Opinions on female-female RJ45 connectors

[jrbeddow]

It seems that the real answer is "it depends": it is best practice to avoid these inline couplers if at all possible, but you can probably get away with one (or at most two), with enough added precautions thrown in as well (dielectric grease, shrink tube, etc...).

This blog article article on the TrueCable website covers exactly this subject in great detail:

Ethernet Couplers - How Many is Too Many?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you have two short Ethernet patch cables and need to make a single longer one? If this is the case, you likely picked up Ethernet couplers for home use. At the very least, you have probably seen them for sale.

www.truecable.com

Everything you ever wanted to know on the subject is right there in this article.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

It seems that the real answer is "it depends": it is best practice to avoid these inline couplers if at all possible, but you can probably get away with one (or at most two), with enough added precautions thrown in as well (dielectric grease, shrink tube, etc...).

This blog article article on the TrueCable website covers exactly this subject in great detail:

Ethernet Couplers - How Many is Too Many?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you have two short Ethernet patch cables and need to make a single longer one? If this is the case, you likely picked up Ethernet couplers for home use. At the very least, you have probably seen them for sale.

www.truecable.com

Everything you ever wanted to know on the subject is right there in this article.

I noticed they used stranded cabling for their test set-up

 

[jrbeddow]

I noticed they used stranded cabling for their test set-up

True, but by definition a "patch cable" is always supposed to be stranded cable, whereas permanent links should use solid cable. The article starts by saying "situation when you have two short Ethernet patch cables and need to make a single longer one".

 

[Parley]

In my case I used solid copper wire Cat6 cable and only the one connector.

 

[Kevman]

Our business commercial standard is NoNo in regards to any extention of network cable.
But we do it anyways about 2% of the time
It's frowned upon but it will work. Just means you have an additional point of failure to be concerned about. You can weatherproof a box all you like, but the morning dew, humidity, morning/afternoon temperature differences will "adhere" to the brass/copper pieces by....magic and will eventually form rust. May take a year. May take 20 years. Hence, we do not do it often. If has to be done outside, we do weather proof, but go that extra mile of slapping on shrink tubing over the splice with dielectric grease included. You only get 1 shot at this.

For science reasons, I have no idea what loss happens in a splice. I may test that with our Fluke cable tester. Test 1 cable. Test 1 cable with 1 splice. Test 1 cable with 10 splices. I'm curious....
For our splices, we simply punch the wire down to a Cat6 jack. The other end is a RJ45 modular plug. I assume the above mentioned "Cat6 inline coupler" would work as well.

How do you deal with indoor rated cable and outdoor rated cable if some part of cables must be exposed to sun?
I tried to find some cables like CMP and UV resistant but most of UV rated ones are not CMP or even CMR.

 

[CanCuba]

How do you deal with indoor rated cable and outdoor rated cable if some part of cables must be exposed to sun?
I tried to find some cables like CMP and UV resistant but most of UV rated ones are not CMP or even CMR.

I know this was addressed to someone else, but I can share my experience. Living the islands, virtually all construction is masonry which leaves no gap, attics, etc to run cables. So, the outside runs are either done in PVC conduit or corrugated conduit. The corrugated conduit is cheaper to install not only because the material is cheaper but it can also be bent which makes instillation faster since elbows are rarely used.

PVC holds up better in the sun so it's worth the extra expense to have it done once.

We run normal CAT6 inside the conduit and have virtually no issues.

What Is Corrugated Conduit? | Ctube

Hi, there, we are coming back.

www.ctube-gr.com

 

[Kevman]

I know this was addressed to someone else, but I can share my experience. Living the islands, virtually all construction is masonry which leaves no gap, attics, etc to run cables. So, the outside runs are either done in PVC conduit or corrugated conduit. The corrugated conduit is cheaper to install not only because the material is cheaper but it can also be bent which makes instillation faster since elbows are rarely used.

PVC holds up better in the sun so it's worth the extra expense to have it done once.

We run normal CAT6 inside the conduit and have virtually no issues.

What Is Corrugated Conduit? | Ctube

Hi, there, we are coming back.

www.ctube-gr.com

Thanks. So to simplify, make indoor and use indoor cable, I guess.

 

[CanCuba]

Thanks. So to simplify, make indoor and use indoor cable, I guess.

If you're using conduit outside, my experience says yes. I have a hard time sourcing locally so indoor CAT5/6 is all I can find. Once it's in the sealed conduit, it's been fine. Being low-voltage systems, there should be little to no heat generated like a 110/220v wire.

 

[TLCTimFL]

I'm looking to move a couple of my POE cameras a couple meters. No more than 5 meters (15 feet) max each.

The longest run I want to extend is currently 30 meters (100 feet).

Would one female-to-female connector on each run negatively affect signal quality at all? There's no other cables closeby that would cause electrical interferance.

Cheers

I've been using female to female connectors with my POE cams for a year now with no notable change. These are in the attic of my house in Florida. The reason for my adding these was that I needed to move my NVR and several cables were too short to drop down into the wall where I needed them.

 

[CanCuba]

I've been using female to female connectors with my POE cams for a year now with no notable change. These are in the attic of my house in Florida. The reason for my adding these was that I needed to move my NVR and several cables were too short to drop down into the wall where I needed them.

These will be outside but inside junction boxes. We're in the same climate probably. I'm about 90 miles south of Key West. lol

 

[JDreaming]

I just bought some of these as my connections were outdoors.

Amazon.com: Tedgetal Waterproof RJ45 Connector 2 Pack IP68 Cat6/Cat5E/Cat5 Coupler Shielded for Outdoor Ethernet LAN Cable Extender Female to Female : Electronics

Edit: The RJ45 connector fits right through the end. No need to cut them off and redo them.

I also just bought something similar from Amazon, it's a little bigger than I thought but no big deal.

 

[Gargoile]

I'm looking to move a couple of my POE cameras a couple meters. No more than 5 meters (15 feet) max each.

The longest run I want to extend is currently 30 meters (100 feet).

Would one female-to-female connector on each run negatively affect signal quality at all? There's no other cables closeby that would cause electrical interferance.

Cheers

You would have to have one side go thru gender affirming treatment to make this work.