[PLUG-TALK] PLUG-talk Digest, Vol 254, Issue 13

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 12:00:02PM +0000, plug-talk-request at lists.pdxlinux.org wrote:

> Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2026 07:05:19 -0800
> From: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm at portlandia-it.com>
> To: 'Off-topic and potentially flammable discussion'
>  <plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org>
> Subject: Re: [PLUG-TALK] ... fire resistant ethernet cable?  SOLVED!
> 
> 
> Did you actually check that that ethernet cable was fire resistant by
> putting a piece in a metal tray outside and hitting it with a propane torch?

I don't keep propane torches around ... not fire rated. :-)

I can bring a hunk to clinic, and SOMEONE ELSE can take a
propane torch to it in the privacy of their own (probably
flammable wood frame) home. 

----

The PURPOSE of my effort is to meet the NFPA standard
in a way that is obvious to an electrical inspector.
With the actual NFPA 70 standard handy and
appropriate pages "postit-ed" for reference.

----

If the house catches fire, by far my biggest flammability
risk is 7000 books and 3000 issues of technical journals
in my library (on 700 feet of academic-library-grade metal
shelves, second hand used from the upgrade of the BPA
library in Portland). 

Workbenches, window trim, especially the exposed fat wooden
beams holding up the second floor.  In a fire, the house is
toast.  Modulated by three medium-sized fire extinguishers
in every room, easy to find, and small enough to exhaust
themselves before I stay inside fighting a fire too big
to safely extinguish without breathing apparatus and flame
resistant outer ware.  

Paint and flammables stored in a shed far from the house,
though some might be in the garage for work in progress.

Hopefully a fire engine from one of four nearby fire
stations will get here ASAP (closest 0.6 miles) and that
the fire hydrant across the street is pressurized (most
recent test last summer).  Resulting in saved lives, a
saved house, and less than $100K damage to my library.

Fire prep is 90% psychological prep; making safest "first
response" easy, then making "give up and get out" obvious,
especially when panicked.  The MAIN value to protect is the
lives of my wife, myself, and anyone odd enough to visit.

----

The cable made in Taiwan for Monoprice, and branded as such
on the spool and on the cable itself.  It is that branding
that I hope will convince a county electrical inspector that
I am using safe and legal material, equivalent or better to
the hundreds of feet of three wire electrical cable I used 
to rewire my house 15 years ago. 

The 18 inches of cable from external ethernet switch to the
Emporia inside the box was cut and mounted specifically so
that the cable label faces outwards under the box.  Gray
on black, flashlight needed and nearby.   About 4 inches
inside the box on the top side of a knockout.  

Safety-wise, that 18 inches is about 0.1% of the risk of
the hundreds of feet of regular unrated ethernet cable
going from my main switch to pairs of CAT6 jacks every
room in the house, and hundreds of feet of unrated 4 wire
telephone wiring ditto, also double inspected 15 years ago.

----

FYI, the label on the spool is:

(M) MONOPRICE
Monoprice Cat6A Ethernet Bulk Cable - Solid, 550MHz,
F/UTP, CMR, Riser Rated, Pure Bare Copper Wire, 10G,
2A3AWG, No Logo, 500ft, Black (UL) (TAA)
P/N 41464  Made in Taiwan  [barcode] 8 89028 15682 7

The white labelling on the black cable itself is:

MONOPRICE CAT.6A F/UTP ETL VERIFIED TO ANSI/TIA-568.3-D ---
E142890 23AWG X 4P 75C CMR (UL) C(UL) RoHS 0494FT

I will bring an 8 foot hunk (with 3 copies of the
labelling) to clinic.  Others can use it at home, or
roast it at home with their own propane torches.

----

Perhaps I should bring some to a fire station and let
those pyromaniacs go at it, while I watch.  I am merely
a pyromaniac voyeur with binoculars.  I watched the 
first Space Shuttle launch at KSC, but am too young
to have watched an above-ground nuclear detonation. 
Given current US politics, I may watch one soon. :-(

Keith L.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com