Ethernet Cabling Question

[kelsky]

Ok, so I bit the bullet and purchased a good hardware encoding card and new computer to connect my directv hd unit to. I have it in my downstair living room. Upstairs in my master bedroom I have another computer to be the BTV Link unit. I am using a wireless connection but to watch a show it pauses and jumps a lot. I figure it is the wireless. I would like to hardwire a connection, but the only way is to run a line from downstairs to upstairs via an access tube. Unfortunately I have a 110 and 220v line running down that same tube. When I tried to make the hard wire connection, I am pretty certain that the electrical lines are keeping my ethernet line from working. Does that sound accurate and what can I do to remedy that? I don't feel like running fibre, but that may be my only alternative. I don't have any other ways to run the line between floors without an unsitely hole somewhere and I am not willing to do that.

[jbartlett777]

The way I've done it is to run a 50' cable from my server room to the other side of the house on the outside where I have a switch to function as a repeater and a second 50' length of cable to the upstairs living room.

You don't want to exceed 50' on a cat6. Cat5 cables can supposedly go up to 100'.

[KAS]

You should be able to go "any" distance in your home. You are not limited to 50'. The standard for building structured wiring is a horizontal wiring channel of 100 meters (328 ft). I have a 75' Cat 6 patch cable run at home with no problems.

[ccarlin]

Ok, so I bit the bullet and purchased a good hardware encoding card and new computer to connect my directv hd unit to. I have it in my downstair living room. Upstairs in my master bedroom I have another computer to be the BTV Link unit. I am using a wireless connection but to watch a show it pauses and jumps a lot. I figure it is the wireless. I would like to hardwire a connection, but the only way is to run a line from downstairs to upstairs via an access tube. Unfortunately I have a 110 and 220v line running down that same tube. When I tried to make the hard wire connection, I am pretty certain that the electrical lines are keeping my ethernet line from working. Does that sound accurate and what can I do to remedy that? I don't feel like running fibre, but that may be my only alternative. I don't have any other ways to run the line between floors without an unsitely hole somewhere and I am not willing to do that.

You might want to look for some higher quality (better shielded) cable.

[AzDragonLord]

You should know, running data cable within the same conduit as electrical cable violates code.

[kelsky]

All good points. I hadn't thought of running it outside. I have a brick home, so I have to be careful to not make it unsightly. One question to clarify. Is it really possible to obtain shielded cable that will withstand the 220v interference?

Also, I reference conduit incorrectly. It is a 10" metal tube that is a passage to go from the attic to the basement floor for various purposes. It is just unfortunate that the builder put in a 110 and 220 line through this to support a SPA and an outside power outlet. So this is conduit is not like a wiring 1" pipe that is supposed to contain only electrical. So in this case, I don't believe any electrical code has been breached by running cat5e through it.

[dlandrum]

You could slide a 2" metal pipe in the 10" tube. Then slide the CAT5e thru the 2" pipe. That should take care of any shielding concerns.

[pwlong]

Regardless of whether you opt to drop a LV conduit within the existing conduit, be sure to maintain a proper firestop at both ends for safety. That large of a breach between floors would be the easiest and fastest path for an electrical fire to spread throughout the house.

I know we all "know" it, but it's always worth remembering: safety first.

[jbartlett777]

You should be able to go "any" distance in your home. You are not limited to 50'. The standard for building structured wiring is a horizontal wiring channel of 100 meters (328 ft). I have a 75' Cat 6 patch cable run at home with no problems.
Probably won't run into any problems at 75 ft, but the signal starts to degrade over 50' on cat6 which could affect your transfer rates.

[mapleleaf]

I've installed this for a friend of mine and it works great:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2509222&CatId=211

[mvwood]

I've installed this for a friend of mine and it works great:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2509222&CatId=211

I have those as well. They work great for normal web surfing, but I've had trouble getting more than about 10-11 Mbps throughput. Nothing close to the 85 Mbps claimed. Do you know what speeds your friend gets?

[psionic]

Probably won't run into any problems at 75 ft, but the signal starts to degrade over 50' on cat6 which could affect your transfer rates.

Do you have a source for that claim? TIA (http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/technology/cat6/faq.cfm) says that its good up to 100 feet without a repeater and using quality components.

[jbartlett777]

It's been around a year, who knows. *shrug* :thumbsup:

[mapleleaf]

I have those as well. They work great for normal web surfing, but I've had trouble getting more than about 10-11 Mbps throughput. Nothing close to the 85 Mbps claimed. Do you know what speeds your friend gets?

40-60Mb/s - did u set it up right? most of these devices can be switched between 11/85 Mb/s
My friend's setup works great for his BTV. Server + 2 clients

Networking Standards IEEE 802.3j 10Base-T Ethernet
IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX Fast

It is plug&play but u will do better if u take your time and enter password (encryption) and select faster speed.

[gjunky]

...When I tried to make the hard wire connection, I am pretty certain that the electrical lines are keeping my ethernet line from working....

There should be little interference from the 220 in a 10" pipe (unless you are unlucky enough for it to lay right next to it.

The bigger question is: How do you know it is the interference causing the problem? I would expect you to have at least some connection (it might be a bad one but should at least talk somewhat). Do you have lights on your connections? Did you check the cable with any kind of cable tester? It is very easy to make poor/bad/unlucky ethernet connections....:wink:

Just some food for thought. I would make sure that cable is truly not working because of interference before you give up on it.

That said, just installed some netgear powerline networking connections at a friends house and it worked flawlessly the first time. He has the 85Mbit version but they now have 200Mbit ones. It is certainly not the same as ethernet but it is a nice and easy solution and you can extend it to anywhere in your house

-gjunky

PS: I have a block home too and I ran a wire over the roof.... :smile: I would probably go for the 200Mbit powerline connections now but they were not available at the time.

[mvwood]

40-60Mb/s - did u set it up right? most of these devices can be switched between 11/85 Mb/s
My friend's setup works great for his BTV. Server + 2 clients

Networking Standards IEEE 802.3j 10Base-T Ethernet
IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX Fast

It is plug&play but u will do better if u take your time and enter password (encryption) and select faster speed.

I have the XE103's fom Netgear. There's no switches or firmware setup that I could find to change the speed. They're just plug-n-play from all I can tell.

[DonK]

XE102's are what I'm using for my non-critical jacks in the house, in addition to 2 wireless access point 54mbit addons... Powerline ethernet are pretty darn handy to have around :)

[mapleleaf]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128291-page,1/article.html

"Watch out, Wi-Fi. New power-line networking gear, which sends data over a home's existing electrical wiring, outperforms even the fastest Wi-Fi in streaming video, our tests show."

[MrWolfinWV]

Probably won't run into any problems at 75 ft, but the signal starts to degrade over 50' on cat6 which could affect your transfer rates.

I have to chime in here...the standards are that CAT5, 5e, and 6 all are rated at 100 meters. There is no signal degradation over 50' on any of them, considering the environment is clean. The difference is that each of are rated differently, so effectively for CAT5 compared to 5e compared to 6, as you go up the greater the speed capability over the same distance and less chance of the speed cycling up and down on an auto-speed detection device. You can link a PC to a gigabit switch with CAT3 cable and if it's a short distance it will run gigabit speeds. Density of the copper, number of twists in the pairs, and the quality of the ends & jacks make up the overall quality of the cable. So, if you use CAT6 wire, but you use CAT5e patch panels and CAT5 RJ45's, you will effectively have CAT5 cable, although depending on the quality of the environment and installation, it is possible it could pass tests to be CAT6.

It's wire folks. It comes down to electricity, frequency, impedance, and a whole lot of other things you can't see with your eyes.