A network cabling question....

[gballard]

My neighbor and myself are preparing to run Cat5 between our houses to share a broadband connection. I was talking to a networking guy at work and he mentioned that I would need to ground the connection on both ends since the cable will be running outdoors for a short distance. Can anyone point me to any documentation on doing this? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[gballard]

well...I was...but...I have decided that the cat5 will be a more reliable connection and I am gonna use the wireless access point to just service my house here. I don't want to rely on it to service the broadband connection for the 2 houses....it hasnt been extremely reliable in my house alone.......

 

[Zedric]

As far as I know it's a bad idea to gound at both ends. The differents in ground level between the houses will start sending currents throught the cable. Not good. Just use normal shielded CAT5 (STP) and only have a grounded plug (metal cased) at one end. The plug is then grounded by the hub/switch/computer you plug it into.

Running CAT5 outdoors is a bad idea in any case. But I suppose fiber is not an option for you. Make sure you dig the cable down inside a tube of some kind. Just the cable won't do at all. A 25mm (diametre) cable tube will do. It can probably be bought anywhere.

 

[Reg]

You will probably need to build your own cable with a single ground. Although ethernet cables use 4 pair of twisted wires, only 2 pair are actually used (notice I used *pair*). If I were you, I would cut the grounding pair off one end. This way, it grounds to one side and not both.

 

[jkoXP]

well, someone somewhere said theres special cat5e cable that has this gel material thats made specially for running lines outside.... whether he was serious or not, im not sure. ive been looking for a solution for this myself.....

 

[spikemic]

if fiber is not an option, i'd use shielded twisted pair (STP) grounding the shield on one end.
id get some grey PVC conduit ½" or ¾" cement it all tight from a box on one house to other, with gentle bends, running under frost line. then fish cable through.
surf away
just remember if its further than 95-100 meters(about 300 ft) copper cable wont do it.........