i need to extend my LAN to my office about 150 feet from my house. as i understand CAT 5e can go to 300 feet. i plan on burying the cable and i'm wondering if the cheapest cable will perform correctly. i plan on putting the cable in conduit for the underground part, but i'm unfamiliar with the need for 'shielded' vs 'unshielded'. it's not going to be running next to any power sources, so i assume there won't be huge em interference.

also good places to purchase the stuff? i've checked out newegg but they seem to go from 100ft -> 1000ft bulk

6/18/2007 12:53:32 PM

if you're gonna bury it, buy the higher grade stuff.




unless you like digging trenches. lol

6/18/2007 12:55:41 PM

How about Monoprice.com for cables?
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10233&cs_id=1023301&p_id=3393&seq=1&format=2&style=

6/18/2007 1:09:18 PM

Yea, monoprice has pretty awesome prices on cabling.
You also may want to stop by homedepot/lowes to see what their prices are.

As long as you run it inside some conduit that will keep it shielded from the elements and critters, you should be fine.

6/18/2007 1:13:36 PM

Quote :

" but i'm unfamiliar with the need for 'shielded' vs 'unshielded'."

Shielded was meant mostly for token broken ring networks, so just get UTP.

6/18/2007 1:40:30 PM

correct me if i'm wrong - but shielded is most commonly used today when POE is needed

i use it all the time for active rfid receivers so that another power source isn't required

6/18/2007 1:44:55 PM

There's no requirement for shielded with POE, but i could see where it would be needed in high EMI environments (POE or not)

the 802.3af standard supports either UTP or STP.

6/18/2007 2:02:38 PM

seems like PoE wouldn't even need shielding if you added a few bucks to the design at the power receiving end to invert the power signal to zero sum the positive supply, leaving the coupled ground signal the transceiver needs to zero sum the noise on the actual signal line

that few bucks may even be less than the few bucks extra the cable will cost

then again I my just be talking out of my ass also

6/18/2007 2:13:49 PM

I've got a spool or two that probably have over 150' left. Make a decent offer if you're interested, but I won't be able to get it for two weeks.

6/18/2007 4:24:55 PM

Quote :

"if you're gonna bury it, buy the higher grade stuff."

Speaking of having to dig it up and reburry it... You might want to consider some kind of cable protection (PVC is going to be much cheaper than steel) if moles are an issue where you live.

6/18/2007 7:01:49 PM

Quote :

"Shielded was meant mostly for token ring networks "

its shielded so the TOKEN WONT FALL OUT!@!!!!!!1

6/18/2007 7:27:32 PM

^^conduit is cheaper than PVC.

And FYI, shielded cat5e is the same price as the normal stuff in spools and only a few cents more otherwise.

6/18/2007 7:39:38 PM

PET, HDPE, or steel. Conduit is what I was thinking of, just couldn't remember the name. They sell the black plastic stuff everywhere they sell bulk wiring. I guess you could get the steel cable conduits, but I'd think those would rust (most I've seen so far aren't stainless.)

6/18/2007 9:32:46 PM

i thought most of it was galvanized?

6/18/2007 10:07:57 PM

if you are running one line, get 1/2" steel galvanized conduit before you bury this sucker

and if you want to run one line, go ahead and run two because it is cheap

do it right the first time

6/18/2007 10:16:15 PM

^^damn near all conduit is galvanized, especially the shit from lowes/home depot. Stay away from the black plastic stuff, get the galvanized conduit like ^ is also suggesting. It's cheap, it wont offgas into your yard and the ground water like plastics will, and you dont have to worry about cracking the shit in half with a shovel 10 years down the road.

also like ^ is saying, go ahead and pull at least a couple of runs. it'll future proof you a bit and wont cost much extra, especially if you are getting a full spool

6/18/2007 10:25:30 PM

just so you know because i forgot to mention it, you can run two cat 5e cables in one 1/2" conduit run

there are charts that tell you the maximum number of cables that you can have in one conduit run

6/19/2007 3:55:44 PM

^^Alternately ... instead of pulling multiple runs right away, just leave an extra unused length of something from end to end so you have the ability to pull more runs later down the road if you need to.

6/19/2007 4:18:58 PM

the trick is, pull in 2 cables and a pull string, that way you can replace cables as needed or pack in a few more cables, you can fit more than two in a pipe, you just can end up with some odd interference sometimes.

6/20/2007 6:58:42 AM

Yeah, you should be able to fit 3 5E cables through a 1/2" conduit. Like others have said, might as well run an extra line or two for potential use in the future.

6/20/2007 9:26:29 AM