Flat Ethernet Cales

[Bagnaj97]

Also, I'm not sure about how well it would route around corners; a straight run should be easy, but I can't see how the flat profile will bend?

It doesn't bend, well not in a useful radius if it needs to stay flat! If you're going round corners then Herulach's suggestion is best - run it behind the skirting instead.

As for keeping it place, staple gun with sufficiently wide staples?

As for all the discussion about whether it's technically CAT5e etc, the stuff I used was perfectly happy carrying gigabit - does it really matter whether it's cat5e or not as long as it does the job?!

[peterb]

As for all the discussion about whether it's technically CAT5e etc, the stuff I used was perfectly happy carrying gigabit - does it really matter whether it's cat5e or not as long as it does the job?!

No!


(But I think the point was whether it should be sold as Cat5 if it wasn't compliant in all respects )

[TheAnimus]

I'm still confused as to what is required to be a 'Cat5e' cable say.

The physical connectors are well defined, the colours, the electrical characteristics.

Come on chaps, let's make this a group effort to update the wikipedia articles, all we need as some good reputable sources on the matter.

[Rob_B]

I've got some flat stuff, parcel taped to the floorboards then carpet over the top, works a treat

[Brian224]

A few years ago I bought a retractable 2.4m ethernet cable in Poundland. When I needed to run a cable under the carpet to the TV I opened it up and used the cable. Amazingly I can get two simultaneous 500 Mb/s (the maximum either of my network drives gives me) connections over it. It may not be CAT5E certified but it is certainly value for money.

Despite this, I can't help but wonder if the installation would be easier with the thick green underboard panels which would give enough clearance for conventional cable.

[peterb]

I'm still confused as to what is required to be a 'Cat5e' cable say.

The physical connectors are well defined, the colours, the electrical characteristics.

Come on chaps, let's make this a group effort to update the wikipedia articles, all we need as some good reputable sources on the matter.

The standards are there, TIA/EIA 568. It's getting hold of them from open sources rather than buying them that's difficult.

It is the physical characteristics that are in doubt. The reference I sited earlier for cabling in commercial buildings specified physical characteristics, but I don't know if they are universal.

I can see why the physical characteristics might be important - mechanical strength for example, or how the physical construction would affect the electrical performance. But Cat 5 isn't (AFAIK) a trademarked logo, and I suspect that when most people talk about cat5, they are referring to the electrical characteristics - which generally follows from the physical form.

As an aside, the building standard just talks about the outer covering as a thermoplastic, but modern building regulations almost always specify LS0H insulation for commercial installations - would that be strictly Cat5 compliant? And external grade cat5 - is there a standard for that - the only difference is a different formulation for the outer, thicker and UV and abrasion resistant - I wonder if that is covered? The standard is pretty old.

Domestically, the actual performance of the cable may not be the limiting factor, unless you are using bits of twisted string, so the flat cable will be fine. For very short runs you could probably get away with untwisted cable!

CAT5e (e for extended) I think refers to a tighter mechanical spec - particularly the twist pitch - to reduce the EM radiation from the transmitting pairs, and improve the common mode susceptibility of the receiver pairs

[Lister]

I just went for powerline adaptors to save the hastle

[Bagnaj97]

I just went for powerline adaptors to save the hastle

Great for sharing an Internet connection, not so good for large file transfers. Gigabit ethernet does what it says on the tin - 1000Mbps up and down. Powerline adaptors, presumably for marketing reasons, add their duplex speeds - 500Mbps powerline is actually 250Mbps up and 250Mbps down. Even then that's only under ideal conditions; my 500Mbps powerline adaptors sit at around 45Mbps each way (or 90Mbps in Powerline terms), which means they actually bottleneck my Internet connection!