Outdoor network cabling 3

[Nelviticus]

My router is upstairs. I'd like to put an ethernet socket point on the wall next to it and have some cable going through the wall, down the outside of the house and in through the wall again to another socket point. Are there any pitfalls with this? I have no idea how an ethernet cable will stand up to being outside or whether it will need to be shielded.

I could do this wirelessly but I have two - somethimes three - devices that need to be connected downstairs. Doing it the wired way will be much cheaper.

Thanks

Nelviticus

 

[franklin97355]

If you install conduit on the outside wall it will protect the cable and IMHO look better than the bare cables.

 

[technome]

I would run it without conduit if the cable is not likely to be damaged on the outside of the house, Teflon cable rather than PVC as the sun affects PVC insulation more.

Goes for all outside network cabling using conduit....
Conduit would offer a path for a lightning hit and provide EMF shielding, but does not offer complete protection from lightning, as a conduit on the outside of a house is a lightning rod. Initially a grounded conduit sounds like a good choice, but as the TeleCOs found out, can fail to protect a cable. A lightning hit on conduit, buried in the ground or on the side of a house, can allow lightning to jump to the wires inside, under a few circumstances. First the wire ground has resistance (poor connection, grounding lead to ground can not dissipate the charge fast enough, soil surrounding grounding rod has a high resistance, soil surround the buried conduit has resistance), or the lightning hit has a high potential, which the conduit can not dissipate fast enough even with a good ground connection, causing the conduit to have a high enough voltage potential to over come the insulation of cat 5 cable. Lastly, in a large building, where the conduit is grounded on both end, a large lightning hit near one ground end can cause a high potential between the grounds, causing an arc to the cable conductors.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[Nelviticus]

In this instance the cabling on the outer wall will start about 10 feet vertically below my rooftop TV aerial (which is perched on the side of the house at the edge of the roof) and will run parallel to the aerial cable about a foot away horizontally. I am assuming - with my rusty schoolboy knowledge of electricity - that the proximity of the aerial & cable will mean that that will attract any lightning strikes, rather than the ethernet cable. Inside the house the aerial goes into one of those domestic surge protectors for AV equipment so my TV should be safe.

My main worries were whether an electrically and physically unshielded ethernet cable on the outside of a building would suffer from interference or not stand up to the elements. I guess that interference will be no more of a problem than it would be inside the building. I'll try to find some heavy-duty cabling as plastic trunking might stand out a bit.

Thanks for the input!

Nelviticus

 

[technome]

Lightning does not necessarily hit a lightning rod, or TV antenna, but the chances are it will hit them, or a metal soil stack vent, or heater exhaust pipe on the roof (99.9+ of the time). Your wire on the side of the house would be extremely unlikely to be hit
I was in a Oil Bunkering dispatch room one time, the building was equipped with a lightning rod. Lightning hit the roof just above the room, the lightning came through the wooden roof (made 6 inch hole) and hit some radio equipment; this was a lightning bolt, which obliterated everything in its path. Someone was siting about 6-8 feet away from the equipment, no harm.

Interference...
Outside , a slight gain from external sources, Inside a gain from internal sources, sound like a negation. Aside from this the cat 5 wire twist was designed to cancels out EMF and interference well. Unshielded, it will still pick up lightning/atomic explosion EMF, and will still pick up high energy interference in close proximity, inside or outside a house.
To give you idea of the wire twist's ability to cancel noise..
At a client, located on a steel barge, high current welding was taking place within 15" of a bundle of cat 5 wires. The CTR monitors were going crazy throughout the building, (monitors picked up EMF from the welding via air waves, not the cat5 wire) but all machines and servers were fine.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[Nelviticus]

Well I guess I'll have to think about how to shield it from atomic explosions - that's another worry to add to the list!

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[technome]

Listen, worry not about Atomic EMF, if it comes to that, I sure a bloody cat 5 cable will be the least of our worries.

Of course if you live in an area where they test EMF bombs, the conduit might help.
Found little info, had an article in Popular Science

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1390992/posts

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[bkrike]

They make outdoor rated cable specifically for your task. There are two types:
The first is an outdoor rated, UV resistant PVC jacket- direct burial style, which would be about .5-.75 inches thick, with a black jacket. It would really stand out until had a chance to paint the house (and cable.) This cable would last the life of the house.

The second type looks like standard cat5e cable, in that it is PVC jacketed (UV resistant,) and comes in a pull box. It is much more flexible and easier to work with than the direct burial style, and would not stand out as much against the outside of the house (it looks like phone cabling.) This type of cable will probably last 15-20 years in direct sunlight if installed properly.

 

[Nelviticus]

Thanks bkrike, I'll look for some of the second type. The side of the house where it'll be installed faces onto an alley and doesn't get that much sun but still, better to get moderately UV-resistant stuff than something that will start to degrade in a few years.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[bkrike]

I could not get the direct link because of how the page was designed, but if you go here...

http://www.generalcable.com/North_America/NorthAMCat.html

and search for 2137114E as a part number, you will see the cable I am referencing.
It comes in a 600' pull pack box, and you should be able to order it from any Graybar.