Cable Sourcing - 30m (100ft) CAT5e Cable, Outdoor External Ethernet Cable, 100% Solid Copper, Network Cable, LAN, Router, WiFi 6, CCTV, 1000mb (Gigabit), RJ45 Plugs

I think some of the other reviewers have misunderstood what an outdoor ethernet cable is. The key difference between an outdoor cable and a normal ethernet cable is the outer sheath on the cable. The outer layer of a normal ethernet cable is PVC, for an outdoor cable it is PE (Polyethylene). The reason is that UV (ie. sunlight) degrades PVC, it does not affect PE in the same way. PE is also generally most resistant to punctures. This cable correctly has a PE sheath, so is suitable for outdoor use.Some outdoor cables are also gel filled. Gel is used so that if you have a puncture in the cable, the water does not permeate through the whole length of the cable (potentially ending up indoors if you're unlucky). This cable is NOT gel filled. That seems acceptable at this price point, but if your use case involves the cable installed in a way that there is a high risk a puncture could happen and that the water entering the cable would exit somewhere undesirable you may want to look for a gel filled cable instead.If you are making an outdoor connection, you should buy a suitable waterproof junction box to protect the connection.I used this cable with a  PHYLink PoE IP camera  which came with a very good waterproof junction box. To make it easier to feed the other end of the cable through the wall I cut off the connector and inside connected it to an RJ45 socket (eg.  kenable RJ45 Face Plate Wall Sockets Cat6 Single 1 Port with Keystones Jacks  ).The conductors of this cable are solid (ie. not stranded); that means it is good choice for permanent installations, but not a good choice for (say) a laptop that is reconnected daily where the continuous flexing might cause one of the conductors to snap through fatigue. The conductors do appear to be solid copper - this is good, a number of cables in this price range use CCA (copper-clad-aluminium) which is cheaper and has various disadvantages compared to pure copper.One thing I am not entirely happy about is this cable has very little in the way of markings on it. Normally at manufacture time a cable has the manufacturer's name and specification printed onto the cable every meter or so, so you can identify the cable type (if you look at any half decent network cable you should see an example of these markings) and be relatively sure that you are getting the type of cable you have paid for. The only marking on this cable is 'BK151123-41', which as far as I can tell has no known meaning. As best I can tell from inspection, it is actually a cat5e cable with a polyethylene outer.Note that there has also been an issue with anti-snag boots; at the time I bought (June 2016) the product photos were showing a cable with anti-snag boots (to protect the 'tab' on the connector from damage) but the cable I received did not have these. Apparently the manufacturer had removed these without the seller knowing, and they have now updated the photos to show the cable without the anti-snag boots. I understand the next batch of cables they have requested the manufacturer to fit the anti-snag boots. I was tempted to deduct one star for this, but the seller has taken full responsibility and agreed to refund or supply a cable with anti-snag boots I think they have handled the issue very well.Many of the other reviewers for this cable seem to have received cheap/free samples, I actually purchased this cable at full price and to fulfil a genuine need! I highly recommend it, I've bought another 3 since.

Will buy again when needed

This cable works fine but it is thin and has a fragile outer sheath. I don’t think it is suitable for outdoors, which I have used it for. Had to be very careful with clips as outer jacket so wafer thin. Do believe the reviews that complain about struggling to straighten - it is uniquely hard to straighten this and you risk damage to outer jacket with all the manipulation needed. It kinks very, very easily. Doubt it will last and would not buy again.

I bought one of these cables and it lasted for around 6-7 months, then the heads were worn down and broke so it was useless. I foolishly decided to purchase another of these cables, which did not work at all at delivery. Avoid these at any cost, there are lots of other alternatives on Amazon you can pick, but do not purchase these.

At this price you would expect copper-coated aluminium, but I can confirm this is solid copper core. The outer sheathing is weatherproof, which on the plus side means that unlike normal sheathing it doesn't rot away in sunlight or when buried, but on the downside, together with the solid core, means that it can't easily turn sharp corners (it is not very flexible; you have to use some well-anchored cable clips to make it travel around the corner of an exterior wall). Had no problems punching it down to network sockets or fitting network plugs. Previously with WiFi-N150, the PCs in my study were topping out at 25Mbit/sec; now with this cable I get the full 70Mbit/sec from my fibre router two rooms away, with SMB file transfers inside the LAN running far faster still. Total cable diameter with sheath is 5mm, so get either 5mm or 6mm cable clips. Note that this is unshielded, but it is twisted pairs so interference wasn't a problem for me even when passing the household mains fusebox. If you're planning to run alongside mains wire for a long length then consider shielded instead. Note also that it is not armoured, so if you bury it, one forceful spade could chop it. If you don't need shield nor armour, then for outdoor network cable running through and along walls, or under paving, this is about the best you can get for the price - expect to pay double or more to get better.

Spot on cable. I saw some reviews for this item saying it would not go straight, constantly wanting to twirl itself back up. Ignore them. It is coiled up in the packaging. Just unwind it and straighten it out. Reverse the loops and twist it straight. It’s simple. If you want cable this length, you are probably restraining it in trunking or with cable grips anyway.The job I used it for involved going through tight holes in external wall, through conduit, buried in soil and through fairly tight bends in timber stud work. The first cable I used broke (that was a copper coated aluminium cable). A mistake. This one with solid copper cores is much much better. Very pleased.I was putting my own RJ45s and network socket jacks on this and only bought this finished cable because simple cable although plugs in was more expensive. For anyone doing the same, this cable was simple to work with. However it lacks a drawstring thread to pull on. Easy to strip back the ‘hard way’ though and crimps fine.

This worked very well as an outdoor connection from house to garden office. 18 months on it stopped working. No signs of damage to plastic outer sheath or connectors. I would expect a cable labelled as outdoor to last longer. Maybe I was unlucky. Shame as was otherwise very happy with product and service.

This exterior Cat 5e cable was required to run from a cctv camera across the back of my home and then through the loft. The cable is strong and the connectors are good but what was a pain was the fact that it wanted to retain its coiled up shape which made it difficult to route. For instance I could have done with a second person to feed it through a hole while I pulled from the other side.