Long Ethernet Cable

Tacitus · May 16, 2013, 17:34:15

Quote from: moreno5 on May 16, 2013, 12:45:28
Now you have completely thrown me! So if I buy a comms cabinet I need to have it lined during the winter with the door closed and then door open and ventilated during the summer! I might get the old man to custom make a lined cabinet with a set of fans on the back to ventilate it.

It all depends on your circumstances. Your garage might have a fairly constant temperature compared to my roofspace

OTOH it might have a temperature ranging from just the right side of freezing to circa 100+ deg F at the height of summer. A simple steel cabinet which is designed for use in a data centre environment will offer little protection against that range of temperatures. I keep a max/min thermometer in my cupboard so I know what is happening.

Also prior to installing the cupboard, I used a similar thermometer to determine the best place to put it. As it happens low down on the floor (= just above the ceiling) offered the best place with a relatively low variation in temperature all (well most) of which is within the specified range. In practice, simply leaving the door open in the summer months is OK.

QNAP (or Synology) NAS do not come cheap and I felt you might be as well looking at what is happening since a NAS/server in an environment with an excessive temperature variation could easily fail prematurely.

Tacitus · May 16, 2013, 17:40:59

Quote from: moreno5 on May 16, 2013, 12:45:28
I might get the old man to custom make a lined cabinet with a set of fans on the back to ventilate it.

TBH, I think that's the sort of thing you need to be thinking of. Make it a reasonable size to allow sufficient air movement and, if possible, put in a thermostat to operate the fans in the summer - a greenhouse one might be the answer - to operate the fans and you should be good to go.

moreno5 · May 24, 2013, 19:56:39

Does anyone know where the best place for the best quality/price for flat cat6 cable is on the Internet for UK purchase?

Thanks

Technical Ben · May 26, 2013, 09:34:36

Quote from: moreno5 on May 24, 2013, 19:56:39
Does anyone know where the best place for the best quality/price for flat cat6 cable is on the Internet for UK purchase?

Thanks

Just use Ebuyer, Dabs or Amazon and go with the cheapest. AFAIK unless they use broken clips, there is not much difference. If in doubt, get the second cheapest brand.

Ebuyer and Dabs are really good with returns too (at least last time I checked

), so if it's broken on delivery you can get it sorted.

andrue · Jun 28, 2013, 14:49:57

Quote from: Technical Ben on May 26, 2013, 09:34:36
Just use Ebuyer, Dabs or Amazon and go with the cheapest. AFAIK unless they use broken clips, there is not much difference. If in doubt, get the second cheapest brand.
Ebuyer and Dabs are really good with returns too (at least last time I checked ), so if it's broken on delivery you can get it sorted.

I disagree - I found that out to my cost. Some of the cheaper cables using sheathing that isn't very resilient. I bought a couple of cables last month for my laptop and after a day it was cracked at both ends.

zappaDPJ · Jun 28, 2013, 15:09:09

I've just replaced a number of long (30m) Cat6 Cables with ridiculously cheap flat Cat5e cables from Maplin (bought through Amazon). I replaced cables that had no sheathing left due to having been trodden on for the last 5 years. If I recall correctly Maplin's Cat6 cables appear to be fairly reasonably priced. All I can tell you is the flat Cat5e cables I bought work and they were dead cheap

andrue · Jun 28, 2013, 16:39:22

The cables worked but you only had to bend them once and they developed white 'stress areas' in the sheathing. Utter cr*p

Gary · Jun 28, 2013, 16:46:28

I bought super long and cheap cat5e/cat6 cables from Amazon and they are still all going strong,.

Steve · Jun 28, 2013, 16:54:15

I think it depends whether they're going to be moved and reconnected frequently, if so possibly worth spending that bit more.

nowster · Jun 29, 2013, 00:51:36

Quote from: andrue on Jun 28, 2013, 16:39:22
The cables worked but you only had to bend them once and they developed white 'stress areas' in the sheathing. Utter cr*p

Ah! You got infrastructure (solid core) cable rather than the more flexible stranded "patch" cable.

andrue · Jun 29, 2013, 20:31:15

Quote from: nowster on Jun 29, 2013, 00:51:36
Ah! You got infrastructure (solid core) cable rather than the more flexible stranded "patch" cable.

Nope.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004OYXB9A/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's what I bought. £3.58 for 2x3m.