Cat 5 color usage.

I'm outfitting 2 of our new server rooms next month, and at one site the cabling situation is a mess in the roof, unfortunately we can't just rip out everything and start from scratch.

I suggested for the new server room, that the new cable run be done with purple cable as it's obscure and to make it easier for us to identify cables.

The guy doing the cabling said no purple cat5/6 cable is strictly for Government/Defense usage.

I've never heard of this, is he full of it?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

networker050184

Yeah he's full of it.

matai

I got a rack full of purple CAT6, we picked it because our CEO loves purple.

dspielman

I guess if you have purple cat6 patch cables in your office the government will find you.

Priston

Anyone can use purple, maybe you should get someone who knows what they're doing to cable it...

DevilWAH

We use purple for all our structured cable, seems to be a very common colour as every where I have worked used it. We also use it for standard server patching.

I do have a thing that if any user requires a cable of 5 meters or more due to poor planning of network points, then the get the brightest pink one possible.

f0rgiv3n

This is hilarious, thanks for the good laugh

. I can't believe he told you that.

kj0

In our government department we have a set 200 page policy book on just cabling. What specific conduit for external runs; size, distance between each saddle, double sided saddles, Fiber only, no coppper. etc.

We havecertain colours for certain things:

Patch Panel to data point = Blue
Patch cables = Blue
VoIP = Green
Wireless = Yellow
Cross-Over = Red.
OM2 Fiber = Orange
OM3 Fiber = Teal
OS1 Fiber= Yellow

In most cases, we don't follow these to the T. we have the odd yellow or green cable going to a computer.

Each contractor is handed this book/pdf before they are put on the registered/Authorised Contractor list.

I don't know about Canadian Law, but just because we use these colours in this order for Government, it doesn't stop anyone from having those colours. I've never come across any company I've done work for or even any Government Department to use Purple, though.

Can you get a second "quote" for the work and see if they will do Purple for you?

apr911

The only wire color "standards" I've ever seen are set on a per company basis...

Ive worked a places where color is used to determine various lengths ( 1 ft black, 3 ft blue, 10 ft red, etc) or cable type/primary usage (crossover, voip, patch, uplink, etc) or color is used just to be different. Ive also seen combinations of the above standards, ignoring of the above standards and no standards at all.

So yeah, the guy you're talking to is full of it.

Plantwiz

Had one client who only wanted purple. I have never heard nor seen anything that stated a specific cable color was for an industry. I have had clients who wanted specific colors used for patch cable lengths so that the could more easily discern which cable length was used after the fact.

MAC_Addy

This is hilarious! I usually kit my new offices out with purple cable. I don't know why, I just do. I did have someone stop me once as I was making them a cable to go from the wall into their desk phone, I was using red CAT5e cable at the time. He said "whoa whoa whoa... You can't use that! That's a power cable... It has to be a BLUE internet cable" I then told him that the outside color doesn't matter.

veritas_libertas

WOW! This is crazy. A few years ago I ran Cat5e in my house. I guess I'm lucky that I used Internet Blue.... LOL!

Some of this does look familiar from places I have worked:

Yellow = Wireless
Red = Cross-Over
Blue = Patch

Plantwiz

How do you get "yellow" for wireless

At one time, red was the majority of crossover cables, but that was back in the 90s. It did not take long for cables to come in a variety of colors and once patch cables started being stocked in red, color designation went out the window.

I have seen phases of all yellow, all blue, all, green, all black, and all purple. A nicely colored and organized wiring closet looks amazing, but anymore, I see a mismatch of cables simple due to what is available at the time of time of the expansion. I have had two clients insist on all the patch cables getting replaced to unify the colors around the office. Time consuming, but easy enough to do.

MAC_Addy

Whenever I order cable now I usually change my color preference. I always order from monoprice.com they are awesome. I also sometimes order from cablesandkits.com - they always send me a nice little bag of M&M's

cyberguypr

All of the above are wrong. Purple cable is exclusively for flux capacitor connectivity

Priston

A lot of places I cabled used blue for data and white for voice

One scheme was
Blue - Data 1
Gray - Data 2
White - Voice
Green - Secure
Yellow - Guest

f0rgiv3n

MAC_Addy wrote: »

"whoa whoa whoa... You can't use that! That's a power cable... It has to be a BLUE internet cable"

ahahahaa awesome!!

EV42TMAN

For our clients we use red because it goes with the company branding. If there is a need for different colors then we use red and black and go from there.

jibbajabba

Every time we agree to a colour scheme we eventually run out when we need colour x and it goes all to s**

jibbajabba

Plus I am sure if purple is for the military or something you wouldn't be able to buy them in a regular shop

In Germany we got a particular red colour for firetrucks and you cannot get that colour mixed anywhere .. Close .. but not exactly .. Same would apply to cables surely ..

discount81

This may be a Quebec specific law for cabling (not originally from here so it is the first I have heard), I found out it is the supplier who said this.

I mean realistically anyone can go online and buy 10,000ft of purple cable and do a cable run, but maybe local suppliers need to follow certain rules.

DirtySouth

This is true. Purple cables are far less likely to be h4x0r3d.

Priston

That would be a strange law... I can't find anything on Google saying anything about purple cable being illegal or government only

Also, why does wireless need a cable? It's wireless right?

SteveLord

I have blue, green, black, yellow, purple, orange, red and even a pink. Short cables though. Handy for temporary "LAN party" type training setups we do in our conference room from time to time.

aftereffector

I'm in the military and I've never seen purple used anywhere. Green is unclassified, blue is classified releasable (or sometimes unclassified), red is classified, and yellow is TS, generally speaking. Purple isn't stocked anywhere.

bermovick

Government contractor here. Where I am, blue is for the NEC network while we use green for our closed network. I've heard red is for classified.

pitviper

Just means that the contractor's supplier doesn't stock it... and it'll cut into his profit if he special orders it

Some of those wiring guys are dinosaurs - we had a contractor that would only use what he could get from the local electrical supply place.

networker050184

I think pitviper hit it on the money.

discount81

Hey thanks for that tip, If I needed bulk moulded cables I always just bought off whoever was doing the cabling run, but they charge a lot.
Adds up when you need 1000+ cables.
Saving a bunch of cash with monoprice, even if the shipping to Canada is high, it's still much less than paying someone local.

10Linefigure

@discount81 , Hey man if your company doesnt mind, then you can use any colors you like, no one will mind if you choose black or neon orange man, go for it!

@ aftereffector, I believe you are off on the colors, green, red and blue are used, and we use purple on occasion for a substitute if we are out of blue. Though perhaps we should not disclose which ones are for what network on here. Thanks man.

mistabrumley89

As far as military networks is concerned, you are both partially wrong/right. Green is unclassified. Red is classified. Yellow/orange is ts. Purple is just a general classified color, but it is usually releasable. Blue is just some made up color someone thought would be a great idea for classified releasable and it ended up being used widely. It all correlates with the color of the actual classification labels. Releasable networks are still considered classified(purple) even though they make the blue stickers. the blue stickers are not recognized as a classification sticker in accordance to ar 35-2. This is public knowledge that can be found in ar 35-2

as far as the OP though. Cable color is exactly what it is. Just a color.