Very interesting suggestion!
Reordered:
Note: Removed crosspost.
Don't let one person, especially a person who reads the very newsgroup
you're reading (because of the nature of the question, he must have
thought you were reading SER), pressure you into removing
crossposting. Whether you need individual shielding for each pair
of wires is more an electronics question than it is a home repair
question. Sure plenty of the people on AHR know more than just how to
saw wood, but fewer do electronics full-time, which some of the SER
people do. Fewer took relevant courses also, either in school or at
their jobs.
And especially in this case, I don't know why he's suggesting shielded
pairs when the original cable has only one layer of shielding for all
four wires. I guess because the stuff is easy to get from the places
he shops, but 4-conductor, one-shield is easy to get at other places.
SER restored.
I didn't know what STP was but it's apparently "Shielded Twisted Pair".
Searching, I can easily find 100 foot lengths of "Cat 5 STP", e.g.,
http://www.topmicrousa.com/10x6-521hd.html
Sure you can, and if you get 100 feet, doesn't that mean you'll be
burying the connection with the other 50 feet, as planned?
BTW, don't get carried away with their alleged "today only". There
are at least two places that are cheaper than they are for this every
day of the year. monoprice and one other I bought from
I like the idea of wiring a female RJ45 connector and just plugging a
standard CAT5 STP wire into the RJ45 for convenience (no soldering
required).
Who says it's not required? It's not facilitated or provided for, but
that's not the same as not required. Even Robert Macy -- and no one
has commented on his posts yet. I would like to hear others' opinion
on that -- didn't say that that a mere plug-in modular phone connector
(which is what cat5 and 6 use, except with more wires) was enough. He
disliked soldering but wants crimping. Plugging in is not crimping,
and he recommended crimping.
Apparently CAT5 uses either foil shields or braid and maybe both as alluded
to in this url (
http://sewelldirect.com/Cat5e-STP-Bulk-Cable.asp ).
Yes it does, to shield one pair from another, one wire from a wire in
another pair, but even your original cable doesn't bother to do that.
It only tries to shield the wires from the outside.
With Cat-5 or 6, you're paying for 4 pairs, 8 wires, instead of just 4
wires. That's a waste too.
And you're paying for them to put on ends which unless someone I know
convinces me otherwise, you should really cut off and solder or crimp
to the original wire.
They do use modular plugs where the phone line comes into the house,
if there is a Network Interface Device, or the same thing by another
name. It's a covered box, outside but above grade. I don't know how
often they need maintenance.