Getting very frustrated with ethernet cable quality

[dogememe]

In the last two years, the number of ethernet cables that have given me trouble is insane. yes I know ethernet is a standard not a cable type but I'm not going to sit here and type cat5e/cat6/cat6a/etc. You know what I mean.

A decade ago I was terminating long runs by hand using generic Amazon CCA (copper clad aluminum) stuff and rarely had any problems. Today I'm buying name brand prefab Cat6 from Amazon or Home Depot - Monoprice, Cable Matters, etc... actual brands that in the past meant something. I sold the last handful of spools to some random dude on Marketplace a few months ago.

Yet here at home my Unifi APs end up stuck at 100Mbps or simply dropping offline. Ubiquiti's UI and app gives me zero useful information or alerts that my 2.5gbe AP is running at 100mbps. Thanks... not. But replacing the cable fixes the issue immediately.

Rinse and repeat for various clients. A decade ago I got one bad batch of cat5e cables from Monoprice. Like 50% failed within 6 months. But after that I've never had an issue, until now. If we can't make a network cable, how we can our planet still spin?

 

[Lubener]

I always make my own cables. Premade cables vary in quality and cannot be relied on. All you have to do is look where they are made.

 

[Klutch9]

See if you can buy from a vendor that serves mostly business accounts, like SES or ADI. They may sell to the public, not sure. They sell major name brands of cables on spools and boxes. Genesis, Southwire, etc. ADI’s house brand is good too. I’ve never had an issue with their cables and we use a lot.

 

[SC Maintenance]

How you tried an industrial cable company like mencom, wago, Murr? We haven’t seen any issues but we’re usually running RJ to M12D.

https://www.mencom.com/network-connectors/ethernet-m12-d-coded-rj45.html

 

[Pew]

I buy from monoprice, cable matters, and fs.com. I have not had issues from all three but FS has been my latest and best experience, they assign you an account manager if you have any questions and they ship extremely fast. I get my shipments from their NJ warehouse within two days. They also do their own sfp+ and fiber as well.

 

[dogememe]

I buy from monoprice, cable matters, and fs.com. I have not had issues from all three but FS has been my latest and best experience, they assign you an account manager if you have any questions and they ship extremely fast. I get my shipments from their NJ warehouse within two days. They also do their own sfp+ and fiber as well.

FS is great, for some reason I never even though of ordering Cat cables from them. Lol.

 

[Rob_Roy]

For long runs you are much better off to buy a bulk roll and terminate it yourself.

 

[Pew]

FS is great, for some reason I never even though of ordering Cat cables from them. Lol.

I initially used them for sfp+ cables because oem dell and HP ones were like $80.

Could there be a chance your equipment or random surge is destroying the cables or corrosion is happening in the rj45 connectors?

 

[MountainManDan]

Not so Sure I Picked up some Really Nice Cat7 Cables 35ft & 50ft

Love It ~ Screw ~ WiFi ~ If & When Not very Often I call My ISP - I'm always saying this App = BS

Has to Go - I'm Doing it all manually & You Check with Your Tools - System is Down Isn't It !

Oh Boy don't get Me Going on 5G - as that BS is Being Mixed & Diluted on 4 Levels - 5G is Being Over Sold
To Many Customers , but Finally in Last 1.5 yrs system are Now have Completion , so They Must Step Up
Which it seems they did ..

I'm on My 7th Tower Computer from 1994 - Not Counting Lap Tops , but still just a Rookie . .
I'll Tune Hardware & Keep OS Tight or at least try . . seeing Today it's Next to Impossible ..