What's the difference?

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What's the difference between solid and stranded network cable?

In the process of doing up a house, and want to run Cat6 cables to every room from a central switch - getting faceplates etc is easy enough, but what's the best type of cable to use?

Also, can you get a BT socket that has a built in ADSL filter to use on the BT master socket, or can such things only be used for extensions?

Cheers.
 
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i thought cat6 was a pain in the backside, easier to use cat5e?

(something about if the cable twists it can stop working)


edit: BT faceplate only works on master socket, will not work on extentions afaik
 
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DaveP3@ you are a star! That is exactly what I was after!

However, the only thing I'm not clear on from the item description is - if I have phone extensions wired directly off the master (ie, not via extension cables plugged into the phone side of the splitter) do I still need filters at the other end of each extension, or will the filter in the main socket be enough? But then I could get some of the ADSL linejacks which would cover it either way. Ho hum.

I did put up another post at about 5pm but dunno where it's gone. Anyway, what I think I said was something like...

The LAN cables will be run from a central switch in the hall under the floorboards to drop points in each room - both upstairs and down - so I guess either solid or stranded would be ok, but I was thinking of going with the stranded since I'll be able to make some patch cables out of the leftovers. However, I've now also seen something called FTP and also shielded cable. What do you reckon would be best?

The reason I said Cat6 is cause I want it to be a gigabit LAN, and some peeps say Cat5e is fine, but others say Cat6. Thought I'd play it safe and go Cat6...
 
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CF93 said:
The reason I said Cat6 is cause I want it to be a gigabit LAN, and some peeps say Cat5e is fine, but others say Cat6. Thought I'd play it safe and go Cat6...

5e is definately fine for gigabit - I've got 13 offices all with Cat5e structured cabling running with nice shiny gigabit switches.

STP and FTP aren't really worth the bother unless you're going to ground the shielding, and even then if the earth isn't great you'll run into problems. Also, try making patch cables with FTP or STP - it is an absolute pig of a job.

Cat5e UTP will do the job nicely.

If your telephone extensions are cabled up after the filter in the 'master' socket then they won't need to be filtered again.
 
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burbleflop said:
5e is definately fine for gigabit - I've got 13 offices all with Cat5e structured cabling running with nice shiny gigabit switches.

STP and FTP aren't really worth the bother unless you're going to ground the shielding, and even then if the earth isn't great you'll run into problems. Also, try making patch cables with FTP or STP - it is an absolute pig of a job.

Cat5e UTP will do the job nicely.

Cat5e UTP it is then!


burbleflop said:
If your telephone extensions are cabled up after the filter in the 'master' socket then they won't need to be filtered again.

Dunno how the hard wiring works on the master socket, so dunno if the extensions are before or after the filter, so dunno if the connections will need filtered again!

Anyone know the answer to this one?
 
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CF93 said:
Dunno how the hard wiring works on the master socket, so dunno if the extensions are before or after the filter, so dunno if the connections will need filtered again!

Anyone know the answer to this one?

I know for the NTE5 I've got on one of the fax lines at work, the filter is before the extensions but I believe there are different versions. Guess you'll just need to try it and see?
 
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There are different boxes available by the looks of it. I was too tired to read the details properly last night - will look at lunchtime again.

Need to order the stuff today (cables being now, floors go back down Friday!) so hopefully I'll be able to do that once I've read the site again!

Cheers for your help.
 
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