Cable details

There are several details for each cable which can be specified, although not all combinations are possible.

Shielding

All of our ethernet cables are of the "twisted pair" kind and can be supplied with or without shielding. The unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables are suitable in most cases and are less expensive. The shielded twisted pair (STP) cables employ a foil shield to reduce electromagnetic interference. These STP cables should be used in environments with significant EM noise which would otherwise degrade the signal.

Core

Both solid core and stranded core cables are available. The solid core cables are stronger, but that extra strength means that they are less flexible. They are ideally suited to applications where they will be positioned once and then rarely moved. Stranded core cables (also sometimes called "patch cables") are much more flexible, and less prone to breakage under use than the solid core cables. They are suited to shorter runs where the cable is frequently moved.

Category

Our standard cables are made to category 5e (Cat5 Enhanced). This ISO standard ensures a sufficiently higher performance than Cat5 to enable the deployment of Gigabit Ethernet systems, while remaining fully backwards-compatible.

For more demanding uses, we recommend the use of our category 6 (Cat6) cables. These are made to provide bandwidths of up to 250MHz and to exceed ISO 11801. For optimum performance and future-proofing of your copper networks we recommend the use of Cat6 cabling throughout. All of our Cat6 cables use LSOH (Low Smoke Zero Halogen) outer jacket as standard.

Exterior / Outdoor use

Only the Exterior grade cable is suitable for outdoor use. This is a UTP Cat5e solid core cable with a special weather retardant coating. For your safety, please consult a qualified electrician when running cables outdoors.

Colour

All Cat5e UTP interior grade cables are available in either grey, red or blue. Larger orders for other colours may be considered - please call for more information. STP cables are available in grey. Since Cat6 cables are all LSOH, they are colour coded as violet. Exterior grade cables are available in black.

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