Network Cable

**eboyjones** · January 8th, 2007, 11:51 PM

I am getting Direway Satellite Internet. I live in a very rural area, an even though we have been slated for high speed phone lines I don't think they are ever coming.

I copied the specs for posting below and except for the upload speed the connection is pretty fast. I decided on the Pro Plus Plan because even if speeds drop then I will still have a decent connection.

I also have 2 Linksys Broadband Wireless Modems with 4 ports each for direct connection. The specs say the wireless will carry 300 ft inside and 1500 ft outside, except I have a lot of trees.

So now that you have the basic story, what I want to do is install a connection to my shop which is 250 ft away. I decided on a direct cable connection. A friend works for the phone company and gets the wire left on the spools that gets thrown away. He got me a 300 ft. piece. The specs for the cable I also copied below.

My question is will this cable work? I know it is designed for data\voice, but will it carry video? I will get the wire in a couple of days and I can put some RJ45 plugs on each end and run a compatability and speed test. Also it is 6 pair wire so I will not use 2 pair of the wire. Up here Cat5e direct burial cable is $1.35 a ft. So if I can use this wire it will save a bit of money. I also am putting it in PVC conduit because of rocky soil.

The wireless will probably work but I would prefer a hard line connection.

Appreciate any help or suggestions.

"6pr 22 Awg Phone Cable BDW A is a filled, double-jacketed buried wire intended for direct burial applications. Applications include distribution circuits and service entrance wires. BDW A is designed to withstand installation stresses. They are filled with an ETPR compound, which completely coats each insulated conductor and fills the air space between conductors. BDW A is recommended for non-gopher areas. "

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**NooNoo** · January 9th, 2007, 12:58 PM

Try the cable and see... a cable doesn't carry voice or data or video... it carries electrons! The problem will be if you get crosstalk across the cable pairs. The other consideration is resistance... if the cable is of a higher resistance than Cat 5, then your electrons are going to run out of steam long before they get 250ft.

**eboyjones** · January 9th, 2007, 03:07 PM

Thanks NooNoo. I will connect 2 jacks and try a 250 ft. piece before I bury it. I will post the results tomorrow or the next day.

**Atodini** · January 9th, 2007, 03:23 PM

Eboy,

As Noo suggests try it, but I've looked up your cable in my (RS) cable data book - the impedance of 22swg BDW (Buried distribution wire) A/B/G is listed at 1 kohm (RG45 is 75 ohms); Also it is not designed or screened for digital data transmission so even if you get a connection (which is unlikely given the specs) you will probably get a high "crossover" packet loss.

Telephone networks typically use a sub-carrier voltage of about 50v dc, data cabling often under 1 volt, and never over 5!!

As you're putting it in conduit, do you really need to use direct burial Cat5?
Could you not use a standard cable??

Just a thought...

John

**slgrieb** · January 9th, 2007, 06:39 PM

The nominal impedence of Cat5E cable is 100 Ohms. Any cable with a significantly higher impedence won't work. Don't know where "up here" is but I've bought direct bury cable here several times. Pricing is decent for 100ft increments. My only gripe is that inventory could be more consistent.

**CCT** · January 9th, 2007, 07:15 PM

He has 6 PAIRS -what if he used 3 and 3?

edit: changed wires to pairs - leaves 6 wires for backup 3-3 groupings

**eboyjones** · January 10th, 2007, 06:06 AM

Thanks for the replies. When I got home tonight my phone cable was here. I had a number of things to do, but I stayed up and played. I have a roll approx. 300ft. long. The wires area bigger than cat5e so I couldn't use RJ-45 plugs. So I snipped off the ends of an cat5e cable and pig tailed the wires together.

Now the interesting part, especially in consideration of your comments, but I had my doubts to. I plugged the phone cable into a hub that I connected 2 other PC's to. One PC was a P4 3ghz. One was a P3 1ghz and the third one was an older laptop I have with a P3 500mhz.

I put together a 50 and a 100 mb packages mixed with data, pictures, mp3 and a couple of short Video's. From the P4 3ghz to the P3 1ghz the 50mb package took 53 seconds and the 100mb package took 93 seconds. So I reversed the order from P3 to P4 and got about the same speed. From ither P4 or P3 to or from the laptop it took twice as long.

But if you do the math the faster of the 2 PC's moved material at 1mb per second and even the old laptop did around half that. Compared to dial-up I won't complain.

And I did check the packages for errors and there weren't any. So I am a happy camper tonight.

Thanks again for your feedback.

**NooNoo** · January 10th, 2007, 06:13 AM

1MegaByte/s? or 1megabit/s? If it's 1 megabit, sneakernet would be quicker!

**eboyjones** · January 10th, 2007, 09:14 AM

It is megabytes although if it were megabits it would probably still be faster than we have now, but it would be a cruel joke on life's part.

Now a speed worth shooting for is Zettabyte or a Yottabyte per second. Of course we also be able to have Scotty beam us up.

But this old guy will take his free wire and 1 megabyte per second.

I did forget to mention the wire I got didn't turn out to be direct burial but "drop wire". Same 22 gauge solid copper with 6 pairs UV coated.