CCA CAT6 Ethernet - how bad?

Networking & Firewalls
1

I just bought 700 feet of CAT6 Ethernet for $50 on marketplace.

I am now reading that CCA is not good for Ethernet. I had planned to use this for a 20-40’ Ethernet run between my first floor and unfinished basement so I can move my homelab into the basement. (Small network stack is in a first floor closet with a few Ethernet runs around the house. No ethernet to basement yet.)

How bad is CCA? Should I toss this and start from square one? Or is it fine for this application? I’ve read it’s particularly bad for long runs and POE- neither of which is applicable here.

2

Hard for me to say just how bad it is because I have always avoided it.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply Tom. If someone with your experience has always avoided it… I think I may have my answer. I thought I had a great deal. Bummer, lesson learned.

4

CCA relies on the “skin effect” for high frequency signals

This works fairly well for Radio Frequency needs, in the past many UHF transmitters used copper pipe for the center conductor because it worked as well or better than solid copper due to skin effect (and a lot lighter and cheaper). CCA relies on this to work “well”, but for POE you are now into the aluminum. Aluminum can be OK, but it can also be more brittle and it certainly doesn’t conduct as well as copper or silver. It’s cheap and for many things it works, but not my preference at all for signals I need to make it the first time they are sent. I think CCA cables might also have a shorter run distance over “pure” copper, you’d have to check the specification.

That said there are building codes that may prevent the use of aluminum AC wiring in your home or business. This comes from the habit of aluminum heating and flowing at the connections, which can cause fires. Overall we dislike aluminum wiring for a lot of reasons.