Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Telephony Wiring + Equipment => Topic started by: Weaver on August 08, 2015, 12:35:16 AM
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[round-up of what has been written elsewhere about these quality cables]
Several kitizens have found these rj11-rj11 cables to be very good. I would strongly recommend giving them a try:
http://www.tandyonline.co.uk/high-speed-rj11-dsl-cable-1m.html
they are shielded and available in longer and v. short lengths (incl 0.5m) not just the 1m one shown above. Obviously shortest is best.
The products used to be known as AdslNation (adslnation.com), and the shop is now labelled Tandy.
They appear to be real copper, unlike some of the similar-looking cables (incl. inferior cable from kenable) which are aluminium, or aluminium-with-cooper-coating.
* The adslnation cables have metal bodied plugs, unlike the inferior varieties. I see a wire coming up the side of the plug, and speculate that this might be a drain wire for the shielding/braiding.
Q.: Is this possible/sensible? It would only make sense if the supposed drain wire were connected through the socket body to either an earth or at least to the shielding in the case of the modem.
Burakkucat has pointed out that shielding ideally ought to be grounded. On some of the cables of this type there seems to be no possible way to facilitate this.
One kitizen, AlecR, has had superior results with the Mr Telephones cable made out of Cat6 cable - see ebay. (I myself, and one other kitizen, have had performance and quality problems with this supplier, so test carefully.)
I've recently had an incredibly bad experience due to poor RJ-11 cables killing performance, so that taught me that good cables are critical, on weak signal lines anyway.
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I do find the CAT6 cables perform ever so slightly better but it's so little that to be honest it's hardly worth thinking about.
I actually prefer using the Tandy cables because they bend much more easily. I find the CAT6 cables far too rigid so they pull and push my router around the table.
I would have no hesitation recommending the Tandy cables.
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@AlecR - re Mr Telephones' made-from-CAT6 cable, how did you find the join, or lack of, between the CAT6' screen and the RJ-11 socket, AlecR?
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Would you mind rephrasing your question? I'm really tired and it's not making sense to me :(
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what did the ends of the CAT6 look like?
Was the sequence of twists in the cable maintained right up to the end, right into the sockets?
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No it stops before the socket. The sheath has also come out of the socket now :(
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Thanks for that link Weaver. My short (but now quite old) ADSLnation cable shielded RJ11 is failing where the outer sheath joins the plug and I'd heard they ceased trading.
I'll be online buying one soon. :cool:
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@HPSauce ;D
@AlecR - my MrTelephone cable simply came apart, by the sound of it in a similar way.
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I really like the Tandy DSL cables too. ;)
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Blimey i thought Tandy had disappeared long ago. I did hear mention of a shop or HQ in Leicester.
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Tandy web shop I should have said. Tandy bought up the adslnation.com website and partially rebranded it. So adslnation.com is the place.
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In 2012, Tandy Corporation Ltd, a UK company, acquired the UK rights to the Tandy brand from RadioShack. It now operates as an on-line retailer of electronic components and kits at tandyonline.co.uk.
It is not the Tandy of old :)
The parent Company in the USA Radioshack went Bankrupt in march this year. All shops now owned by General Wireless.
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@aardvark - Well I never. Thank you for that. A “where are they now?” solved.
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I remember the original Tandy. It was entertaining when the first pc, laptops and handhelds appeared. Even if they were massively overpriced :)
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
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I remember a friend having to run to Tandy in York, in 1981, in desperate need of a RAM chip. Tandy charged £4.75, he could have ordered it from Maplin say for £0.75.
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In 2012, Tandy Corporation Ltd, a UK company, acquired the UK rights to the Tandy brand from RadioShack. It now operates as an on-line retailer of electronic components and kits at tandyonline.co.uk.
It is not the Tandy of old :)
The parent Company in the USA Radioshack went Bankrupt in march this year. All shops now owned by General Wireless.
I guess the brand Realistic went as well ?
The Tandy TRS 80 computer
I remember a friend having to run to Tandy in York, in 1981, in desperate need of a RAM chip. Tandy charged £4.75, he could have ordered it from Maplin say for £0.75.
1981! Good man, that was when Maplin only had one shop in Southend and were a proper electronic components supplier. They had a nice range of in analogue synthesisers too.
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I'll be online buying one soon. :cool:
And I did indeed do so. I's been in use a little while now and looks better made than the ADSLnation one, especially where the cable enters the plug. :cool:
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@ac427 - a TRS-80 was my first development system at work too, when I started out as a professional Z80 programmer.
I built a Maplin 5600S analog synth in the late 70s.
mea culpa - seriously off topic.
Those Tandy cables seem solid and my sync rates are healthy on the three modems.
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@ac427 - a TRS-80 was my first development system at work too, when I started out as a professional Z80 programmer.
I built a Maplin 5600S analog synth in the late 70s.
mea culpa - seriously off topic.
Those Tandy cables seem solid and my sync rates are healthy on the three modems.
Blimey, Our first computer was a kit, a Sinclair Mk.14. God knows what happened to the first 13. It turns out to be an INS8514 devlopment board.
Do you still have the Synth ?
I only made it as far as building the Syntom
Did Maplin have their own elecronics magazine, i remember the Sci-Fi illustrated covers of the catalogues ?
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I'll be online buying one soon. :cool:
And I did indeed do so. I's been in use a little while now and looks better made than the ADSLnation one, especially where the cable enters the plug. :cool:
To clarify: you're saying that Tandy UK has improved them since they bought up the name from Adslnation? Because if that's so, I agree. The plug body looks better, more metal round it (like a Cat6 plug), it looks even more solid. I notice the very latest Tandy UK ones still have "adslnation" printed all along the cable.
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Exactly that. :cool:
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Perhaps they are STP cables now ?
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It is STP, I have the 0.5m cable and you will see my review on it, 5 stars :D
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Perhaps they are STP cables now ?
But my old ADSLnation cable was also STP. ???
You could buy others (from them) at the time but that is what I chose then.
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I have some non cca shielded cat 6 and cat6a cable left over from when I wired up my loft, can I use that cable with rj11 plugs and a snagless boot to make the same cable? Rj11 has 4 pin so do i simply snip of the ones I don't need? or Should I get a 6 pin rj11 plug? Also what I am more worried about is the cable not fitting into plug as it's very chunky/thick.
edit - I think I need rj12 round entry plugs. Anyone know where I can get a rj12 round cable entry shielded plug with strain relief? There are thousands of unshielded and rj11 shielded but I can't find anything. I intend to make a vdsl cable to replace the cheap flat one supplied with modems/routers.
Thanks
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can I use that cable with rj11 plugs and a snagless boot to make the same cable?
No. The short answer. :-)
I replaced that exact type of handmade cable with the good adslnation cable and performance improved very significantly.
A lot of work and trouble to save a couple of pounds.
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I ordered the tandy cable yesterday as I couldn't find a UK supplier, shame really as I could have wired it straight into the faceplate. Oh well. I'll download the Huwaei monitor so I can compare any differences it makes (if any ). Oh and I purchased an Openreach mk3 faceplate too
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Note: see also this thread, from a user who is not impressed with the Tandy cable :
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,18128.0.html