atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Picture of Good Work

I have gone this way on one occasion, not because I didn't know better, but was told that the person wanted to be able to shift their office about the house depending on the season or some random whim. It seemed like a silly thing, but hey customers is always right, and they were paying for it. To fix the 8p to 4p/6p jack issue, I will end up building some cables and using the adapter Skip shows from this post when I asked about it.

93mdk93...the reason most of us recommend using cat 3 cable for voice is simply because cat 5 or cat 6 is total overkill. It does cost more, takes more time to terminate vs cat 3...plus, 9 times out of 10, if you put everything on an 8 pin jack, someone will plug their phone into the data jack or vice-versa.

no, i totally understand using the correct termination (as i stated previously) - in fact, i made a CG eat crow just last week because i came in to do an install and he'd wired the entire place with RJ45 jacks and simply labeled the odd numbered jacks for network and the even numbered jacks for voice. i explained to him how a short on the wrong pair could blow my ports and he had to agree that it obviously wasn't the correct way to do it. he'd never even considered it before and until i brought it up, had never been called on it either.

but seriously, i haven't found there to be a significant cost difference between CAT3 and CAT5 and we don't have room on our trucks for a decent amount of each kind (we keep 3 boxes of white and 3 boxes of blue on each truck, which is sufficient for most of our jobs). in addition, i really like knowing that i can re-terminate voice runs to use for data should the need arise.

i was just curious if there was a technical reason i'd overlooked. i take a great deal of pride in my work but i also have to do this in the real world and make a profit, so in my mind there are more compelling considerations to weigh than just a hang-up over perceived 'overkill'.

P.S. - it was the "should never be used" part i was questioning, which isn't the verbiage i would choose without a functional reason for the statement.

just my Irish nature, i s'pose.

Here is how I see it. You can run a 2 inch pipe to every faucet in your house to supply water, and spend more money, but why do it when it only needs a 1/2 inch pipe?

And here's how I see it: If that 2" pipe costs, say, $0.25/ft and the .5" pipe costs $0.22/ft, why would I bring a half load of each to a job that needs a full load of one or the other, but I may not know which one I need until I get there. The customer pays for it and doesn't complain, and I have enough gray hair already..

The customer doesn't mind paying for my materials, but he doesn't want to pay for my fuel. I love what I do and I want to do it right, but I'm not going to spend MY money just to make a point. You dig?

I haven't priced out cable lately, but when I did there was definitely a difference between cat 3 and cat 5e...

hey, i'm in the heart of Amish country and the first joke i heard upon moving here was: "how was copper wire invented? by two Amish men fighting over a penny!" believe me, people around here like to save money like they think the Treasury is gonna stop printing it tomorrow.

but if that's all we're on about, i'd be willing to bet that i can make a case that CAT3 costs MORE to install than CAT5.

How do you figure? If you are talking all cat 5e, all on patch panels, then I might agree. But if you are talking about running cat 5e to 66 blocks, then no way. Yes, I have seen people do that.

but seriously, i haven't found there to be a significant cost difference between CAT3 and CAT5

Obviously you don't use plenum listed cable. That's all we use because most of our work is commercial in air handling spaces. CAT5e is almost twice that of CAT3.

You also have to consider the termination time. You can't deny that CAT5e, because of it's tight twists is more difficult and time consuming to terminate, particularly on 66 blocks but even with 110s and jacks. Longer termination time may not be an issue with a few terminations but it is a definite consideration with larger jobs as is fatigue and repetitive motion injuries.

So it just doesn't make good sense to use CAT5e (and up) except where it is needed.

-Hal