Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4" poly pipe

[keeney]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

If you think the conduit will stay dry, I'd put in the cheapest cat 5e you can find. If it goes bad in 5 years, easy enough to replace it by pulling more through the conduit using the old wire to pull the new.

One thing to watch out for in a buried conduit is condensation from air flow from the heated, moist air in the house condensing when it hits the colder inside of the conduit. Any pressure differential between the two buildings (from wind, exhaus fans, etc) will cause air to flow one way or the other. Seal the ends of the conduit after you pull the wires with some putty to prevent this.

If you splice the conduit, be sure its a solvent-welded connection.

 

[BobReeves]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

Ya just run the cheap stuff, I also have a 1 1/4 conduit running 150 ft from the house to the shop. Two cat-5 and two RG-6 coax.. If any one goes bad I'll just pull it and replace it.

A tip is to pull the cables one at a time, that way they won't twist around each other and become a nightmare to replace. Just pull a second pull string in with the first cable.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

150' is fine. As someone else stated 100meters is your limit. This means you'll need a device to device connection within the 100m limit though, so make sure your hub or computer is within that range once you get in the house.

I wouldn't go wireless due to security and bad performance. At those distances most home units will be struggling to provide signal without special antennas. (or homemade pringles can antennas! )

If you are concerned about the cat 5 corroding you might consider running fiber and using a fiber to ethernet converter box at each end. You could get the material for this at cdw or someplace similar. As long as you glue your joints and use plastic conduit and seal the ends I don't think it would be an issue though. As someone else suggested, use cat 5 and if it breaks down just use it to pull a fresh cable through.

They also sell plenum grade cat 5 for fire and interference protection in buildings that would be more rugged if you can find it. It has metal sheilding built in it.

If it was me I'd just install the cat 5 and hope for the best. If you have signal problems and are running 100mbit you can always set the speed to 10mbit and see how it goes.

 

[Nasty135]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( jelly-like substance )</font> <font color="blue"> </font>

That is affectionately called icky-pick... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif not fun but fairly weather resistant, should hold up forever in a pipe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Cat 5 should go the distance with marginal loss... I want to run a 100+' drop to my barn for a little hi-speed hill billy networking... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[CTyler]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

The ol sneaker net gets old quick. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[MossRoad]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

CAT5 cable is under $70 for a 1000' roll. If it goes bad you can replace it 5 times and still have 100' left to make patch cables or telephone runs in the outbuilding. If the pipe is one continuous lenght moisture could get in it from condensation, but not leakage. As someone mentioned, you should plug both ends with putty so that air will not be able to transfer between buildings. Also, it makes a good highway for bugs /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

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I've had great success with tying a rag or piece of foam rubber to some fishing line and sucking it through the conduit with a shop vac. Then you can pull in a heavier string or small rope with the fishing line. Finally, pull in the cables with the string. )</font>

I've been a carpenter for all of my working carreer. First thought is I just pound nails all day. Not true! We do all sorts of things, not the least of which is to hang LOTS of suspended ceilings. To straighten the gridwork, we use what is known as "jet line". Most accoustical ceiling suppliers sell it, but it was shamelessly robbed from the electrical trade.

It's about the thickness of dental floss. It comes in "spools" wound from the outside, in. There's a foam rubber end on one end. That's to seal it inside of conduit. You insert foam end first, tie off the string, then use a shop vac on the other end to pull the foam and spool through the conduit. A mile of it weighs next to nothing. It will pull through curves in the conduit with great ease.

Any good electrical supply house should carry it, as well as accoustical ceiling wholesalers usually have it.

 

[Mavrik02]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

150' of CAT5e will be fine (like others mentioned I think the limit is ~300'/run). They make at least two types, one indoor and one indoor/outdoor. As mentioned, the cable is relatively cheap at $34-$75 for 500ft. I would run two lines. Yes you can always pull another but if one doesn't work it's a lot easier to just hook up to the other line rather than rerun the whole line. Trust me on this I just ran over 2000' of CAT5e and 2000' of RG6 in my new house...the cable is cheap the labor is the pain...

My cable and phone are run 440' underground in a 1 1/2" conduit. Neither the phone line or the cable (both run by the utility companies) were as good as the stuff I ran inside the house.

Good luck

 

[hayden]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

Nobody has said it explicitly, so I'll chime in. Use Cat 5e rather than Cat 5 if you can. The Cat 5e is good for Gigabit Ethernet. It may seem overkill, but GigE switches are almost as cheap as 10/100 now, and the difference in wire price should be zilch.

Also, although I understand the "replace it every 5 years" argument, personally I'd get the underground rated cable and do it once. Do you really want to be diagnosing a marginal cable 5 years from now? I'd hope to be doing other things instead.

 

[Westonium]

Re: Pulling Cat5e wire thru 1 1/4\" poly pipe

I am totally with Hayden on this. I use my file server as if it was an extra hard drive thanks to my gigabit connection with it.

Get the Cat5e
300' is the limit.
Seal the conduit as if it was full of 100psi water.

Note to anyone needing to go further:
You can attach a device that converts the gigabit signal to fiber optic cable, run the fiber a realllly long way, convert back to copper at the other end. Added bonus - you could run fiber next to 110AC and have it be fine - no noise issues. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Wireless is mostly insecure and is often hijackable. If you aren't a technogeek - consider some neighbor using your network to do illegal things...