Certified cat5e/6 drops, worth the premium?

[nowwhatnapster]

Is it worth paying a premium for certified cat5e/cat6 cable drops/runs vs just "tested" for continuity?

I am trying to advise a small business owner on a renovation project. All they will likely ever need is gigabit speeds. All runs will be 100ft or less. They have about 15 runs of cable to pull. Mostly data, but some analog voice. I am going to advise they use cat 5e/6 rise cable terminated in RJ-45 for all the runs. That way they can switch to VOIP in the future and have dedicated lines.

Just a question of having an electrician pull the runs and test for continuity or have a datacom contractor pull the runs and certify them.

Also what do you think, cat 5e vs cat6 cable/connectors in this scenario.

 

[k1pp3r]

I always referr customers to a licensed cable person, that way its off my plate and I'm not responsible for it.

Just get a low voltage contactor to do it

 

[shade91]

For that low amount of runs, not worth the added labor costs. I only opt for my cabler to do certified runs if you're cabling for a business that will be pushing enough traffic to stress the network.

 

[schnell]

I would say it depends on the electrician. The electricians in my building are never allowed to touch low voltage because they have absolutely no clue how to do it. If the guy has been trained on how to properly do low voltage then it will probably be ok, just don't expect it to be as pretty as a professional low voltage contractors work.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

I guess that decides it then. I'll see if I can get the boss to hire a low voltage contractor and just test for continuity.

Let's hope they don't zip tie it to the romex!

 

[Mackintire]

Loopback connector + Intel Proset tools is almost a good.

 

[/usr/home]

Meh. I've never had issues with CAT6 running across lights and beside romex. We push a lot of gigabit traffic with no issue either.

 

[awesomo]

I picked one of these up a year ago to have something to show my client that the drops were done correctly. I don't have the revenues to warrant a $10k fluke certifier... Anyways, I do notice difference in skew and, near end and far end cross talk when I am testing a wire near a ballast or along a high-voltage line. Enough to make a noticeable data transfer difference? Usually no. So I wouldn't kill myself trying to make it perfect, but take care.

You should see some of the wiring jobs I come across, they are pitiful. It looks like a 3rd grader terminated them. THAT is where most of your problems will come from.

 

[RocketTech]

I would recommend any installed cable be at least qualified; testing for wiremap, GbE, NEXT. Anything less and you don't know what you actually paid for. Every cable I make up for a customer, whether a patch cable or a whole building of drops is qualified, documented, and labeled.
In my experience, it is a rare electrician that does a good job with data cabling- they get the funniest ideas on where to place drops, how many are needed, types of termination, etc. I bow to electricians when bending EMT or wiring three-phase WYE, or cabinets full of controllers, but it is the rare electrician that has mastered data cabling.