Decent Cat 5/6 cable?

I am looking for a good quality Cat 6 cable. I have been put off Belden's Datatwist because the pairs are bonded and I don't want the installation hassle.

I have got some good pricing on Nexans (Alcatel). Anyone know if this is a reasonable quality cable?

Reply to
no--spam
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I should add that it's theNexans LANmark 6 cable that I'm proposing to use.

Reply to
no--spam

As Berktek is a Nexans company on the US side of the pond, I would say that its similar to the Berktek LanMARK 2000, which is one of my preferred cables. It's not the cheapest, but I wouldn't use the cheapest cable anyway.

Reply to
Justin

So what do the professionals look for in cable other than price, for known name brands, at least.

ISTM that if the cable has CAT5e or CAT6 on the jacket it's going to do the job and meet the requirements. I can understand that some people don't like to work with cable that has the pairs bonded together.

What else is there ?

Reply to
Al Dykes

A couple other things to look for:

Is the tip just white or does it have the ring color as a tracer (ie white with a blue stripe)? I will say MOST manufactures do this, but I have seen semi-recently a MAJOR manufacture not.

The 'size' of the pull string in the cable. Some are hard to find, particularly in low light.

I've had one particular manufacture whose cable jacket would burn very easily when pulling.

Performance over the standard is important to me. I'll pay extra for a cable that has guaranteed performance above the standard. At the same time, I think that construction quality goes with the increased performance. Get get the better performing cable, you have to construct better cable.

And the least subjective of all, some cable just 'feels' better to work with. Whether its the way it comes out of the box, or the jacket scores when stripping, to the way the pairs lay when it is stripped.

Of course, price has to work > >

Reply to
Justin

So what do the professionals look for in cable other than price, for known name brands, at least.

We usually look for consistency. Professionals want a cable that is easy to work with, can be terminated quickly - which usually means no bonded pairs - pulls easily out of the box and is generally tough enough not to have the jacket cut the first time it runs into a burr or sharp edge.

Cheapie cables don't cut it, and the expensive ones are used only if the customer requests. That leaves the middle priced cables, Nexans, Mohawk, General and a few others. Read the specs, buy the best for the least and then test on how well it comes out of the box. Does it come out fairly easily, does it kink, how about when you get near the end of the box, does it hang-up in the box. Normal stuff when a job may involve 20 or 30 boxes of cable and time is short.

Reply to
Justin Time

I would suggest buying cable from

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I've used their stranded, shielded, and plenum cable and it works great. They also have very competive prices.

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cableguy714

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