[RndTbl] Cat 6 cable

[Trevor Cordes]

On 2024-02-26 Kevin McGregor wrote:
> What's the going price for a 1000' box of Cat 6 cable? Is there a good
> place to buy it in Winnipeg, or order online? I'm thinking of running
> some network cable in my house, most likely 1 GbE. I had previously
> used Cat 5E. Should I stick with that instead of 6?

My company can sell you 1000FT from many brands, and drop-ship or you
pick up at a meeting or my place.

You'll want to decide if you want/need "plenum-rated" or not, as if
you're going in return-air ducts (sometimes it's the only way, if even
just for a few feet) that's required/recommended.  Of course the plenum
stuff is more expensive.

If doing just 1Gb then 5e is fine if it's done fairly well.  However,
with cable runs it's not usually the cable cost that is the problem,
it's the time and effort needed to actually do the run.  So it usually
makes sense to run the best cable you can.

Adam is right: terminating CAT6 properly is generally harder than 5e,
as it's less tolerant, especially if you ever jack speeds up to 10Gb and
beyond.  The wall-plate style patch-cable-style keystone terminations
are by far the easiest, if you have a punchdown tool (can lend you
one).  The connector-style ones are really really really (really
really) tricky.  (I have all the keystones and wall plates for sale
too!)

I could also lend you my box and we just note the foot marker at the
start and end and bill you what you use.

I'll send you a private email with pricing.