Cat 5 Cabling

[dominiccoombe]

Hi All,

3 years ago when I swapped cable providers in my town, to one who is using fiber optic backbone to the house where it gets converted into ethernet. Downstairs in my basement is a little hub which feeds my cable boxes and my router for internet.

It has bothered me for quite some time because they ran cat 5 blue (I dont know if it is shielded or not) from the basement outside the house and back into our den.

I live in Maine so we get hard winters.

I just did a quick search on the internet and found an article that said it was a lightening hazard to have cat 5 utp run outside.

Basically my question is:

Could someone please help me figure out if this is safe and whether I am actually getting the best performance from this setup.

Thanks,

Dominic

 

[p0lar]

Originally posted by: dominiccoombe
Hi All,

3 years ago when I swapped cable providers in my town, to one who is using fiber optic backbone to the house where it gets converted into ethernet. Downstairs in my basement is a little hub which feeds my cable boxes and my router for internet.

It has bothered me for quite some time because they ran cat 5 blue (I dont know if it is shielded or not) from the basement outside the house and back into our den.

I live in Maine so we get hard winters.

I just did a quick search on the internet and found an article that said it was a lightening hazard to have cat 5 utp run outside.

Basically my question is:

Could someone please help me figure out if this is safe and whether I am actually getting the best performance from this setup.

Do you see the cat5 being grounded at any point of demarcation? If not, forget performance and rectify the safety hazard immediately. If you're unsure, call your local city inspector to verify the installation complies with local ordinance; otherwise, your insurance company will have a field day should anything questionable ever occur surrounding this.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

ALso, be sure to check once a year on the cabling outside. If the shielding is starting to crack (which it will from sunlight/heat), then it needs to be replaced.

 

[bruceb]

First, if the CAT 5 is used outdoors and not in a Pipe, they make a special version
that is UV Rated ... Second, outdoor CAT 5 should be a Shielded Type cable ....
you can tell by the Diameter (about the size of RG59 or RG6) ... it also has a shield
wire that should be visiible by the connectors ... as to Lightning ... if you are on
Fiber, the fiber converter box should be grounded .. otherwise ground one end
of the CAT 5 cable


See links: http://www.cat-5-cable-company.com/faq-outdoor-cat-5.html

http://www.cat-5-cable-company.com/faq-bury-burial-cat-5-cable.html

You can get a good CAT 5 Lightning Protector here: http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/data_line_lightning_protectors.php

About $40 or so for a decent one

This model while more expensive is good up to CAT 6 .. you hardwire your cables inside it

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/cat6_lightning_surge_protector.php

This other unit has RJ45 jacks insdie the box

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/copyrighted_images/al-cat5vw_600.jpg