us know which ones don't tangle.

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Clint Hays

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1

You definitely deal with install techs...

Don't forget to kick it down stairs to get it to the truck.

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Rob Dunham

Tailored IT Solutions

In reply to Clint Hays

Down steps? Don't you mean drop it out of the second story windows onto the lawn by the truck?

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Michael Miller

Can you add Windy City Wire to this test?

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John Scanlan

In reply to Michael Miller

IPVM • IPVMU Certified

Thanks and yes, we have Cat 5e and Cat 6 from them already included.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

Copper vs CCA

- basic performance

- packet loss

- maximum PoE distances

- power variances

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John Scanlan

In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

IPVM • IPVMU Certified

Thanks U3 - we have Cat 5e CCA as well as Cat 6 CCA.

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Lasse Sørensen

•Oct 26, 2018

My current worries is that outdoor cable with a PE jacket (uv resistant) is not welcome indoor because fire and PE is a very good fire mover. Is there any UV resistant (outdoor) cable there can be used both indoor and outdoor without fire spreading?

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Joe Mirolli

In reply to Lasse Sørensen

IPVMU Certified

Yes you can find it readily available in Non-plenum versions and some have a plenum version. $$$

Also we're typically, at least with most work I am doing, using underground conduits and very rarely am a stringing a lashing wire along with a UV rated cable between two points anymore.

So UV rating is not as important as being water blocked. Never good to have exposed cable.

Here's a plenum UV version from hitachi:

Hitachi Drybit Indoor-Outdoor cable

Gel-less cable is so much nicer!

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Chris Daniels

In reply to Lasse Sørensen

IPVMU Certified

Your worries are well founded. NEC 800.48 code limits unlisted cable within a building space to no more than 50' beyond the point of entrance. That distance shrinks to "as close as practicable to the point of entrance" when primary protection is required.

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Fletcher Williams

•Oct 26, 2018

IPVMU Certified

See which ones burn more or less easily, in some way.

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Mendy lewis

•Oct 26, 2018

Safezone24

MHz differences 350 vs 550 or 600

and tape wire

http://www.taperwire.com/datawire.htm

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Chris Daniels

IPVMU Certified

There are some criteria, codes, industry best practices and extended warranty gotchas that you should cover with regard to cable selection;

Where the code requires the use of CMR (riser) vs. CMP (plenum) and related costs

Where best practices require you to use wet location cables, buried conduits, under slab etc. and how the use of unlisted cables affects cable warranty

Where code requires/ make provisions for shielded cables to 140' from structures and impact on primary surge protection.

Bonded pair cable and time to terminate.

Cable conductor size in relation to PoE++

The dangers of counterfeit cables (copper clad aluminum, not solid copper). How to identify the counterfeit and what are the dangers of using this cable especially with higher power PoE.

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Clint Hays

Run 4 cables 150' through a warehouse on a scissor lift without someone on the ground to assist, and determine which fought you the least. How often the memory of the wire coils it back up, how easily it pulls out of the box, if it assholes up between rediron...

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Ty Mullen

COR Security, Inc.

In reply to Clint Hays

And how much fatigue the jacket appears to have. Some category cable jacketing seems to look very fatigued with only a little bit of pulling. And there for I would assume that wire is taking more abuse. Though it is difficult to measure that.

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Glen Powell

Country of origin/manufacture

Test lab certifications (UL, ETL, CE, etc)

Verified conductor gauge/diameter consistency

Punch-down performance (% of successful terminations)

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Dave Arnould

Look at the bend radius of different cable. Cat6A cable has lots of issues with trying to get the cabling into camera housings without having connection issues.

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Rob Dunham

Tailored IT Solutions

In reply to Dave Arnould

I agree with you in practice, but bend radius is determined by code and it's always greater than the manufactured limit so this test would be purely academic.

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Greg Sachnewycz

IPVMU Certified

Are you including Vertical Cable company https://www.verticalcable.com/

in your tests; including the outdoor rated Cat 5e?

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Rob Dunham

Tailored IT Solutions

I'd really like to see some more manufacturers added.

West Penn Wire (Made in USA!)

Wirepath

ICE Cable

PRIMAL Cable (also by Ice Cable)

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

In reply to Rob Dunham

Paige too!

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Undisclosed Integrator #5

In reply to Rob Dunham

West Penn is a second class cable not to be used except as a pull wire or attaching ladders to the truck....

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Jeff Shanab

I worked for an company in the Chicago area and they had the neatest product. Soething I though of it in high-school myself, but these guys really did it right.

http://www.smartwire.com/SmartWire/What-is-SmartWire.aspx

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Rob Dunham

Tailored IT Solutions

In reply to Jeff Shanab

I've seen cable like this before. It's more of a novelty item. It usually doesn't work out well in the field, especially on larger jobs.

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Jeff Shanab

I am not a field tech myself, never bought more than a box at a time for personal use. Nice to know how much is left in the box. They also have another product that lets you feed from multiple boxes at once and they extended the label idea to alarm wire, etc. OMG, I am starting to sound like a sales guy.

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John Scanlan