Need a wiring guru...shielded cat5 drain problem 1

[bankboysb]

I have to hook up a small network and am forced to use shielded Cat5 cable that is already installed. The genius that worked this thing initially picked a linksys BEFSR81 (plastic body) router, and I can't tell if the keystone/jacks the owner has purchased (at the workstation end) are for shielded cable use or not. Also can't tell for sure if the router is grounded through its power supply, or if it is able to actually use shielded connectors.

So my question is, can I gather all the drain wires together and run them to a grounded pipe or power ground without negating the electro-magnetic drain effect?

 

[jerryreeve]

you should bond all the drains together and ground them at one location if you use multiple grounds you can get a ground loop and may end up picking up RFI or other interference from differing ground potentials, normally this is not a huge problem but occasionally there are problems with multiple grounding. exception is building entrance protection/lightning protection.

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[h5n1]

never heard of any make of inserts for shielded cat5 cables....btw, why are u forced to run shielded cat5's ? and don't hear too often people trying to ground consumer level products unless you take the case apart and find a good grounding point...and i can be sure that thing can't take anything even you've grounded for whatever your purpose is....might as well get a rack and use rack mount equipments and properly ground the rack instead....and for jacks and wallplate, anything will do imo.....

SET CRTL ALT DEL = #728
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greg

 

[toolman18]

Bank, You don't mention that your having any interference problems but I'm assuming you do. The sheilded jacks I've used did'nt even require an earth ground. The drain was wrapped around the clips that went around the sheild.A metal lined cap covered the termination point. I've also used non sheilded jacks with shielded cable and not had any problem.Even in high interference areas.

 

[bankboysb]

The reason for doing this is the owner's and his alone. He wants it that way. SO, what do I care? It pays the same.

Toolman18, could you be a little more specific? "The drain was wrapped around the clips that went around the sheild" is a little confusing.

I am planning, at this point, to gather the drain wires from all six cables and solder them to another wire which will be attached to a waterpipe grounding clamp.

In following Jerryreeve's thinking about inadvertently creating loops, I think this is the best thing is to do.
I think if I actually connect the drains to shielded connectors at the PC end of the run it will create a second ground point (becoming a loop?) through the chassis/PSU/power line. So I think the best thing is to ground all the wires at one end only.

DO YOU ALL CONCUR?

 

[jerryreeve]

the old IBM 3B2's(superminicomputers) used grounded cable for their terminals off the serial card. the RJ-45 at the SMC had a spade clip connected to an extra inch or so of drain that slipped onto a ground lug on the serial card. (at least that is what memory tells me)

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[Trotski]

If you search thru the forums you will find endless arguments for either case
I usually ground only one end of a sheild but your best bet is to try one and check for interference if it's there then try the other method