Ethernet cable v. Weather... who wins?

[Loki3]

My Linksys router is located next to my cable modem in my house. Exactly one floor below me. I never routed cable to my room due to the difficulties that would cause. I'm thinking of just running an ethernet cable outside my house from the room downstairs to mine. How weather hardy are these things? Can they put up freezeing temperatures and rain? I think the best way would be to run it in a PVC conduit.

Any ideas.

[mdwatts]

Lots of pre-cable dwellings route their TV cables on the outside of the building. You shouldn't have any problems unless connections are exposed to the elements.

[hard candy]

If you have room in the attic, maybe check and see if there are holes drilled through top and bottom plates of the walls so wiring or pipes can run up and down between floors, if there is a predrilled hole that goes to the bootom floor, lower a rounded weight with a string and see if it will go through. Then pull the cable down through the wall with the string.
Things to watch out for- electric wires and control/breaker panels- you do not want to lower a metal weight into a breaker panel, you might be "shocked" at what you find. Also, mean squirrels with young in the attic. And holes in the ceiling, watch where you put your feet.
Or you can save yourself several hours and run it outside. ;)

[DMR]

You say it's possible to run CAT5 wire outside, so why would it be any harder to run a CATV cable that way? The CATV's coax cable is much heartier than CAT5.


To directly answer your question though:

Yes- you can run CAT5 outside; different types of outdoor or indoor/outdoor-rated CAT5 are available. For extreme weather conditions, I'd suggest using the gel-filled kind; it has a gel-filled outer jacket that helps protect against temerature extremes and UV damage from sunlight.

If lightning is an issue in your area, you really should think about running the cable in a properly grounded metal conduit as a safety precaution. If lightning isn't an issue, running the cable in PVC conduit will add an extra layer of protection from the elements, but the gel-filled cable will probably last you for years just by itself.

[ph34r]

I have a friend who brings her travel trailer and lives in my yard for a few months a year. To be nice to her, I run a looong CAT5 cable thru my attic, down into the garage, and out into the yard. We've been doing this for a few years in just about every weather situation we get here in n. Florida (from November thru april) with no problems - until a few weeks ago. Apparently, something in the neighborhood got hungry, and decided a few inch long section of CAT5 would be the perfect snack. 10 minutes with a crimper and some new ends fixed it all really easy though... YMMV.

[EnigmaOne]

If you're going to go to all that trouble for an outside vertical-hop, you might as well break-out the drill and fish tape, get a bit creative, and run the cable inside the wall.

....or maybe I just hate exposed wiring enough to go crazy hiding it?

What the heck....tear out the wall. It needed to be 'upgraded' anyway.

[DMR]

Originally posted by hard candy
...if there are holes drilled through top and bottom plates of the walls so wiring or pipes can run up and down between floors, if there is a predrilled hole that goes to the bootom floor, lower a rounded weight with a string and see if it will go through. Then pull the cable down through the wall with the string.A cold-air return duct is a convinient way to route between floors too, if you've got one in a convenient location.

[squeegy]

I ran CAT5 from my basement bedroom to an upstairs bedroom for about a year while living in Colorado. In Colorado we experienced extreme cold, 3 feet of snow, and extreme heat/sunshine during the summer. I did not experience any problems with this and I had some cheapy CAT5. Now in a different location I chose to not have wires exposed... So Basically I ran CAT5 through the Cold Air returns in my (already suggested above). The cable comes out to my master bedroom, Cable Line/Coax was ran using this method also. From there it travels down the wall, under the carpet, through a closet and into my office. It works really well the signal is going over 50FT of CAT5.

[danimal1009]

Have you considered some sort of wireless setup?

[DMR]

Originally posted by danimal1009
Have you considered some sort of wireless setup? My guess is that $$ factors into this, and wireless isn't the cheapest solution... ;)

[Loki3]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies. Routing CAT5 through the walls is defiently not worth it. My dad and I have looked at it and the easiest solution is still a major pain in the ***. The effort:reward ratio just isn't worth it.

I'm currently using wireless but I dislike it. The drivers are sketchy, I can't enable WEP128bit encryption and it's insecure.

I was just gonna run a CAT5 from the uplink port on my router up to another hub to run my computers in my room. I just wanted to make sure that the Alaskan weather wouldn't eat it alive.

Thanks.

[Syngin]

Bearing in mind the theory of superconductivity and extreme cold, maybe it will speed up your connection during the winter. :p

[hard candy]

And maybe run IceWM in the winter time?

[Loki3]

Wow this thread has turned into open-mic night at your local comedy bar. :D

[dboyer]

Originally posted by Loki3
[B
I was just gonna run a CAT5 from the uplink port on my router up to another hub to run my computers in my room. I just wanted to make sure that the Alaskan weather wouldn't eat it alive.[/B]

I've delt with the alaskan weather all my life... Id worry more about the Alaskan wildlife eating it alive :)

[Loki3]

Originally posted by dboyer
I've delt with the alaskan weather all my life... Id worry more about the Alaskan wildlife eating it alive :)

I worry about the Alaskan wildlife eating me alive! :D

[DSwain]

ahh what the hell run the wire outside. If it were me doing it, i'd just toss it out the window into the other, run it across my floor, probably fall short 5 feet so move the computer in the middle of the room and put a sign on it saying "Don't touch me!"

Actually, if you were to run it outside, i don't know what would really happen, but I would say just go with it outside, and maybe somehow cover it while its outside. Duct tape? possibly, whatever's cheapest/easiest i figure.