CAT5e To Shed

[dgulliver]

Hi,

Got a man-shed, electrics going in soon but I'm currently using a 15mtr extension to power my Xbox and other bits including Develo Powerline Adapters for Internet.

I'm thinking about running some armoured CAT5e to the shed as well to save on socket use. But I'm debating on how many runs of cable I actually need.

As of now I'm just using android tv box and Xbox wired to the Develo to my BT Smart Hub.

I also have BT Business Broadband with a separate modem connected to a draytek router which has a constant VPN to the Office so I will need to connect my IP Phone and a laptop using CAT5e also.

So I see 2 Scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Run 4 lengths of armoured CAT5e from house to shed.

2 cables will be attached to BT Smart Hub

2 cables will be attached to draytek.

Scenario 2
Run 2 lengths of armoured CAT5e from house to shed.
Have 2 Gigabit switches in shed (1 to BT Smart Hub and the other to draytek).
This way I can connect as many devices as the switches can take.

Scenario 2 gives me more room for expansion.

Scenario 1 will only allow me 2 devices on each router.

I won't be using both android tv box and Xbox at the same time so it seems a waste to run 2 lengths when they could share.

Same goes for my laptop and IP Phone, the phone does not get used much.


Scenario 2 makes more sense to me but I'm just wondering will I see bandwidth performance degrade?

Thanks
Darren






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[Timllfixit]

Hi Dgulliver.
Cat 5 is good to about 70-100m.
The new combined phone and ADSL sockets allow you to run an ADSL extension from the master to your router( so you could have that in the shed if you prefer.)

The secret of CAT5 is in the twist of the cores(5 twists per inch-cat 5!) that help to reject noise and interference. You must maintain the PAIRS for this to work, so use blue/white-white/blue, orange white/white orange etc. or the twist will be ineffective( and might actually make things worse!). While electrons don't care, Broadband/Data(effectively a high frequency AC signal) does.

[dgulliver]

Thanks TimllFixIt, yeah I've crimped CAT5 and understand the pairing. I'm only looking for about 15mtrs between house and shed, where I could run ADSL cable from master to shed again 15mtrs but then my Hue, Sonos and CCTV bridges would need to be moved into shed, I'd rather have them indoors.


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[kellys_eye]

Given the relatively short run and complication of 'adding' cables after the event, fitting more-than-you-need is always a good fallback method especially given the cheap cost of CAT-5 these days.

[Bob225]

100m (305ft) is about the max, 2 runs of external grade cat5e should do the trick use 1 cable as a link the other as a redundant backup and install a network hub in the shed

Setup.

As you have 2 lines the easiest way is to divide the network by subnet leave the vpn alone and change the subnet and ip of the bt hub then link the 2 routers

Then the vpn is its own secure network but can be access anywhere in the home

edit. install cat 6e that way its a bit more future proof