Cheapest place to get a big box o network cable?

You are correct that aluminum has a higher resistance per linear foot when comparing the same gauge wire. CCA is often misunderstood and just assumed as universally bad. Heavier gauges will have lower resistance per foot. Usually one size heavier gauge is required in aluminum to get the same resistance per foot as you would with copper. It will indeed run as far.

Aluminum is not necessarily more brittle as you put it but rather has less tensile strength when comparing it to the same gauge of copper. In most cases unless you’re hanging on it you wont notice a difference. Thats why I said something about stranded vs solid mattering more.

Im not familiar with omes law but I have spent a fair amount of time with Ohm’s law :wink: and I can tell you, theres a fair bit of chartage in the NEC comparing the two. In the end one is not better than the other, it simply comes down to $$ and application.

It’s true you can use a lower guage of wire to compensate for it’s lower resistance but Ikd how many cable manufacturers actually do this. Whenever I have checked an aluminum network cable with a multimeter it always had higher resistance when compared to copper of the same length. Also if part of your cable is somewhere it will get moved around often and possibly bent it is more likely to fail. Don’t get me wrong though I agree it definitely has it’s place but it is legitimately not as good.

After a bad experience with cable bought off of Amazon, the customer ratings were good but the cable was shit, loose sheathing and the pairs weren’t twisted very tight. I only buy network cable form Monoprice now.

Anyone know any good places in Aus?

I found this deal for $160AU, don’t know if it is good or not:

I know.

I didnt say that Cat5e was shielded though.
Cat 6A with STP / S-FTP is shielded 10Gb/s cable.