It is not very difficult to install network cabling, nor is it very difficult to make flyleads. However, that doesn't mean that I'm suggesting it as a DIY option for all! It requires some knowledge and experience and has to be done with care. The results should also be tested, which obviously requires specialist equipment. Without testing, CAT-
n is CAT
nothing!
I recall watching over the shoulder as the engineers cabled a patch panel in my computer room. I was surprised to see them making sure that any stripped cable was re-twisted to
exactly the same lay. I like cabling neat, even inside a mains plug, but this seemed to be going a bit far! Oh no, I was told, it is essential: if the cable is untwisted it can no longer be to spec. I'm sure there was and is a lot more that I don't know about practical twisted-pair networking! It can be summed up thus: It needs to be done by a qualified engineer.
Surely, though, such people can be found in our cities? As with all trades, though, It is pretty hard to know who is good and who just tells us that they are good. How does one judge a good doctor without being one?
But if one wants a house cabled for CAT-
n networking, or flyleads made up, it must be possible. Flylead RJ45 connectors are only crimped, and only require a special tool. But beware of "only" because I have made up all sorts of cables in my hands-on small-office IT Management career, and they all worked except my network flyleads, which I decided to buy in or leave to the experts.
Properly done, CAT-
n ethernet networking is incredibly robust. I'm sure that many of the
cat flyleads I used were probably
dogs as per the Blue Jeans article, but apart from a handful of fails, problems were nearly always traced to configuration rather than physical cable. True, data centres have problems with imperfect cables, but there is huge difference between driving a network to its maximum and networking in business or home.
CAT-5[e] is good enough and fast enough for us. It is robust enough for us and resilient enough for us. I'm not saying don't buy CAT-6/etc... but there is no need to break heads over sourcing/installation. All these higher numbers do is to permit moving data faster and further. I don't think that running 10/100 over CAT-6 is going to be "better" than running it over CAT-5. And, if anybody insists on winding their cable around a fluorescent tube then nothing can save them!
A lot of times (enough number of times to be called often) these so called CAT7 cables are actually rebadged CAT5/CAT6. So watch out.
Oh dear, that doesn't surprise me at all. I think that if we serious about any level of CAT-
ness we must stick to names like Belden?
