Tips for running CAT5e from house to outbuilding

TheCyclingProgrammer

I did consider putting the PoE switch at the office end. Though I might stick a few cameras on the house at the same time, in which case the PoE switch will be in my network cabinet. Either way I'm assuming having PoE running alongside data only won't cause any interference?.

jogu

Mixing PoE and non-PoE ethernet cables in a conduit is no problem at all.

For PoE runs, you definitely want to make sure you have pure copper cat5e, and not CCA (copper-clad-aluminium). The latter has a higher resistance which can become problematic over longer PoE runs. It's also generally more fragile, so to be honest I completely stay away from CCA.

As you already said, if you run it in a duct it does need to be duct grade cable (and perhaps gel filled), mainly to resist the water that will inevitably get into the duct eventually. I've found duct grade difficult to find so generally use external grade cable instead.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Thanks, yes external grade cable in either copex or MDPE as suggested above. I normally get my cable from Comms Express - I think they only sell pure copper but I'm aware to watch out for CCA.

Tucker65

Just to add my two cents;

I've done something similar, but ran 3 Cat5e cables where I needed only 1... 2 redundant lines in case I have failures, though 3 years in and so far so good... I've had to make use of 1 spare for an extra device but still, have 1 redundant line.

Don't bother with armoured cable, it's pointless. really doesn't make any difference for two reasons - I'm not getting degraded signal that I can see, and if you hit armoured with a shovel you'll go through it as easy as you would standard.

Save your money and get standard

mttylad

Run your standard cable (2 at least) through a hose pipe.
That can be buried deep or tagged to a fence etc.

Simple and cheap.

Lorian

mttylad wrote: »

Run your standard cable (2 at least) through a hose pipe.
That can be buried deep or tagged to a fence etc.

Simple and cheap.

It's quite hard to feed multiple long runs into Kopex, and that's made for the job. Not sure you are going to far getting it up a long length of hose pipe. Without checking specifically I think I can probably buy Kopex cheaper than hose.

jogu

mttylad wrote: »

Run your standard cable (2 at least) through a hose pipe.
That can be buried deep or tagged to a fence etc.

Simple and cheap.

If you're burying you really want a long term solution (or at least I would, it's a lot of hassle to bury a cable). The hose pipe will eventually end up with water in it (whether from damage / condensation / coming in at the ends / whatever), so you really want duct grade cable.

jogu

Tucker65 wrote: »

if you hit armoured with a shovel you'll go through it as easy as you would standard.

This isn't true for any decent quality armoured cable. The armour is much thicker than the cables in a normal piece of cat5e.

I just attacked a spare piece of armoured cat5 with a shovel as an experiment and didn't get through the armour.

If you're really careless or use a jcb I'm sure you'd get through it, but otherwise the armour does provide a good amount of protection and is (in my opinion) well worth the money if you want a long term solution.

Compare the extra cost of armoured (about £1.60/metre more than duct grade cable) to the nominal cost of your labour (to dig up, lay a new cable and reinstate the surface) if your cable gets damaged in the future to figure out if it's worth if for you.