When I get power to the shop, I'd like to run a Cat 5 line in the same trench for computer access. Is that possible? The distance will be about 100' underground, plus 40' feet or so in the house (basement) to the router. I suspect in the shop it might be as much as another 40'. Of it's possible, does the Cat 5 need a lot of separation from the electric (which will just be UF). Do I need a special Cat 5 for underground. What else about this do I not know?

Edited November 20, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
tags added

 They make direct burial cat 5 cable for this purpose.    Suggest putting it in pipe, even if you use the coiled plastic water pipe (for the cat 5 not electric).  It will be a lot easier to replace the cable.    Around here they place the telephone cable and electric lines in the same ditch but they are about a foot apart.       Don't know about the interference issues but the shop would be lower amperage usage so the magnetic field would be less.  Roly

Check to the price of outdoor cat 5 plus pipe vs direct burial cat 5.   Pipe may be cheaper.

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by Roly

I am not sure about the cable/electric interference but I know anytime we do a joint trench, there needs to be at least 1' separation between the two (probably more of a code thing than anything else).

 

If it were me, I would put the Cat 5 in a conduit of some kind (even poly waterline at Roly mentioned) - so much easier to replace the cable or add another if you do not have to dig a new trench. Maybe even a spare conduit for unknown future needs.

Thanks Roly. I see amazon has that stuff, and they label it as RF/EMI shielded. 200 feet is $60 (+/-). Might just go with direct burial and still put it in conduit to help kepp it from getting cut by shovels or something.

 

OK, I was typing the above when Kelly replied. Yeah, I may even put a telephone line in the conduit while I'm at it.

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by Fred W. Hargis, Jr

Unless you have lots of Cat 5 wire laying around, I suggest you consider Cat5e or Cat6 wire because of their high data rates. Cat 5 is becoming obsolete for data. Cat 5 can be used for the phone line.

38 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis, Jr said:

OK, I was typing the above when Kelly replied. Yeah, I may even put a telephone line in the conduit while I'm at it.

I always tell people we work for, conduit is cheap compared to re-trenching, so throw in a spare or two.

Scarlet jim, thank you! I will go with the Cat5e.

Kelly, Yeah...good point.

 

PS: is Cat 6 and Cat 5 e interchangeable, connection wise?

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by Fred W. Hargis, Jr

 This LINK explains the differences a lot better than I ever could.    Roly

Thanks, Roly. That got me what I needed...now I'm ready to go. I shoudl mention, I've though in other circumstances I was "ready to go" only to horribly bamfoozled by minor point I overlooked.  So we shall see.

Fred,

Cat 5, 5e and 6 use the same connectors, male and female. But if you mix systems, you are most likely to experience data transmission rates for the slowest cable, or some approximation of it. It's sort of like connecting a 4 inch pipe to a 2 inch pipe in series, The flow rate will most likely be determined by the smallest pipe.

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by scarletjim