Ethernet cable

Why's this so cheap?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160771342043?ssPageName=ST...

I have purchased it and I'm using it but honestly the cheap price is a little weird I find. Do you think they've made cutbacks somewhere?

Possibly because its copper clad aluminium

Will this have any big negatives?

I've moved the router slightly (just now) so using this between the openreach modem and the sky router. Seems ok at the minute. I thought this better than extending the rj11 cable.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 07-Sep-12 00:48:42)

Note the seller hasn't stated that it's 100% Copper Wire...unlike this http://www.amazon.co.uk/10m-Professional-Network-Cab...

Yes much better than extending the RJ45 cable and over as little as 10m it would not matter if the cable was made of wet string.

It looks o.k

Great stuff. It works fine for now... I have another cheap ethernet cable that I've had for years. I broke the clippy end bit though (so it hit the bin). That's 30m and was £1 a couple of years back...
Crazy... Always wondered why they were so cheap. Even given that they're not copper - the postage & packaging must still be most of that price.

Stuff like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10M-CAT5E-EXTERNAL-ADSL-BR...

Might not be complete copper then too?

Don't know whether it's copper or not BUT the seller says it can be used indoors "It can also be run inside" and that is against fire regulations: external grade cable can give off highly toxic fumes in a fire. I think perhaps a metre of external cable is permissible but probably not the full 10 metre length.

Wow. That's really interesting...

Sky installed my sat dish into the house with a tonne of outside cable running indoors. Naughty.

But that's co-axial and may be OK?

It looks like this.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519siN2puIL._A...

So is it the black outer pvc stuff that releases the fumes or the actual internal wiring?

It's the sheathing materials: Low Smoke Halogen Free (LSHF) compounds are less toxic than PVC.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

......that is against fire regulations: external grade cable can give off highly toxic fumes in a fire. I think perhaps a metre of external cable is permissible......

Not sure but I think BT/OR allow 2m of exterior grade phone cable within the premises.

It is 26AWG rather than the normal 24 so a small saving on the copper part, then it may be copper clad aluminium rather than copper ... Is it solid conductor or stranded? They are small savings that do not explain the overall low cost.

For a good quality cable, I would expect to pay about £10 to £12 for 10 metres. A rough guide is about £1.50 per connector, plus 50p per metre - dropping a little for longer lengths. Colour also comes into it, common colours are slightly cheaper.

In reply to a post by MHC:

... common colours are slightly cheaper.

Yes, true blue Etonet connections are far superior.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 07-Sep-12 10:02:43)

Generally with Ethernet if it manages the 100 Mbps link then cable is good enough.

The lower quality cables will more likely not run at GigaBit over anything but the shortest runs.