Monoprice

Monoprice 111301 2ft Cat5e Snagless Ethernet Cable (Red)

4.7 (818 reviews)

Monoprice's 2ft Cat5e Flexboot patch cable solves the short-run wiring problem with 350MHz bandwidth, gold-plated contacts, and a snagless boot built for dense installations.

$8.99*
Check availability

*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Last updated:Jul 15, 2026.Price and availability are subject to change.

Affiliate Disclosure: Studio Supplies may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you. This helps support our editorial team.

Notice a mistake? Let Us Know

Overview

The Monoprice 111301 is a 2-foot Cat5e UTP patch cable from the Flexboot series, built on 24AWG stranded pure bare copper conductors and rated to 350MHz. Those specifications translate directly to 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet compatibility with substantial signal margin: Cat5e requires only 100MHz minimum, and at 2 feet, insertion loss and crosstalk are effectively negligible compared to TIA-568 limits defined for 100-meter runs. The 50 microinch gold plating on the RJ45 contacts addresses contact oxidation — the most common long-term reliability failure mode in patch cable connectors — providing corrosion resistance over thousands of mate/demate cycles. The snagless boot design is a practical engineering choice: it prevents the RJ45 latch from catching on adjacent cables during blind insertions into populated patch panels.

At 2 feet, this cable occupies a specific niche between the 1-foot cable's exact-alignment requirement and the 3-foot cable's excess slack. It is the practical choice for connecting a patch panel port to a switch port when the two are within a single rack unit or two of each other but not precisely co-located. The red color coding supports standard network segmentation conventions — many administrators use red for management VLANs, PoE ports, or restricted-access connections — and the color-matched boot ensures identification remains clear even in a fully populated 48-port panel. This is a straightforward, well-specified cable that does exactly what a short patch cable needs to do without unnecessary complexity.

Key Features

Unshielded Twisted Pairs (UTP)

350MHz bandwidth

50m gold plated contacts

Color matched, snagless strain relief boots

Specifications

Cable Type
Cat5e Ethernet Cable
Length
2 feet
Color
Red
Shielding
Unshielded Twisted Pairs (UTP)
Bandwidth
350MHz
Connector Contacts
50m gold plated
Strain Relief
Color matched, snagless boots

Pros & Cons

👍 Pros

  • 350MHz bandwidth rating at 2 feet ensures zero signal integrity constraints — this cable will never be the limiting factor in a Gigabit network run.
  • Snagless strain relief boot prevents latch snagging during re-patching in dense panels, protecting both this cable's connector and adjacent port connections.
  • Stranded pure bare copper conductors handle repeated repositioning without conductor fatigue, critical for patch cables that get moved regularly.
  • 50 microinch gold-plated RJ45 contacts resist oxidation and maintain low contact resistance across extended installation lifetimes.
  • 2-foot length provides practical routing flexibility over 1-foot alternatives without generating excess cable slack.

👎 Cons

  • UTP construction offers no EMI shielding — unsuitable for electrically noisy environments near motors, fluorescent ballasts, or industrial equipment.
  • Cat5e tops out at 1Gbps; this cable does not support multi-gigabit speeds regardless of length, requiring Cat6A or higher for 10GBASE-T.
  • Stranded conductors and non-plenum jacket make this unsuitable for in-wall or conduit installation where fire-rated jacket construction is required.
  • 24AWG stranded wire has slightly higher resistance per unit length than heavier gauges, though at 2 feet this is operationally irrelevant.

Frequently Asked Questions

At 2 feet, this cable supports 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet at full spec — the 350MHz bandwidth rating provides more than 3x the headroom required by the standard. The bottleneck in any network using this cable will be the switch port or device NIC, not the cable.
Two feet provides enough slack to route cleanly around adjacent ports, cable ties, or panel obstructions without putting tension on the RJ45 connectors. One-foot cables are best for perfectly aligned parallel connections; 2-foot cables handle moderate misalignment or slight panel-to-switch distance gaps more gracefully.
The snagless boot encases and supports the RJ45 latch clip, preventing it from catching on adjacent cables during insertion or removal in a dense patch panel. At 2 feet, this cable is frequently used in high-density environments where adjacent cable interference is common — the snagless design reduces the risk of accidentally unlatching neighboring connections during re-patching.
UTP is entirely sufficient for 2-foot patch cable applications in standard environments. Shielded twisted pair (STP/FTP) is warranted in environments with significant EMI sources — industrial settings with variable-frequency drives or high-current equipment. For home, office, and data center rack patching, UTP is the correct choice.
Color coding conventions vary by organization, but red is commonly used to designate management networks, power-over-ethernet (PoE) ports, or high-priority connections. The color-matched snagless boot ensures the designation remains visible even when the cable is fully seated in a dense panel.