Cat 6A cable

[pcmeiners]

"I wouldn’t, but if you do, use shielded cable. I’d also strongly consider using lightning protection on it."

Lightning protection devices are equal to a band-aid, only protecting from very minor issues. Lightning can jump inches/even feet over electric connections/devices/surge protection components.

Shielding will do just about nothing when lightning is involved, particularly with ground/nearby hits. Forget the Faraday protection as to shielding, it does not work as the ground only absorbs a lightning discharge relatively slowly. Since the ground absorbs slowly lightning jump to and charges every wire in a metal pipe, including shielding, then it finds other routes to grounding..basically following/frying your Ethernet cable to your computer, and any other conductor along the way, possibly even computer users. Worked IT for 35 years, as a building Engineer for over 10, I have seen what happens when a lightning bolts hit buildings, boats, antennas and the ground. ****, I have seen radio equipment destroyed from lightning 15 miles away.
If you want a safe system either go WIFI or fiber, fiber being fairly expensive.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Bulk cable. Forget shielded. Terminating keystone jacks is easier than RJ45's but neither is bad with a little practice. You can use purchased patch cables between the keystones and the devices.

This. Terminate on keystone jacks and use ready made patch cables.

Not sure Ive ever used POE in a residence

I have cameras and voip phone using POE at home.

 

[sh944]

I'll politely disagree with you on lightning protection, and I have an engineering degree to back me up plus a bunch of years in the industry and I will give props to your experience as well. You are not wrong when you say lightning can bridge a gap but that should occur at the point of strike *outside*. The lightning protection exists to stop it from getting *inside*. If your experience was that its just a "band-aid" it most likely wasn't designed for the purpose it was being used for. Properly designed, it will work just fine and it doesn't require a whole lot of thought or expense to do it properly. Having said that, I'd be willing to be that 50% of the systems I have seen were legacy installs from the old PBX days and those are not appropriate for newer data networks.

The quality of the components makes a big difference as well as the design (carbon filament vs gas tube) and if you use the Chinese made stuff you can buy cheap, you might as well just not install it at all as its likely defective from the factory.

Shielding was never intended to be protection for overvoltage situations. You are correct that lightning will find various ways to get in a building and mess things up, the point is to eliminate the easy path (an unprotected copper path directly to your equipment).

 

[sh944]

Quote "Interesting, google tells me that there is direct bury cat 6 cable. Maybe I can share a trench with some separation and avoid some of the safety issues. Edit-other than lightning.." /Quote

Correct. I was going to say that but because I am terrible at typing, I used up my 24 hr limit on editing posts... a hand dug slit 4 to 6" deep is all you need to bury it. Also, a common rookie mistake is using indoor rated cable in outside applications. Don't do that, it won't hold up over time.

 

[pcmeiners]

Stand by every thing I stated above, lightning protection only protects for low power lightning hits. High power hits can jump feet, through just about anything and there is NO practical lightning protection which will protect an Ethernet cable that will stop it's damage, even if the device has a tremendous ground and large distance between component such as an optical isolation device.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Stand by every thing I stated above, lightning protection only protects for low power lightning hits. High power hits can jump feet, through just about anything and there is NO practical lightning protection which will protect an Ethernet cable that will stop it's damage, even if the device has a tremendous ground and large distance between component such as an optical isolation device.

This.

 

[sh944]

Congrats, you guys win. I have no need to get into internet arguments. The OP can do what he wants.

 

[Denwood]

I do run CAT5 to my shop, with lightning protection. I lost an inexpensive switch once, likely due to ground/potential differences between house and detached shop, but nothing since adding the surge devices. Never had an issue on the commercial side with CAT5/6 or otherwise. Doing it again, I'd just do direct bury fiber or CAT6 in that order.

Interesting in that pretty much all the "fibre" issues I see at the commercial sites is not related at all to the fibre, but rather the powered ONT devices at each site where fibre terminates in each building. So far about 95% of "dead" site incidents are related to telco provided UPS unit failures that power off the ONT.

 

[Smoker]

I'll politely disagree with you on lightning protection, and I have an engineering degree to back me up plus a bunch of years in the industry and I will give props to your experience as well. You are not wrong when you say lightning can bridge a gap but that should occur at the point of strike *outside*. The lightning protection exists to stop it from getting *inside*. If your experience was that its just a "band-aid" it most likely wasn't designed for the purpose it way being used for. Properly designed, it will work just fine and it doesn't require a whole lot of thought or expense to do it properly. Having said that, I'd be willing to be that 50% of the systems I have seen were legacy installs from the old PBX days and those are not appropriate for newer data networks.

The quality of the components makes a big difference as well as the design (carbon filament vs gas tube) and if you use the Chinese made stuff you can buy cheap, you might as well just not install it at all as its likely defective from the factory.

Shielding was never intended to be protection for overvoltage situations. You are correct that lightning will find various ways to get in a building and mess things up, the point is to eliminate the easy path (an unprotected copper path directly to your equipment).

I look after equipment in West Tx and OK and we get ALOT of lightning hits on our towers and equipment. Sacrificial devices absolutely work, we replace them fairly regularly. Better a $30 polyphaser than a $60,000 radio. Look em up.

 

[pcmeiners]

Used Polyphaser on ship to shore Sierra wireless modem setups years ago before GPS was in full swing to track ships on the high seas, in the late 90s. Yes they work well for lightning EMF issues. We were losing a $350 modem about once every weeks on tugs and ocean going vessels. In a previous post I mentioned lightning causing damage from miles away, I was working on tug when one of the modems died due to a thunder storm >10 miles away, that is when I started using Polyphasers. We still lost an occasional modem , but the losses went way down. Never meant lightning protection does not work, as I had it on every system I work on, but that it is limited to roughly 90-95% of the time, which is not good enough for computer systems, or hard to replace lines to outbuildings.

 

[TJMtl]

I have this in-line for my outdoor access point. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, I haven’t had any problems yet.

Ethernet Surge Protector - Ubiquiti Store

ESD Protection for Outdoor High-Speed Networks

ca.store.ui.com

 

[Max]

Not sure Ive ever used POE in a residence, CAT6 for 30' runs is fine. I ran 1" conduit in my basement cinema walls with a pull cord and it was more than enough. 3" is just overkill, its almost as big as a wall stud is wide.

PoE is great. I have three access ports (WiFi) and seven cameras that all run PoE. The APs are Ubiquiti and are especially nice - just run the cable to the right ceiling point, terminate, and plug in the AP. My house has great WiFi coverage in all rooms. And PoE switches cost just a bit more than regular switches…

 

[Max]

3 areas of concern;
Code - Ignored in this case
Safety - The cable insulation should at least be rated for the 240vac or greater it could be exposed to.
Function - A lot will depend on if it is shielded, the current through the cable, and the type of conduit used.

I recommend you find another solution such as WIFI or wireless radio, I have seen a few people say they have or would feel comfortable running Fiber in the same conduit. I would not.

I totally get why no other low voltage wire for both code and safety reasons. But why no fiber? There is zero chance of EMI or safety issues. Are you worried about pulling it?

 

[ycgoat]

I totally get why no other low voltage wire for both code and safety reasons. But why no fiber? There is zero chance of EMI or safety issues. Are you worried about pulling it?

I think you are allowed to run fiber with power or lighting conductors, but you have to worry about it getting crushed or damaged in the raceway. Armored Fiber should protect against physical damage but you would then need to bond the metallic armor to the grounding system of the power conductors.

 

[Max]

I think you are allowed to run fiber with power or lighting conductors, but you have to worry about it getting crushed or damaged in the raceway. Armored Fiber should protect against physical damage but you would then need to bond the metallic armor to the grounding system of the power conductors.

Ok, thank you. My take on that is for a simple pull (10-20 ft) I’d risk the damage, for 150’ I’d use another conduit. YMMV, that’s just me. And once again just for me, I’d skip the armored.

 

[Joenverca]

For your setup, I went with shielded Cat6A for extra peace of mind, especially with cameras and solar monitoring. I ended up making my own runs—30’ pieces were easy to handle, and you can tweak lengths if needed. Premade could work too, but for me, pulling and terminating the cables wasn’t bad at all. I got my cable from https://hkcablemachine.com/ and it worked solidly.

 

[dcg9381]

Not to hijack this thread, but what is the best cable to run through underground conduit? I want to pull a cable out to my barn, about 150'. Doesn't need to be super-fancy; just like to add wifi to the shop.

Fiber. 2nd down from that is shielded cable grounded on both ends. Nearby lightening will impact long runs of external non-shielded cable. Probably not often, but when it does you'll be replacing whatever is on the ends of that cable.

When I built my house I ran COAX everywhere. That tells you everything you need to know.
Just do wireless.

I have coax too, idea was to feed everything from one antenna. Never used it.
Don't do wireless. Modern 5k cameras eat wifi bandwidth for lunch. Cat 5 or 6 all day long (POE) and then never worry about it again.

 

[dcg9381]

A conduit that large is great for pulling cables nut not so good on the 3.5” structural members that have to be cut in half.

I did a few "conduit" runs, not for Cat5/6 but for AV gear (whatever comes after HDMI), used 1- 1.25". Still haven't had to use them.

 

[N_Jay]

Run fiber.

It eliminates noise, safety and lightening issues.