Cheap Ethernet Cables CCA Beware!

Interestingly there's no easy way to tell looking at a cable whether it's CCA or pure copper. Even if you cut the cable, it doesn't look silver/aluminum inside.
https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/cca-vs-solid-c...
It's a situation where you need to be able to trust your seller. Flea-market cable is risky. Even some retail cable could be bad.

I also wired my house with ethernet cable back in 2003. Cat 5 was the standard then. Worked fine for a few years until we transitioned to an all wireless network. For our purposes, a wireless modem is faster and more convenient. The now obsolete Cat 5 wiring sits unused and for now, I have no plans to upgrade.

This could change in the future though, so thanks for the warning!

Here's a quick way to check the cable you've bought before you expend the energy wiring an entire house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL5VUYe_uX8

YouTuber bigclivedotcom also uses the test for what it's worth.

This be something related to mfg, not country of origin?

I'm not pushing any products but one can easily jump online and find cheap cables made by Tripp Lite, Belkin, Cables2Go, they're also made in the same country mentioned in this thread, but quality. I mean online a 25' cable costs less than a 6' one locally, maybe $8 retail.

Now if you're talking about bulk, Tripp Lite is $130 for 1000' (retail or you make friends with the local wholesaler and and pay a lot less than that), what does the faulty product sell for? To me it's like a floor jack, it's not the country of origin as it's all the same. It's the brand that was slapped on the product, it's as good as that brand.

Well the purchasing of CAT6 cable & patchfield went so smoothly during house build, that I just naturally went back to EBAY for upgrade.... Thing that got me was I ended up ordering from 2 or 3 sellers, so when things went crazy, I figured no way would 2-3 seller all sell bad pre-made patch cables!
Wanna Bet?
I have a cheapie Ethernet Pinout tester, to check for pinout, Opens, Shorts... and the cables that fell back to 100Mb all still passed the cheapie pinout tester....
So I created a stand alone Cable test system... An Un-Used output of Arris Modem, to cable under test, to a spare GB swtich, and Timed the lockup of LEDs: Instant 1000=Good, 1 sec 1000=Suspect, 100Mb=BAD...
(confirmed with Arris Diagnostics) and with that, found the offending cables... Most all of which would only lock up at 100Mb on 1000 feeds... Others locked up at 1000 but were not instant lockup.... They took their time locking at 1000.
Cables from 2 sellers (Not EBAY) still in route...
Wiring runs from Closet to room walls are punch down CAT6 "B", but used Pre-Made CAT 6 Patch Cords for everything in the "Expansion" of the system to keep 'me' out of the equation...
Best laid plans, eh?

Interesting reading. Makes me wonder if that is why cheap iPhone charging cables bought on eBay and Amazon work for a while and then go bad for no apparent reason.

Aluminum wire created a debacle in the home building industry in the 1970s. Copper clad aluminum was no better. This includes the Romex style of cable and larger conductors used for feeders and service conductors. Different methods of "fixing" it have failed. The only answer was to rip it out and replace it with copper.

Suppliers of aluminum ethernet cables are risking the end of wired networks when wifi will be used exclusively.

The idea that aluminum would be used for other electronic cables like USB cables is mind-boggling!

dobs108

Aluminum is a very good conductor. I believe high voltage long-distance power lines almost exclusively use aluminum as the primary conductor, as the combination of quite good conductivity, very low weight, and considerable strength beats the alternatives. Often they add some steel to carry the weight while the aluminum does nearly all the conducting.

But that pesky oxide that gets on any free surface means coming up with a sufficiently reliable means of making connections is crucial. The home wiring problems in houses and manufactured homes were not related to conduction in the wire runs, but in connections which over time went to just high enough a local resistance to give strong local heating--and thus fires. Somewhat more resistance and you got no fire, just no longer had your service operational.

IIRC the problem with aluminum residential wiring was the changing dimensions from heat cycling while connected with fittings that were unable to stand the changing dimensions. The connectors were forced to a "relaxed" profile and they became a higher resistance point that got hot and sometimes caused fires.

As I recall redesigned connector fittings solved the problem without changing the wiring.

Still awaiting Cable shipments.... When I get done with the 'rebuild' I'll end up with 5 or 6 of these cables (4 of which are in runs of PVC Pipe to 100Mb POE Security cameras, and last 1 or 2 on Locally powered 100Mb Security cameras)...

The cable degradation has only been seen on GB devices falling back to 100Mb....

Seeing that The oldest couple cables of this type are 3+ years, in POE usage.... (and 4 in PVC Pipes)... I'm leaving those alone, and only upgrading the cables where accessible, and on GB devices..

When my son built his house he had it wired for Ethernet. When he moved in nothing worked. I checked his wiring and the idiot contractor apparently had no idea how the cabling worked. He had just randomly connected the wires. D'Oh! I fixed it outside (I always wire everything as 568B) and then had to make sure all the house ports were the same. Just one more example of how poor his contractor was.

Note: He also had his house wired for stereo throughout but the contractor "saved some money" by using lamp cord. It wasn't marked in any way so there was no way to tell which wire was which. Normal audio cable has one wire marked.

The same problem exists with low voltage alarm system wiring. Read the product description carefully before purchasing!