Question about Cat 5...

Ok, Im gettting a utiltiy building tomorrow, and Im going to insulate, aircondition, blah, blah, make it a little shop (doghouse/ I preferr Igloo :D ). I am going to run some Cat 5e out to it for Internet access over a small lan. I have looked all over and found nothing concrete as far as burying the caable.

So my question is, Can Cat 5e cable be buried without any problems, or should I run it through some conduit pipe first?




No matter how many times I look at the word bury in the dictionary, it still doesnt look right :D :D

It's safe to bury it, I've even seen it run outdoors just laying on the ground.

I'd highly recommend some type of conduit if this is going to be a permanent thing for you. My garage is about 100' behind my house, I spent about $20 on PVC pipe and dug an 18" trench from the house to the garage. I ran a string inside the pipe as I was putting it in so that I can just tie the string to the cat5 and pull it through.

Plus, if the cable ever goes bad you can just tie a new cable to the old one and pull it through. 5 minutes to replace your cable, can't beat that!

Depends on your situation,strictly speaking if its in the ground is should be at least 12" down in a pipe of some sort and marked i.e. with tape or tiles to prevent damage from digging etc.If its in the air it should be hung well above the any traffic that will use the route i.e cars etc as are some telephone lines in the UK.
Also some places suffer ground frost so it needs to be deeper here to prevent damage.You also need to ensure it is a single run of cable,that there is no damage to the casing and ends are terminated inside the buildingto stop water ingress within the cable.

PS Bury its a place just the other side of Manchester:rolleyes:

Cat 5e is cool. Good for up to 1000 mbps. :D

When you do buy your cable, be sure to go to Home Depot. We guarantee the low prices. We got Plenum rated, indoor/outdoor rated, etc. I think right now you can get an entire 500' spool for around $160.00ish or you can get it by the foot for around $0.25 p/foot (and like $0.11 p/foot for the cheap stuff.) Of course you'd have to crimp your own RJ-45 connectors for that. Hopefully you know how to do that correctly. We offer PK's at Home Depot free of charge for anyone who's interested. And as always, Leviton's website has lots of great info on cable and other datacomm related products. :D

Thanks for the tips everyone, Ill probably end up putting it in a conduit or PVC pipe and bury it. Living in SC, it doesnt get too cold get to really worry about frost or what-not. But Ill be sure to bury it at least 12 inches.

And Webby, I already have 1000' coming to me for less than 50.00 (+ 10.00 for shipping) :D :D :D

Guess I should have given a few details on the location of the building. It will be approximatley 30-50 feet away from the house going into the back yard. With all of the dogs that get out (funny how that happens, and we supposedly have leash laws here) and a 3 year old that loves to play outside, I think it would be best to bury it, and not just stretch it accross to the building or leave it laying in the yard.

But leaving it out in the sun (Ca. sun at that) does give me a bit of confidence on the durability of it though. Thanks

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Originally posted by cc_penguin
...And Webby, I already have 1000' coming to me for less than 50.00 (+ 10.00 for shipping) :D :D :D

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Damn! Where'd you score a good deal like that?

It would be fine certainly at least for awhile if you just bury it. But if it's your house and you plan on being there for several years, you'd be better served to have it in conduit, not just to protect it, but to make it easier to replace if it ever did go bad.

Especially if you're buying cheap cable. :D

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Originally posted by WebHawg


Damn! Where'd you score a good deal like that?

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Here at New Egg down towards the bottom, and shipping is 10.00 even.
And about the dogs, not worried about them digging it up, just worried about leaving it out for them to chew up.
Thanks for all replies

Oops. My bad. My previous post was from memory. I messed up some info there. I went onto the HD website to double check just now. That price I post above is for Plenum rated cable which you don't even need anyway since you're going underground. 1000' of gigabit Cat 5e is $54.90 at HD and/or $0.12 p/foot. We have so many kinds of data/voice comm cable over there I guess I got the prices mixed up in my head when I posted earlier. Anyway, it's about the same price I guess. Also, good luck with that conduit run. That should be fun digging that trench, etc. :D