Hiding Data Cables - PC, Router and TVs

[Georgie73]

I've just come across Cable Monkey http://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-r...j45-patch-lead.html#/colour-purple/length-5mt

This seems so cheap and I would think it's hardly worth making any cables up if you only need 30 or so? Anyone used the company - recommendations?

 

[Georgie73]

Does this idea seem sensible?

Provided that the pipe isn't carrying hot water.

No, I hate to admit it, as the pipe is going to be inside the house - it's actually a soil pipe which will be vented out of the roof!

 

[Lucid]

I am all for saving money, so I'd want to have a go at making up the cables.

if we are talking bought patch cables versus DIY made equivalents then the bought ones will work out cheaper once you factor in the tool cost and wasted plugs.

 

[Lucid]

Pro-Signal 0.5m Cat6 patch cables from CPC are about £1 each. TBH Cat6 is probably a bit OTT for a domestic install given the Cat5 will handle Gigabit speeds which is about as high as most network connection sockets will run anyway*.

* edit: clarification.

Faster than Gigabit network speeds are available, but but the typical network socket fitted to domestic gear such as games consoles, smart TVs and the average domestic PC doesn't support them. This is because the current speeds are more than sufficient anyway and because the cost is disproportionately high. In most cases it's either 'Fast Ethernet' (10/100 Megabits) or 'Gigabit' (1000 Megabits) which is more than enough for HD streaming.

 

[SimonH2]

I hate to admit it, as the pipe is going to be inside the house - it's actually a soil pipe which will be vented out of the roof!

Am I reading this correctly, you are going to route cables through the soil stack Really, just nooooooooooooooo

if we are talking bought patch cables versus DIY made equivalents then the bought ones will work out cheaper once you factor in the tool cost and wasted plugs.

Indeed.
I've done "a few" connections over the decades, if you haven't done them before then you'll find it takes a few goes before you get consistently good results - in the meantime you'll produce some poor connections (and for a while afterwards but getting better if you learn). And of course, unless you invest in a tester then you won't know if you've got a decent connection - and bad connections/faulty cables are probably the number 1 cause of network problems.
For a home setup it might not matter, but in a business environment it just costs more to make them than to buy them - and generally the bought ones are more reliable. At work we only tend to make cables for specials - either where the plug won't fit through the hole, or it needs to be a non-standard length, or in rare situations where we need a non standard pinout.

Something to remember ... there are different plugs for stranded and solid cable. If you use standard plugs on solid cable then they will be unreliable as the contacts either won't make good contact or will actually cut the cores off where you can't see them. If you look at a "solid" plug from the side, you'll see that the prongs of the contacts are slightly off-set so they'll go either side of a solid core, but will still go through the bundle of strands on stranded cable.