Uniqcli

Best Outdoor-Rated Ethernet Cable for Campus Runs

Bulk spools and pre-terminated cords whose own titles carry the outdoor rating — read by jacket class, shielding, conductor gauge and whether the run is buried, aerial or exposed.

Outdoor-rated Ethernet cable in stock at Uniqcli

How to choose →

A curated selection with live pricing — in-stock lines first, then back-ordered lines with a typical lead time. Every line is sourced through authorized distribution and screened for TAA country-of-origin and NDAA §889 status before checkout.

Industrial IP68 cord

Eaton

Tripp Lite by Eaton Industrial Cat5e/Cat6 STP Ethernet Cable - 10 ft

N206-PC10-IND

A 10 ft industrial Cat5e/Cat6 shielded twisted-pair cord with RJ-45 ends, rated CMX for outdoor use and IP68, in 26 AWG.

Titled TAA Compliant — a per-part fact to confirm on the exact row you order.

$53.08In stock
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Outdoor moulded, 50 ft

Eaton

Tripp Lite by Eaton Cat5e 350 MHz Outdoor-Rated Molded (UTP) Ethernet…

N007-050-GY

A 50 ft outdoor-rated moulded unshielded Cat5e cord at 350 MHz with RJ-45 ends, listed for Power over Ethernet — the exposed last run to a camera or access point.

$90.45In stock
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Direct-burial spool

Eaton

Tripp Lite by Eaton Cat6/Cat6e Bulk Ethernet 600 MHz… - 1000 ft

N228-01K-BK

1,000 ft of solid-core direct-burial outdoor-rated unshielded Cat6/Cat6e at 600 MHz, CMX-jacketed in 23 AWG with bare-wire ends for field termination.

The row names surveillance cameras, antennas and signage among its intended devices.

$1,250.81Back-ordered
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Gel-filled Cat5e spool

4XEM

4XEM 1000FT Outdoor Cat5e Ethernet Network Cable

4XOCAT5E1000

1,000 ft of outdoor Cat5e in pure copper, gel-filled and CMG-rated at 24 AWG — the flooding compound is what keeps water from travelling the pairs in wet conduit.

$245.46In stock
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Cat6A outdoor bulk

4XEM

4XEM Cat 6A 1000ft (305 m) Outdoor Bulk Cable

4XCAT6AOUTDOOR

1,000 ft of outdoor bulk Category 6a in 23 AWG unshielded twisted pair with bare-wire ends, for a permanent run specified to the higher category.

$657.48In stock
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Shielded Cat7 bulk

4XEM

4XEM Cat 7 1000ft (305 m) Outdoor Bulk cable

4XCAT7OUTDOOR

1,000 ft of outdoor bulk Category 7 shielded twisted pair, CMG-rated at 23 AWG and rated 10 Gbit/s — the row names security cameras among its intended devices.

Shielded cable needs shielded jacks and a bonded ground path at both ends to do anything at all.

$839.82In stock
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Outdoor Cat5e spool

Ubiquiti

Ubiquiti UniFi Outdoor Cable - 1000.66 ft

UACC-CABLE-C5E-OUTDOOR-PRO-305M-W

A 1,000 ft outdoor Category 5e spool with shielding in 24 AWG — the run for a wireless bridge, a gate reader or a camera drop on a site already standardized on this vendor's outdoor gear.

$179.54In stock
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Short outdoor patch

Ubiquiti

Ubiquiti UISP Patch Cable Outdoor - 3.28 ft

UACC-CABLE-PATCH-OUTDOOR-1M-BK

A 3.28 ft shielded outdoor Category 5e patch cord in 24 AWG — the jumper from a weatherproof enclosure to the device mounted beside it.

$4.15In stock
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26 ft outdoor patch

Ubiquiti

Ubiquiti UniFi Patch Cable Outdoor - 26.25 ft

UACC-CABLE-PATCH-OUTDOOR-8M-W

The same shielded outdoor Category 5e construction at 26.25 ft, for a mast or soffit run where a spool and two terminations would be more work than the job deserves.

$11.50Back-ordered
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Cat6 outdoor bulk

AddOn

AddOn 1000ft Non-Terminated Black CAT6 PVC Solid Bulk Cable Outdoor CAT…

ADD-CAT6BULK1KO-BK

1,000 ft of non-terminated solid Category 6 outdoor bulk cable, unshielded twisted pair in 24 AWG with bare-wire ends at both sides.

$794.88Back-ordered
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Cat6A shielded bulk

AddOn

AddOn 1000ft Non-Terminated Black CAT6A Shielded PVC Solid Bulk Cable…

ADD-CAT6A1KFO-BK

1,000 ft of solid Category 6a outdoor bulk cable with shielding and bare-wire ends, for a 10 Gbit-rated permanent run past electrically noisy plant.

$1,008.32Back-ordered
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50 ft outdoor cord

AddOn

AddOn 50ft Black CAT 6 PVC Ethernet Cable Snagless Bubble Boot Outdoor…

ADD-50FCAT6O-BK

A 50 ft outdoor Category 6 cord with snagless bubble boots and RJ-45 ends in 24 AWG unshielded twisted pair.

$114.08Back-ordered
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Cat6 U/UTP spool

PANDUIT

PanNet Copper Cable, Cat 6, 23 AWG, U/UTP, Outdoor, Black - 1000.66 ft

PUO6C04BL-CEG

A 1,000 ft outdoor Category 6 copper spool in 23 AWG U/UTP with bare-wire ends, listed for patch panels and network devices at 1 Gbit/s.

The heavier 23 AWG conductor is the one to read for long Power over Ethernet runs.

$561.73Back-ordered
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Not the right one above? Filter the whole range by the specs that matter — live pricing and honest availability on every row, and the same TAA country-of-origin and NDAA §889 screening before checkout.

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Specifications are read from the manufacturer product title as supplied to us; where a value is not stated it is left blank rather than estimated. Every line is screened for TAA country-of-origin and NDAA §889 status before checkout.

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Indoor patch cable outdoors is the failure that takes a year to show up. The jacket chalks and cracks under ultraviolet light, water wicks along the pairs into a switch closet, and what starts as intermittent errors on one camera ends as a re-pull through the same conduit somebody already paid for. Outdoor-rated cable is a different jacket and, on the buried and gel-filled rows, a different core construction — and the only reliable way to buy it is to read the rating on the row rather than to trust a product-family name.

Three words on a title do most of the work. CMX is the outdoor-use jacket class you will see on industrial cords and on direct-burial spools; CMG is the general-purpose class carried by several of the bulk outdoor spools here; and gel-filled or direct-burial says the cable is built to sit in wet earth or conduit that floods rather than merely to survive weather. Shielding is the second axis: a shielded or foil-screened run resists the electrical noise of motors, drives and fluorescent ballasts, and it is the usual choice alongside outdoor camera and access-control cabling — but it only works if it is bonded and grounded at the terminations, which is an installation decision, not a purchase. The third is the conductor: 23 or 24 AWG solid copper for a permanent run, and a stranded pre-terminated cord only where the cable moves.

This page is a fence, not a test result. Every row in the grid carries the outdoor rating in its manufacturer's own catalog title and terminates as copper Ethernet, which is what makes the heading truthful; the editorial picks under the grid widen that to the copper outdoor rows from two more manufacturers. Nothing here is a lab finding and nothing here is a delivery promise — the cards carry live pricing and the current availability from the catalog.

Buyer's checklist

How to choose outdoor-rated Ethernet cable

  • Read the jacket words on the exact row: CMX names outdoor use, CMG names the general-purpose class, and direct-burial or gel-filled says the cable is built for wet earth and flooded conduit. A row that names none of them is not an outdoor cable however it is marketed.
  • Decide bulk versus pre-terminated before anything else. A 1,000 ft spool with bare-wire ends is the permanent run and gets field-terminated into jacks and panels; a moulded RJ-45 cord is for the last few feet to a camera, an access point or an enclosure, and it is the wrong thing to pull through conduit.
  • Match the category rating to the link, not to the budget: Category 5e still carries a gigabit and Power over Ethernet to a camera; Category 6 and 6a are the choice where 10 Gbit/s or a longer high-power PoE run is in the plan. The rating is named on every row here.
  • Use shielded cable where the run passes machinery, drives or ballasts — and specify the bonding and grounding at both ends with it. Shielding that is not bonded is a shield that does nothing and can make the noise picture worse.
  • Check the conductor gauge and construction on the row. Solid 23 or 24 AWG copper is for the permanent pull; stranded is for cords that flex. Where a spool names pure copper, that is the manufacturer's own statement and it is the one to buy against for PoE runs.
  • Treat a copper run between two buildings as an electrical decision, not a cabling one. Separate structures can sit at different ground potentials, and lightning finds the copper — which is why a between-building span is usually specified as fibre with copper only inside each building, and why the outdoor copper here is best used for campus drops, camera runs and yard equipment.
  • Where the purchase order names TAA, read it on the part number: several of the industrial cords here carry TAA in the manufacturer's own title and the bulk spools generally do not. It is a per-part fact to confirm on the exact row you order.

Buried, aerial or simply exposed — three different buys

A buried run is the strictest case, and the cable for it says so: direct-burial construction with a gel or flooding compound that stops water from travelling along the pairs when the conduit inevitably takes on water. That is what you want under a car park, between a gatehouse and a main building, or anywhere a spade will eventually go. An aerial run between two poles or across a courtyard is a different problem — the cable has to hold its own weight or hang from a messenger, and the jacket has to survive constant sunlight, so ultraviolet resistance and jacket class matter more than the flooding compound. The third case is the most common and the most often mis-bought: a short, permanently exposed run along a soffit, up a mast to an access point or across a roof to a camera. It needs an outdoor jacket and nothing exotic, and it is where the shorter moulded outdoor cords earn their place instead of a spool, a pair of jacks and a termination visit.

In all three cases the failure mode to design against is water reaching an indoor switch, not water reaching the cable. Keep the entry point below the run so water drips away from the building, leave a drip loop before any penetration, and terminate inside an enclosure rather than at the weather line. None of that is a product; all of it decides whether the product lasts.

Power over Ethernet, distance and what actually limits a run

Most outdoor copper today is carrying power as well as data — a camera, an access point, a gate reader, a sign. The 100-metre channel limit is the same outdoors as it is indoors and it includes the patch cords at both ends, which is the part that gets forgotten on a long yard run. What changes outdoors is heat and conductor size: a bundle of cable running warm in direct sun delivers less usable power at the far end than the same cable in a cool riser, and thinner conductors lose more of it. That is why the gauge printed on the spool is worth reading before the category rating — a 23 AWG solid-copper Category 6 run has more margin for a high-power device at distance than a thin 26 AWG cord does, whatever the category on the box.

Where a run genuinely will not fit inside the channel limit, the answer is not a longer cable. It is a fibre backbone to an intermediate enclosure with a small switch or media converter, and copper from there — which is also the honest answer to a between-building span. Send the site plan, the device list and the distances, and Uniqcli can quote the copper, the fibre, the enclosures and the installation labour together on one document rather than as three separate orders that arrive in the wrong sequence.

Related reading

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FAQ

Common questions

What makes an Ethernet cable outdoor-rated?
The jacket and, on buried cable, the core construction — and both are named in the manufacturer's own title on every row of this page. CMX is the jacket class used for outdoor cords and direct-burial spools, and CMG is the general-purpose class several of the outdoor bulk spools carry. Direct-burial or gel-filled says the cable is built to sit in wet ground or flooded conduit, with a compound that stops water from travelling along the pairs. An indoor patch cord has none of that: it degrades under sunlight and wicks water back toward the switch, which is the slow failure this category exists to prevent.
Can I run outdoor Ethernet cable between two buildings?
You can, and in most cases you should not. Two separate structures can sit at different ground potentials, and a copper run bonds them together — which makes the cable a path for surge and lightning energy into equipment at both ends. The usual specification is fibre for the span between buildings, with copper confined to the inside of each building and a small switch or media converter at each end. Outdoor copper is the right buy for campus drops, camera and access-point runs, gate and yard equipment, and any exposed run that stays within one structure's grounding system. Where a copper span is unavoidable, treat surge protection and bonding as part of the design and have an electrician confirm it.
Do I need shielded cable outdoors?
Shielding answers electrical noise, not weather, so the question is what the cable runs past rather than whether it is outside. A run alongside motors, variable-speed drives, welding equipment or heavy ballasts benefits from a shielded or foil-screened cable; an open run across a roof to a camera usually does not. The important half is that shielding only works when it is bonded and grounded at the terminations, which means shielded jacks, shielded patch panels and a grounding path — specify those with the cable or the shield does nothing at all.
Should I buy a bulk spool or pre-terminated outdoor cords?
Bulk for the permanent run, cords for the ends. A 1,000 ft spool of solid-conductor outdoor cable is what gets pulled through conduit and terminated into keystone jacks and patch panels; its bare-wire ends are the point, because a moulded plug will not pass through a conduit body cleanly and a solid conductor is not built to flex. Pre-terminated outdoor cords are for the visible last stretch — enclosure to camera, mast to access point, cabinet to gate controller — where a factory-moulded, sealed boot is more reliable than a field termination exposed to weather. Most outdoor jobs buy both.
Can business, government and education buyers order these?
Every line Uniqcli quotes is sourced through US distribution and screened for TAA country-of-origin and NDAA §889 status before checkout — with documentation tied to the specific part number, not a product family.
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