How bad is CCA Cat5e cable

[BuckRogers]

I bought a roll of Cat5e cable from dbg, only to realize later that it is CCA.
How bad is this. I'm wanting to use it for POE IP cameras - will it be less efficient than solid copper ?

 

[mike156]

I would just honestly just return it and purchase true copper cable.

You've forked out for some expensive camera's, don't skimp on the cable.

Having never really used CCA for our POE applications I cant really comment, but I would imagine it would be ok for a small, short run installation as long as you keep a few things in mind:

Voltage drop over CCA is likely to be higher compared to pure copper cable.
CCA is not as robust as pure copper cable, so take care when laying it out.
CCA has a higher attenuation than copper cable, possibly leading to increased packet loss over the network.

I don't have much experience with CCA, so if the above is wrong somebody is welcome to correct me.

 

[web_dude]

hi,

as mike is saying, better return the cable and ask the supplier if they have Solid Copper Cable. if they have, good, pay the difference. If not, just ask for a refund.

According to info on the internet, CCA cannot support than 50mts on standard LAN. It might be possible that is less when using POE (if it can support it).

Another important thing is that you can get 5w POE devices, but some devices require more power (24w) and there your CCA cable may not work at all.

 

[BuckRogers]

Thanks for the feedback. Will do as advised. Ta.