Networks Is there a way to run CAT5 next to power lines?

Well my personal experience with this is that it isn't a good idea. It tends to cause a lot of interference in longer runs. I had to run some cat5 through the ceiling here at school and our drop ceilings are populated with flourescent lights and power conduits and cables.

I found that wrapping the cables in aluminum foil and grounding it helps a bit (not very much). The best solution for this situation is not to run a cat5 cable within 18cm (a little ove 6 inches) from anything carrying power or producing electromagnetic interference.

An interesting example of this was our staff lounge. There was a microwave in there and apparently the shielding had gone bad. I ran some cabe near this and was constantly getting terrible data loss whenever someone lit up the microwave! The solution...pitch the microwave (had some fun with it. Picture a frustrated me thats been crawling in ceilings for a week and the cause of my problems and a 10 lb sledge hammer. )

 

For the most part cat5e and cat6 are the same thing.

The only difference I am aware of is that there are more twists in cat6.. This helps cut donw on interference and allows for more throughput.


You also have:

STP: Shielded Twisted Pair (catx inner wires wrapped in foil with metal tabs on the end plugs)
UTP: Unshielded Twisted Pair (Regular catx wiring, twisted wires inside the usual plastic covering)

STP isn't used much anymore with the advent of cat5e and cat6. It's main purpose if for running in high EMI areas, such as around electric motors, florescent lights, etc..

-scoob8000

 

Ironically, no. When lightning hits wet things (lets assume its raining as well), it travels all over the dickens. I personaly know someone who was 30 feet away from a lighting strike and it traveled through the ground and hit her anyway. There was a family of 10 - at a picnic - it wasn't even raining, they were on a wood fence (some leaning some sitting), lighting struck close by and like 8 of them ended up in the hospital.

A cable strung through the air has a much smaller chance of becoming a conduit for lightning than a cable running through the ground.

But building to building wireless solutions are common and getting inexpensive these days. Probably even cheaper than running the Cat5.

 

FWIW, you can run cat5 up to 300M at 10mbit, which would be ample for a camera... dunno how you'd get around the interference though.