Cables - Size Matters

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 20, 2005 Posts: 19

I want to reduce the clutter and the ball of cables under my desk.

I have located the telephone adapter and wireless router and Shaw Cable modem all on one small table. The supplied CAT 5 ethernet cables adn the telephone cables are all between 5 and 10 feet long. I need cables that are 6 inches and 1 ft long and have not found any short cables in Radio Sshack, London Drugs or Future Shop.

Any ideas or sources of short telephone and ethernet cables would be much appreciated and would tidy up my installation. Thanks in advance for your comments and help.

Posts: 53 · Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:03 am Post subject:

Have your tried a store that specializes in computers only. Some will sell cable cut to any length.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:32 pm Post subject:

or buy a box of cable, a bunch of connectors and a crimping tool and make custom length cabels yourself.. get an RJ45/RJ11 crimping tool and you can make custom ethernet and custom telephone cables..

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 7

Speakeasy wrote:

I want to reduce the clutter and the ball of cables under my desk.

<snip>

Any ideas or sources of short telephone and ethernet cables would be much appreciated and would tidy up my installation. Thanks in advance for your comments and help.

Home Depot has 1' and 3' cat 5/5e cables.

Posts: 183 · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:47 pm Post subject:

I've had the same spaghetti factory working under my desk for way too long. The shortest cables I could find were 12 inches, but I wanted shorter. I needed about 6 of them, so I bought a spool of cat5 cable, a bag of rj45 modular plugs, and a crimping tool, and made my own. A friend recited the order of the wires like it was his mantra.

If you have good eyes it is fairly easy to do, but those wires are oh so small. My eyes are in the very-extremely-late 30s and not the same as they were in their better days.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 20, 2005 Posts: 19

My eyes are twice as old and I feel it.
Thanks for all of the advice.
I think I'll be going to Home Depot tomorrow. Tidy is good.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 7

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 4

Hello folks: note that some equipment is sensitive to shorter then spec cat-5 cables. If you get weird connectivity problems, try longer cables. As they say, your "mileage may vary". The problem is that the ethernet signal is just too strong coming over very short cables.

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

Speakeasy wrote:

Any ideas or sources of short telephone and ethernet cables would be much appreciated and would tidy up my installation. Thanks in advance for your comments and help.

The dollar store!

I saw 3' and 6' in several dollar stores in Toronto.

At dollar prices, I wouldn't even bother crimpling my own cables. While crimping maybe convenient... the connectors on self crimp cables come loose easier than manufacturered cables.

Otherwise check your local computer store, they should carry short cables. When I was wiring my house, I ordered some custom 1 foot cables from Zodiac Computer Systems in Toronto (http://www.zodiacsys.com)

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

theGUYman wrote:

Hello folks: note that some equipment is sensitive to shorter then spec cat-5 cables. If you get weird connectivity problems, try longer cables. As they say, your "mileage may vary". The problem is that the ethernet signal is just too strong coming over very short cables.

I don't think there is a minimum spec for Cat5 cables Wink