How To tell the difference between CCA and COPPER wire cable and FAKE ETHERNET cables
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- Hi, this video shows you the inside of a FAKE Cat5e Ethernet cable and the reason it is so cheap. It compares CCA (Copper Clad Aluminium) to proper copper cat5e cable using a flame test. Hopefully after watching the video you will be more 'clued up' when buying cat5e and cat6 Ethernet cables. It also shows the inside of other cables to find out what they are constructed off.
If you want to view some REAL cat5e and cat6 Ethernet cables then visit www.mrtelephone...
Everyone needs to see this forward this to all business owners!!!
This was very helpful. I knew you could take a lighter to CCA and it would melt, but had no idea what I should expect to see or how fast. I tested all my speaker wires before watching this, now I realize I probably wasted half the fuel in the lighter waiting for results.
Happily, all my speaker wire is not CCA.
Very grateful! Thanks!
I think the solid core copper is usually run in walls where it isn't disturbed. The stranded core copper is for connecting to devices since it needs to be flexible without breaking. Great video !
I wish I had seen your video before buying an imitation. Thanks for the info.
+Grants Pass TV Repair I recently did the same. Lucky I didn't install it alont the house. I popped down to yesss electrical near where I live and bough t1000ft of the real stuff.
Btw for wires you can ask seller to remove all plastic shells and than check mid centre of cable if it was white is definitely is aluminum or cca but if was red color that's 100 percent pure copper wire. I hope i can save some one's under scammers
Ahmadreza Iglesias A scammer won't let you bare the wire to check. If the seller won't let you check you know it's fake!
Quite a good presentation, You can learn things every day that you would not normally realize......
I couldn't get my RJ45 keystone wall jacks to function after trying several different keystone jacks. Turns out the cable is made from aluminum strands and they are too thin to make good contact with the punch downs. The cable was installed in the house about 8 years ago. This video puts it all together for me. Thank you!
I stumbled on your video after doing some research on how to make my own ethernet cables for my home network. I had just recently ordered some cable and realized it was CCA. I cancelled that order immediately after watching this. I then ordered some new cable that is 100% copper. Yes the copper cable was bout 2.5x more than the CCA cable, but I think its worth it for peace of mind.
Thanks for this fine video calling this stuff out. I did not comprehend how far the fraud had reached. I was researching why I could find only CCA speaker cable and nothing pure copper. It didn't/doesn't make sense why this stuff is even used (other than shorting the user). The other thing people need to be aware is aluminum is a much more fragile metal and probably the reason it was hardly twisted together in the cat5 - because if it was it probably would break!
Thanks for the comment, very much appreciated. It is purely to save money on the product and also on shipping as CCA is lighter.
Thanks this is exactly what I needed. I had a thing of bulk cable that didn't specify what it was. This flame test made it obvious. Thanks!
Hi. Thank you. You have educated me more. Iv never bought that bad of a network cable. Reason im commenting is on usb. My samsung note 4 have fast charging but with samsungs approved brick and cable. So lucky me the dog ate my cable. So in a local shop in town i saw this cheap cable that had a good feel and look to it. Well it worked one week and died and i had no fast charging. So i found that i had a kodak usb cable. Also a good brand. So i used this cable. And my fast charging was back. Old cables i threw in my waste cables box. This was over a year ago. Tonight i saw your video. So i found both my broken cables. Stripped them. But both was gray inside. Did the flame test. Both burned. But the samsung lasted about 4 times longer before it melted. So i believe had more copper in till what my phone require so there still some cost cutting but it had the rite amount of copper to fast charge my phone at the rate samsung is advertising it to do. Burned cables before and they burn like paper and other shield melted before the cable even bended. Great video.
thank you, iv been seeing you new videos but the old ones like this helped me a lot with my AP wasn't 1Gig until i changed the cable
Valuable information, thank you Sir...! I have been using a jewellers
10x magnifying glass to inspect the cable wire ends in the RJ45's in use
on my network (and patch spares). It is visually simple to identify
Copper, CCA and FAKE. So far I've chucked away over 60 metres
of Cat5e cable which turned out to be all aluminium, let alone CCA.
Could you please explain how do you identify fake and genuine cables using visual inspection (magnifying glass)?
@@MikolajMajewski ... I am classifying "FAKE" as being those cheap shoddy CATx cables that either contain a white metal wire (aluminium) or wire made from Copper Covered Aluminium. Inappropriate for network use in my opinion and experience.
A good magnifying glass helps inspect the colour of the metal wire exposed in the end of the RJ45. Try it yourself.
On reflection, I should have just called those fake cables "CRAP". 🙂
@@petephillips8559 Thanks Pete!
Shown me the TRUTH! and answered all my questions thank you Vince. Definitely coming to you next time I need something you offer
momeza12 That's great, thanks for watching and thanks for the comment.All the best Vince
I had discovered a fake cable on my own then went looking for more information and found this video. My cable was included with other LAN equipment, it was not a patch cable purchased cheaply off ebay.
The symptoms I was seeing is that is did not consistently connect to the LAN switch at 1Gbps, sometimes it connected at 100Mbps. I thought the switch had a bad port, but moving ports didn't matter. The I tried another cable (that I made), it worked perfectly and consistently. So I thought perhaps the bad one just needed to be re-terminated. When I cut the end off I was shocked that two of the pairs didn't seem to have any twist at all and the color coding was wrong. But just like these, the outside was stamped with the all the standards information for Cat5E.
Arrgh... I just found two my fake cables in my stock, not sure where these ones came from. Just like the ones from a couple years ago...non standard color coding and no twist at all...yet clearly marked as Cat5e. One thing I've noticed with these fake cables, is they feel different when you handle them, they are kind of squishy. That's because there is a lot of empty space between the outer insulation and the individual wires. I'm guessing this is due to wide manufacturing tolerances OR just an attempt to make them look the same diameter from the outside as a proper cable.
Good video, I was going to make my own video to explain this, but you've already done it :) That said, you are getting what you pay for, CCA cables are cheaper. I would also say, over short distances, you typically won't get a problem with CCA, the issue is voltage drop due to the increased resistance. The flame test shows the melting point, so 650 for aluminium, and 1100 for copper. I've personally had some cheap shotgun CCTV cables fail which were CCA, so it's not just ethernet cables.
Thanks Vince, I wasn't aware of that either. Well done.
congrats on 9k subs m8!
Thanks!
My Mate VINCE NP! Love your vids btw!
I didn’t know that , thank you for making this video.
An excellent demonstration of how we're being ripped off with substandard rubbish. Also to note that cheap cabling does not pass fire regulations and transports fire around your home like touch paper. It just doesn't pay to buy cheap.
The funny thing is, decent cable is still not *that* expensive, more yes, but not crazy expensive if you know where to look (not ebay LOL).
Thanks for the info. I was wondering why my network speeds were quite slow.
Excellent information and realized I probably wasted $50 on an Amazon deal. lol. Thanks for a very thorough explanation!
This was very helpful. Thank you
Many thanks for the information. Very good video , well explained . Spread the word
Yes, I see from your video that physically there's a difference.
BUT when I measure the internet speed speedtest on my router, I don't see any speed difference with Cat6 ethernet between my copper versus CCA cables.
So I think the advantage of copper over CCA is if you need to transmit power to keep the wire cooler.
for what distance are you testing?
there might be for longer distances, e.g. >20m
@@shmadmanuts The CCA was 75' and it's 5 years old (problems started at about 4.5 years). I replaced the CCA with 100% copper at 35' and I haven't experienced any dropouts for 3 weeks so far. Never CCA again for me.... I threw it in the trash.
@@mrpmj00
Another advantage of copper vs CCA is when you use it as HDMI/USB extender, since HDMI/USB extender is very picky about the cable standard
@@mrpmj00
Another advantage of copper vs CCA is when you use it as HDMI/USB extender, since HDMI/USB extender is very picky about the cable standard
Copper clad steel cabling exists, ordered some cheap roll of cat5e and realised somthing was not right about it the way the conductors were stiff and even after the flame test it didnt melt so i took a magnet and put the cable near it, it stuck! The last cable in the video could be made of CCS and thats even worse than CCA preformance wise.
Mate, could you please tell me which wire strippers and cutters you are using, or what modern iteration you suggest? I'm having a lot of trouble locating proper high quality tools, and price isn't necessarily an indicator of quality these days sadly.
I bought some once (pluscom) sold as cat5e printed down the side and everything but the conductors were so thin, not the standard colours and not even twisted safe to sat it didnt work think I got about 3Mb through it
I always now pay more for quality full copper cable
I did the same test whit my GlassWire IPS connection, now i do not have any annoying internet connection anymore, Thanks!
Hello, how to recognize a CCA cable from a Solid Copper without stripping it? I am in France, and apart from a single reference, there is no indication if the cable is CCA or Solid Copper, neither on the label nor on the cable itself
Where can I go to buy copper cables? Amazon only seems to be selling CCA judging by the reviews.
Cat 5e is rated for 1 Gigabit, not 100 Megabit. But I love the video showing the fake aluminum cable. We constantly bust contractors trying to substitute substandard parts.
I think he is referring to frequency, not speed. IE Mhz, not Mbit/Sec.
Thanks man, that help out a lot. I did a test and indeed i bought CCA cables. :)
I recently bought a cat6 cable off ebay advertised as highest spec & had cat6 written on cable, after installing it I had problems with connection dropping, the cable was half the price of some of the cables on there. after seeing your video I tested the cable with your method & it was FAKE, looking on ebay now most of the cables are cheap which makes me think they are FAKE aswell. thank you vince will buy off you in future, ps trying to get my money back off George (ebay).
phil jones Hi, thanks for the message. Hopefully you will be able to get your money back. In the future it may be worth double checking with the sellers on Ebay to confirm if the cable is Copper or CCA. If they do not know chances are they are CCA.Many thanks Vince.
Thanks. very useful info. like you said, if it's good to be true....
Thanks Vince, I just came across this video. I'm in Canada. Is there any way to tell if a cat5e cable is solid or stranded (in the store or online) without stripping it open? Can you recommend any brands in North America?
+Joe Smith Hi, often it will say on the packaging or if you look very closely at the cut end of the cable then you can see if each wire has a single core or tiny cores (often 7) clumped together.Thanks Vince
So what should we expect to pay for a genuine cat 5 cable vs a fake one? Does anyone have any indicative price guides?
Solid core is for wall installs (that won't move) normal patch cables should be multiwired or they will eventually break, also the crimping will probably come off.
It depends on the use case. For example, I make my own custom length patch cables for the network closet using solid copper Cat5e cable from a reputable brand. Once installed they are only moved if I reconfigure things which happens less than once/year. I've never had one fail after many years and most are running gigabit. Desktops are usually fine also with solid core because once setup, they will likely stay in the same place for many months, if not years. Now, if one needs a patch cable for a laptop which is likely to be moved frequently, then one is certainly better off with a stranded cable. It's all a question of how often it will be moved and in general how careful one is with their cables.
i do have a question?
why in your video are you selling/using stranded cable? most of the cat 5e sold here in the usa is all solid core. wondering if theres something going on i should be aware of.
geoffrey walker Hi, most ready made patch leads worldwide are stranded core. I mostly sell solid core. You can get CCA in solid or stranded core. The reason people use stranded is because it is more flexible but if you are terminating the cable on wall socket/faceplates then you have to use solid core.Thanks Vince
Just learned something, thanks mate!
The good thing about ebay and paypal is that buyers can get their money back then come to you for the correctly made product.Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for the truth Vincent 👍🏿
Great informative video... shocking what people can get away with!
Hi vince have you closed down your Ebay shop?
This was seriously informative thankyou soo much!!
all your links to buy says shop does not exist on ebay?
When R U reopening your Ebay shop?
Vince have you seen the cat7 cables for sale there are suppose to be a lot better than cat6 cable
Hi, Cat7 are better but even cat5e still works at higher speeds than current broadband provides in the UK so we really won't need cat7 cables for many years as most of use just use the cables for the internet rather than directly networking computers together. So for UK broadband speeds even on Virginmedia 200Mbps package a cat5e will perform the same as a cat7 because the cat5e can handle 1000Mbps.
Cheers Vince
Good video, thanks..
Great info👍
Very good video
Can't get to your web site....seems it's no longer....anyone suggest a good supplier?
BTW, i know this is irrelevant, why if i soldered CCA cable to a nickel terminal, the part nearest to the soldered part turn into oxidize grey powder?
Thank you mr
You're the man. I was just about to buy shit.
Or to test it another way is, copper isn't magnetic."This can quickly be tested by trying to pick up some strands with a magnet. If it sticks it’s not true copper if it does it’s coated copper or not copper
Thanks for telling. Many shitty cables in my country are sold like this. And they never mention if CCA or copper. SO BAD
The fact of the matter is Im getting 60 meg download and 12 up through a 50 foot cable I paid 6 bucks for. What more do I need right now? I didnt do any special wiring it it so im not really loosing out on anything.
You're probably the one selling those dodgy cables on eBay. lol!
The problem these days is the fake ones sells just as expensive as the originals especially where I am from in South Africa.
I bought some cat 5 online and I was getting dial up speeds hooked straight to a modem on 100 feet. I started looking at the strands and it was pathetic I was so pissed I ran all this cable for litterly no reason
Then tell me why it works perfectly for me? My complete home network ist made with solid CCA cables and works perfectly since over one year now.
CCA isn't necessarily terrible in all applications, but it may not meet specification which says it has to be good to 100Mhz bandwidth at 100 meters. In a typical home environment, cable runs are less than 40 meters so your cable may be perfectly good to 100Mhz for that distance, but it might not work though at 100 meters at full bandwidth. As noted in the video, POE can also be an issue due to CCA cable experiencing large power losses. For residential environments with short runs, CCA may be fine, it's just good to understand the limitations.
el problema es cada año vas a tener que arregla r las puntas del cable dado que se oxidan ,y el cca nunca da la misma calidad de velocidad que uno de cobre
i use to link this video each time somebody reples "CCA what?". It's quicker than explaining this sad story over and over again.
Anyone know where to get a legit cat7 cable for a good price?
Thats the best DSL cable i ever seen, you cant compare cat5e twisting with telephone wire DSL twisting, cat5e need to support up to 100 Mhz .... ADSL2+ needs to support 2 Mhz.... so you can't even compare one to the other... that DSL cable is a very good one ... and shielded ;)
I think a DSL cable only has to meet Cat3 specs. That would explain why it has less twists. A shielded cat5e would be better than the DSL cable he showed, but not necessary for DSL. I was really surprised when he said he made Cat6 DSL cables, that's an even bigger waste of money.
Ty.
Something like this is prob why my house burned down from a cheap extension cord (as the fire chief predicted) from what remained left after an arc spark.
This is not stuff anyone should mess around with. I lost everything including my cats.
I bought some "cat7" cables on amazon, they were clearly fakes. I don't think anyone makes flat cat 7 cables..well anyways tried them out and they were plain garbage. Constant drops and disconnects, bottlenecking, etc you name it. Put my old cat 5e back on..and what do you know? Problem solved. I was just dumbfounded on the amount of people giving this garbage 5 stars. I can't understand how they cannot tell the difference when clearly I can...which leads me to believe they are fake reviews meant to bolster their product without a doubt. Bought some other cables, but this time 6a, still not the proper gauge, but it appears at least the twist is correct. It's honestly hard to tell nowadays which cables are real and which are not. What bothers me the most is how companies like Amazon continue to let this happen. On second thought I guess not, they care more about the bottom line (i.e. money) than they do about consumer satisfaction.
'Flat cat 7 cables'should not exist, as it is impossible to apply the correct shielding as required by the Cat 7 specification I.e. flat cat 7 cables are all fake.
"hi there my name's Vince From my mate Vince dot com, and in this video today it's gonna be another tryin to fix video, a video where I buy something faulty off of eBay and I try to fix it, except this time I'm gonna be fixing the fraudulent patch cable industry"
Well done mate,. They are breaking the law, why not say the names so people stop buying it
So really if you buy data cable with plugs fitted you've got to cut a plug off to to check. Think in future I'm going to buy a good quality bobin of cable that I can check and fit my own plugs!. Ps. Some say 100% copper but it is often stranded - now it must say SOLID COPPER.
I bought such shit cable (cat 6) from a reputable reseller (Kjell & Co) and intalled it... It felt wrong installing it, and now I decided to check what the fuck was wrong with it... Well I did the Lighter Trick and my heart sank. It was some of that shit cable.
I have made a video on it on my channel (video name "[2017-03-18] /!\ Kjell & Co sells fake Cat 6 Cabels! /!\"). I have sent out an email to the reseller and said that they should stop selling it.
" I won't do a burn test on this one" kinda hints you use cca wire.....
+Jason Wenden I don't use CCA.
Wow, that aluminum cable was pure garbage.
braided cable is junk use solid wire IMO, braided cable is speaker wire
A patch cable should be stranded. In wall stuff should be solid cuz it won't move
it will bend depending to it's thicknes😂😂😂😂
genius
ur nice sounds noise,
haha what at un pure accent
Ty, ty, ty...
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2507206419299586&id=100000307580640
electricity always travel on the surface of the wires in AC not in the center so a aluminium core and copper surface, or pure copper all the way through doesent matter.
Networking equipment is low voltage and DC not AC. The copper vs alum does matter.
I have been using cheap cables to connect from my VDSL face plate to my Router. I am not sure what is going on but the internet has had untol intermittant problem and sometime wil not syc at all until I change the cables. I have has OR check the whole network and no problems found. I have troubleshooted everything to trouble shoot and have gone through about 15 RJ11 cables that work for a while but problem reoccurs. Right now I am putting it down to the cheap cables failing. (might stip one and do this test. Anyway, I bought some twisted copper cables from Mr T - lets see if they help and stop the syncs from dropping - Thanks Millie :)