Installing Cat6a

[Wnt2bsleepin]

Hello,

I recently purchased a new router and a switch. I purchased 100ft of cat6a cable, but I am thinking it would be better to get a roll of it and to crimp my own ends. I was reading around here and noticed that you should use solid core cable when running it inside of walls. I don't plan on putting things behind sheetrock, but it will be running alongside ductwork. Will I be fine with the 100 feet of cable that I got, or should I get a roll of the solid core?

Also, does anybody have any Access Point recommendations?

 

[tvyankee]

Hello.

I think the solid core thing is more about punching it down then in wall or outside the wall. It think in general it is better practice to punch down solid core and crimp stranded. They make rj45 ends that are made for solid core but in general that's kinda of the rule.

Good luck.

 

[fistv]

I've run some cable in homes where I used the gap between the bottom of the sheet rock and the floor to run the cable, behind the molding. One older house that had 6" high thick fancy molding the finish carpenter routed out a 1" wide channel and cut recessed holes for the wall plate for a double RJ45. I don't like patch cable for runs. I prefer to run everything back to a central point with a wall or floor mounted rack where all the network stuff goes. you can surface mount and paint the plug mold or wire mold stuff to match but it's ugly, does have a snap on cover to add more cable as needed though. I've seen some of the new crimpers where the cable goes right though the RJ45 and it crimps and cuts in one squeeze. I don't do that very often anymore, I punch down to a panel and/or outlet, I buy patch cables.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I've seen some of the new crimpers where the cable goes right though the RJ45 and it crimps and cuts in one squeeze. I don't do that very often anymore, I punch down to a panel and/or outlet, .

I highly recommend the pass through connectors and crimping tool from Platinum Tools. Makes it much easier and less frustrating to make high quality cables.

 

[5mall5nail5]

Solid vs standed comes down to flexibility of the actual cable - solid should not be used in an instance where you will be moving the cable much as the solid conductors will fatigue and break. Stranded wire is much more flexible. But, stranded is harder to crimp and personally I avoid it.

For point to point connections I use solid. For cables from a wall to a node I use purchased patch cables (usually stranded).

 

[azazel1024]

Stranded also has higher ohmpacity/resistance than solid, which is why you never want to run stranded through walls. Well, that and punching down stranded is a serious B.

For patch cables, its up to you. I generally don't move my cables around a boat load. Even the patch cable I use for my laptop (5ft cable) sees a resonable amount of "wear" by being moved around. 18 months, working just fine.

You really have to kink a cable to put much stress on the wires in it.

Though, in this case, I'd never use 6a as a patch cable. Just too damned inflexible, heavy and thick. I'd just use 5e to make patch cables, cause even if you are using 10GbE, 5e will handle it, so long as the runs aren't super far.

 

[L&LD]

Stranded also has higher ohmpacity/resistance than solid, which is why you never want to run stranded through walls.

Word of the day: 'ohmpacity'.

 

[azazel1024]

ampacity is a thing. Therefore I declare that ohmpacity is a thing too