Cat cable outdoors in winter?

[JokuTyyppi]

Hey, do you guys know if ethernet cable would work outdoors (attached to the side of our house) here in Finland where winters are cold. Could the normal cat cable tolerate those kind of temperatures? (-30 celsius max and summer +30)

 

All this because i would like to have wired connection upstairs and i can't put the cable through the floor

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Get outdoor grade cable, or use a metal, or plastic conduit.

[Bob]

I would advise you to use outdoor grade cable because it is UV and water resistant. 

[OmanGS]

The cable I sell at the shop is rated -20C to +60C for operating temperature. I have seen it outside, but I really wouldn't recommend it. You should definitely, as BlazeIt said, use conduit for it.

[Xeross]

The cable I sell at the shop is rated -20C to +60C for operating temperature. I have seen it outside, but I really wouldn't recommend it. You should definitely, as BlazeIt said, use conduit for it.

Too bad winter in Ontario this year went lower than -20C aha

 

Definitely outdoor grade though, better safe than sorry!

[OmanGS]

Too bad winter in Ontario this year went lower than -20C aha

 

Definitely outdoor grade though, better safe than sorry!

 

We get outdoor grade in as well, but it's more-so at customer request. The normal stuff is fine for the most part, but it's just risky business...hah.

[Cwazywazy]

Either get outdoor grade cable or find a way to either protect the cable or try harder to do it indoors.

[Student]

The cabe does "not realy" care. the only problem could be if would be under the soil or lying free in the lawn.
you don't have to worry about it, it just could be that it will cange in color and get hard, and eventualy the plastic can break if moved.

But as you say it is staticly mounted to the wall.

If you want to be for sure you can change it every 3-5 years.

[JokuTyyppi]

Thanks for the good information! I may need to think again about the indoor option... I currently only have some BLUE cable which isnt so ideal in home usage The cable would be in pretty rough environment as there would be ~60celsius changes, sun, water, ice... All that kind of stuff.

Need to put my thinking hat back on!

[onionring]

Thanks for the good information! I may need to think again about the indoor option... I currently only have some BLUE cable which isnt so ideal in home usage The cable would be in pretty rough environment as there would be ~60celsius changes, sun, water, ice... All that kind of stuff.

Need to put my thinking hat back on!

you re overcomplicating it, just get a powerline kit or a drill and any ethernet cable will survive outside if placed in a pvc pipe.

my indoor grande one shure is working at -30c.

[dalekphalm]

you re overcomplicating it, just get a powerline kit or a drill.

Not necessarily. Perhaps he's renting or leasing and cannot drill any holes?

 

Also powerline, while better then wifi if you have decent modern electrical wiring, still isn't ideal. True cat5/6 gigabit ethernet is far superior to powerline ethernet. Less issues and fluctuation, better speeds and lower latency.

[Smite]

STP with no conduit unless its on a direct sun facing side of your place. If you cant drill power-line might be an option. 

 

Personally I have only ever used conduit when i was burring a line and even then it was still more trouble than it was worth. 

 

Also surprised no one has said run coaxial and convert it. RG6 will survive just about anything. 

[dalekphalm]

For the short run it'll be outside, I'd strongly suggest against converting it to another medium (such as RG6) if at all possible because it's another complication and point of failure for your setup.

 

Just go to your local hardware store, and pick up some wire conduit (plastic or metal, just make sure it's outdoor rated). The staff can help you pick out which one. Just get a couple right angle pieces, and enough straight run to get where you need to go (Or whatever pieces you need to get from A to B). I'd still buy outdoor rated Cat6 though anyway. Especially for the cold. The conduit will protect against water, rain, snow, and wind, but you'll want cable that will handle the temperature extremes of your area.

 

People who suggest buying cheap and replacing every 3-5 years? Why? That's such a waste of, well, everything. Money as well as materials. If you're gonna do it, you may as well do it right so you won't have to redo it in the future. Sure eventually there'll be a new type of ethernet that you'll need new cable for, but that'll likely be more than 5 years. And Cat6 should be able to handle 10Gigabit, which is likely to be the next home networking standard.

[JokuTyyppi]

you re overcomplicating it, just get a powerline kit or a drill and any ethernet cable will survive outside if placed in a pvc pipe.

my indoor grande one shure is working at -30c.

Our wiring is done so weirdly in the fifties that there are kind of two different wirings in our house. Upstairs has its own wiring so powerline is not an option.

 

Not necessarily. Perhaps he's renting or leasing and cannot drill any holes?

 

Also powerline, while better then wifi if you have decent modern electrical wiring, still isn't ideal. True cat5/6 gigabit ethernet is far superior to powerline ethernet. Less issues and fluctuation, better speeds and lower latency.

I agree. But we are living in our own house so drilling isn't a problem, except for aestethical reasons.

[JokuTyyppi]

For the short run it'll be outside, I'd strongly suggest against converting it to another medium (such as RG6) if at all possible because it's another complication and point of failure for your setup.

 

Just go to your local hardware store, and pick up some wire conduit (plastic or metal, just make sure it's outdoor rated). The staff can help you pick out which one. Just get a couple right angle pieces, and enough straight run to get where you need to go (Or whatever pieces you need to get from A to B). I'd still buy outdoor rated Cat6 though anyway. Especially for the cold. The conduit will protect against water, rain, snow, and wind, but you'll want cable that will handle the temperature extremes of your area.

 

People who suggest buying cheap and replacing every 3-5 years? Why? That's such a waste of, well, everything. Money as well as materials. If you're gonna do it, you may as well do it right so you won't have to redo it in the future. Sure eventually there'll be a new type of ethernet that you'll need new cable for, but that'll likely be more than 5 years. And Cat6 should be able to handle 10Gigabit, which is likely to be the next home networking standard.

That is a good idea. I can try to do that in the summer when it is warm. And yeah, cat6 will be good for my purposes for a lloooong time, i only have 100mbit connection in my router.

And yeah, i am not going to change the cable every 3 years. That is for sure. 

[onionring]

I agree. But we are living in our own house so drilling isn't a problem, except for aestethical reasons.

might i suggest cat5 wall plates then?

that would keep things cleaner than running a wire thru a window at least.

i would fish the wire vertically to the attic and go where i need and then go back down from there.

[d33g33]

It's called gel filled cat cable in Aus and its worth whatever it costs.

I've had heaps of issuers with non gel-filled cables out in the elements and eventually they always get moisture in and cause headaches.

 

Pricing wise I was able to track down 300m for about $130 for Cat5e

[JokuTyyppi]

you could get away with cheaper cable if you put it in PVC conduit and bury it.  you may need to see what frost levels are there in Finland. the colder it gets the deeper you may need to bury it.

Yeah, that is what i am thinking now. Except that i am not going tu bury it as it is just going to go from downstairs to upstairs I would put it through a window and then through the other window upstairs and then install it so that it looks nice and... Yeah

 

It's called gel filled cat cable in Aus and its worth whatever it costs.

I've had heaps of issuers with non gel-filled cables out in the elements and eventually they always get moisture in and cause headaches.

 

Pricing wise I was able to track down 300m for about $130 for Cat5e

That stuff looks interesting. What i found was cat6 300m for 330 dollars! That is just waayyy too much for me But i only need 1/10 of that So i need to consider that option as well. Thanks for recommending!

[d33g33]

Yeah, that is what i am thinking now. Except that i am not going tu bury it as it is just going to go from downstairs to upstairs I would put it through a window and then through the other window upstairs and then install it so that it looks nice and... Yeah

 

That stuff looks interesting. What i found was cat6 300m for 330 dollars! That is just waayyy too much for me But i only need 1/10 of that So i need to consider that option as well. Thanks for recommending!

 

Plenty of people may argue with me but Cat5e is fine for 1gbit under 100m. My whole house is Cat5e no problems

[dalekphalm]

Plenty of people may argue with me but Cat5e is fine for 1gbit under 100m. My whole house is Cat5e no problems

The problem with that (and this won't be a problem for everyone) is future upgradeability. The beauty of Cat5e in the past was that it worked for both 10/100 and was compatible with 10/100/1000 as well in runs over 100m.

 

Now, however, 10GigE is going to become the next in-home network standard. It might take a couple more years before motherboards start shipping with 10GigE as the default option, but it's coming none the less. 10GigE will not run on Cat5e. It requires Cat 6 as a minimum, and only up to 55m. You need Cat6e to get the full 100m runs.

 

So now that Cat6 is readily available, some may consider installing it now, so that if they wish to upgrade to 10GigE later, it'll be a lot easier to do so. I'm personally running Cat5e in my apartment, but it's not installed into wall-plates, and I put it in several years ago. When I get a house that I can drill holes, etc, I'll be installing Cat6e into wall-plates in every room and then feeding it to a switch (Probably Gigabit switch, depends on how much time has passed and if 10GigE consumer switches are affordable).

[JokuTyyppi]

Plenty of people may argue with me but Cat5e is fine for 1gbit under 100m. My whole house is Cat5e no problems

Well, i wont argue with that Our home is still using 100mbit Network and it has been fine till now. Now that i made a nas of Pi i would like to have faster connection. But guess what? Pi supports only 100mbit, so i have no reason to upgrade to better so cat5 would be totally fine for a long time in my house.

 

The problem with that (and this won't be a problem for everyone) is future upgradeability. The beauty of Cat5e in the past was that it worked for both 10/100 and was compatible with 10/100/1000 as well in runs over 100m.

 

Now, however, 10GigE is going to become the next in-home network standard. It might take a couple more years before motherboards start shipping with 10GigE as the default option, but it's coming none the less. 10GigE will not run on Cat5e. It requires Cat 6 as a minimum, and only up to 55m. You need Cat6e to get the full 100m runs.

 

So now that Cat6 is readily available, some may consider installing it now, so that if they wish to upgrade to 10GigE later, it'll be a lot easier to do so. I'm personally running Cat5e in my apartment, but it's not installed into wall-plates, and I put it in several years ago. When I get a house that I can drill holes, etc, I'll be installing Cat6e into wall-plates in every room and then feeding it to a switch (Probably Gigabit switch, depends on how much time has passed and if 10GigE consumer switches are affordable).

Of course future proofing (which is a word that shouldnt be said )  will (maybe) save some money, but i believe that i am not going to need 10gig connection for a LOOOONNNGG time But this is the situation where i should think that if someone in the future might need that speed in this house? Sooooo I check my money situation in the summer

[Billbob]

If you do not get the outdoor variant, the UV *will* destroy the plastic in a not very long time frame.