A $90 'Industrial' Cat8 Ethernet Cable - It's Actually Worth It?

Ok so I'm the one calling it industrial but still 🤔

▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:37 - My Problem
1:41 - Update From Future Me
2:51 - Ethernet Twisted Pairs Explained
4:15 - Split Pair Explained
5:32 - Cell Tower Interference
6:39 - Why Cat8
7:24 - The Cable I Found
9:04 - Thoughts on the Cable

Note: The link above is an Amazon affiliate link, which means I'll probably get a small (usually ~1-2%) commission that helps support the channel if you decide to buy the item. The commission does not come out of your pocket, but rather from Amazon's.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

[ThioJoe]

⚠A FEW POINTS (And 2 Month Update)⚠
• I'm not pulling the cell tower theory out of my ass like a conspiracy theorist, look at what it has done to my audio recordings at 5:55 and 6:12 (and was solved with ferrite cores, so not like it was a ground loop)
• While I'm still not fully sure whether the cable tester is correct or not about the split pair, replacing the cable with one I made myself and running in a different route (directly to the wall across the middle of the room, not behind the desk with all the other wires) DID indeed fix the problem. So really I can see 2 possible explanations. First, the cable tester is right (just inconsistent) and the cable was just badly wired. Or second, the cable tester is wrong about the split pair, the old cable is fine, but there is such a massive amount of RFI and crosstalk it overwhelmed the shielding occasionally.
• If my problem is indeed caused by RFI, then this is HIGHLY unlikely to apply to you. Definitely don't think you need some massively shielded cable like the one I bought.

~2 Month Update:
• Regardless of the true original problem, the new cable has indeed solved my problem, and I have not had a single internet disconnect since installing it. Several people have proposed another possible explanation which is that the original cable's shielding (or wiring itself) had imperfections such that when I coiled it back up, the internal cabling went back correctly into place, which is why it wasn't generating the same error anymore. I'm thinking that's probably the most likely scenario, since from what I've read, the shielding even in cat6e should be sufficient for most situations. So my point still stands for spending the extra on the cable though, I wanted the absolute best shielding possible, and I went with this particular brand because they actually tested each individual cable, though yes that does substantially increase the cost.

[SpykerSpeed]

I'm an audiophile, and I noticed my expensive headphones were occasionally (maybe 10% of the time) producing a static-like noise while I was listening to music. Turns out it was the power cable of the amp running parallel to the USB cable feeding the audio data to the DAC. Interference is very real!

[santh]

going overkill is great when you got the ching ching

[James_Knott]

At $90, I'm surprised they didn't call it "Monster".
Here are some facts about Ethernet cables.
1) Negotiation is done at 10 Mb, so with a defective cable, it may negotiate a higher speed, but fail when it gets there
2) With 10 & 100 Mb, only the green and orange pairs are used, so a cable that works fine at 100 Mb might not work at Gb, which requires all 4 pairs.
3) Gb Ethernet was designed for plain CAT 5 cable. 5e wasn't even available at that time, so plain CAT 5 is good for 100M and 5e just has tighter tolerances. 5e has replaced plain CAT 5.
4) Anything better than CAT 5e for Gb is a waste of money and may be harder to work with. This is noticeable between 5 & 6.
5) The 4 pairs in a cable have different twist rates, to reduce cross talk between pairs. That wouldn't happen if they all had the same twist rate.
6) Shielded cable may help in situations such as yours, where there may be interference. I have installed it a few times in noisy environments, but generally it won't make much difference otherwise.
7) The shield must be connected to ground at only one point, so check the continuity to ground at each end to ensure you're not grounded at both ends.

[erlendse]

Think you may have missed a crucial part: try meassuring the cable while bending it, or pulling it.

A intermittent connection can be rather confusing, and give different readings!

[TurpInTexas]

Back when Commscope first came out with its Ion-E product, instead of coax to carry the RF around, they used Cat 6 Ethernet cable. As the company I worked for documented it's processes for installation they bought one of those Fluke testers and tested pre-made VS customer made to length cables with those fancy connectors you mentioned and there was an amazing range of quality, or lack thereof between pre-made, with the highest quality being ridiculously expensive (at the time). As most of the runs would be 100 meters or less, it was decided we would make our own and then use the tester to confirm they worked properly. One of our engineers made and tested the cables and connectors and several dozen scenarios and found that even if one cable out of the bunch isn't wrapped the same counts, or if it is wrapped too tightly, the throughput performance of the cable will vary drastically. Every one of those cables must be balanced as an individual pair, and in respect to one another. Needless to say it was pure hell finding people with the meticulous skills to install those connectors on those cables on those jobs. But after a few weeks, and lots of practice, it would finally come together.

Regarding the tower, just guessing you have T-Mobile/Sprint as they use TDD with is like Wifi on steroids. But the problem is more likely caused by your phone simply due to the proximity of it to your hardware VS that tower out front. It is basic physics and the inverse square law, try your test again but this time with all cellphones and your access point in the area turned off and see if it is coming from the tower or your access point since both switch back and forth from TX to RX many times a second. Happy hunting. PS, I am in the process of transitioning away from copper and going to fiber all over the house. Lightning popped in my backyard a few years ago and wiped out my Ethernet based network so I've been going back with fiber since it isn't impacted nearly as badly by lightning, and if I want to upgrade the speed, I don't have to replace any cabling, I just replace the media converters. :)

[Pocketkid]

I used to think all cables were equal and then I spent a summer working as network install technician, and I realized how difficult it could be to get a permanent link test to pass on an ethernet cable

[anthonydiiorio]

I do ham radio and shielded ethernet cables make a huge difference for interference. On transmit it would take out my NIC until I switched to shielded, and on receive I discovered 10/100 IoT devices produce a lot of noise on the HF spectrum.

[liquidalloy]

Great video. I'm at my current job now for almost 10 years and building CAT 5# and CAT 6 and 6A shielded cables is part of my job. Molex cables as well and I even messed with Fiber Optic fusing. This video is spot on accurate with everything. We sell CAT 8 shielded cables too but not the 22 AWG one you had in this video. Those shielded ends were really nice too. I mentioned this to my boss, who is also one of my best friends from childhood lol. I sent him this video to see if we can experiment with making them where I work. I got all the tools need on my desk as I type this, even the heat shrink tubing haha. Thanks for posting this!! My name is Joe too btw. Great channel!

[JessicaFEREM]

ferrite cores are awesome!
it's a magic "interference be gone" solution.
I have at least one on every analog audio cable and on all of the interference-heavy devices' power cord.

[thepetehill]

I work in the cell tower field. If you’re getting interference, you need to tell the cell company. There should be an identification placard, like a site number or name and possibly a phone number. The other possible option is contacting your city planning department to let them know you’re getting interference. They may be able to help get the carrier fix it.

[venmosh]

Very nice Ethernet cable, it sure is Thicc and looks quality made. I have to pick one up soon so I'll keep this in mind. Thanks for the info👍

[MichaelVickery]

The method used to reduce interference in pro audio is Common Mode Rejection. In professional audio gear there will be a differential amplifier inside of any gear that uses standard 'balanced cables.

[LewisCostin]

Thought I'd post my experience here just in case anyone hadn't thought of it, i was having the EXACT same experience of my connection randomly dying, but then I noticed it would always die if I saturated the read speed of the gigabit network (with a file transfer over LAN). I saw this video and was like, wow I should check all the cables in my network setup. So I spent the whole day swapping out cables and testing it again to see if it would fix it, but wasn't able to. Then I decided to try a different ethernet adapter (I was using a gigabit port in a USB4 hub I had recently purchased), and the problem was gone! So in my case it was the actual ethernet to USB-C adapter I was using. Just something to keep in mind. Also, it was a Realtek RTL8153 chip in a Cable Matters 201308 I'm having trouble with.

[iviaverick]

If you were concerned with cell interference, why not just run fiber and install an SFP+ card in your PC?

[samal]

[ edit: This is all completely wrong] The tech behind balanced audio cables isn't quite the same as twisted pair cabling. It's got the same intention (cancelling out noise) but the actual mechanics of it are different. Just to note. Twisted pair cabling is *not* balanced. Each individual wire strand is carrying different Stuff, whereas in a balanced cable you send data down one wire, and a reversed copy of the data down the other.

The diagram at 3:35 is explaining a balanced cable, but not a twisted pair cable.

[redcrafterlppa]

2:20 that sounds unlikely based on the footage you showed before. I think the insulation somewhere in the cable is broken and the 1, 2 pair are connected. The reason why it doesn't have the problem after removal is that the 2 vains aren't touching each other at the broken spot anymore due to moving of the cable.

[MrMase]

Thanks for making this video, its incredibly re-assuring when someone else has had the same issue for just as long.

[bumbixp]

I doubt the cable had actual split pairs. What I've seen several times are cables which show as OK on a network tester. Then if the cable is slightly bent or squished the tester shows a split pair or misswire. This is because of poor winding which opens up when the cable is bent, which causes crosstalk. Those basic Ethernet testers interprets it as a split pair or misswire.

Edit: For a short (<30m) 1Gbps run you shouldn't really need anything better than a CAT6 UTP cable (don't bother with CAT5e since the price difference is negligible). There are regulations (in most countries) on how much electromagnetic interference appliances can cause. You shouldn't have enough EMI to warrant a shielded CAT8 cable in a normal household environment, even if there's EMI from cellphone towers (which also follow regulations).

[PatipanWongkleaw]

Finally seeing a guy on YouTube use it.
I've replaced my whole house network with cat8 for about a year now.

I'd say it's as advertised, 10GB is reachable but the nic is really hot. Also, the only time it reaches 10G is when I use iperf or copy a huge file from my nas.