cat5e parallel to power is unavoidable - use shielded cat5e?

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SockMan!

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I'm want to run Ethernet to a single computer in my garage (which is separate from the house). Unfortunately, the only way to run the cable is through a 30 foot pipe with power cables in it. However, I might end up having to run the cable parallel to power the entire 70 foot distance due to wiring constraints, but at least 30 feet parallel to power is unavoidable.

My question is: would a shielded cat5e cable be appropriate for this situation? I'm doing this cheaply so fiber is out of the question and I don't want to use wireless.

Also, if do decide to use a shielded cable, should I ground both ends or just one end? The garage end would be connected directly to a NIC which is already grounded to the computer case; however I don't know if it'd make sense to ground the other end too.
 
Have you looked into power bridges?

Also, fiber isn't out of the question, it's actually pretty darn cheap on ebay.
 
STP is probably more work than you really want to worry about here; both ends must be grounded for the cable to be effective.

I'd run the cable and see what kind of interference you get. It may be low enough that it's tolerable.
 
The computer in the garage is just an old system for online browsing and such, so I'm being really stingy here. Otherwise I'd go fiber. The fiber itself isn't very expensive on ebay; it's the converter boxes on each end that make it more expensive than the garage computer is worth.

Anyway, I figure that it can't hurt to try so I picked up a 100 foot foiled cat5e cable. I don't think I'll have trouble grounding both ends although I'll have to attach a drain wire to the house end.

So long as I get tolerable speeds then I'll be okay with it. I'm posting mostly because I'm curious if shielding would make a big difference versus unshielded when running parallel to power cables.
 
SockMan! said:
So long as I get tolerable speeds then I'll be okay with it. I'm posting mostly because I'm curious if shielding would make a big difference versus unshielded when running parallel to power cables.
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Only way to be sure is to test it. Power noise varies wildly region to region, there's no way to be sure what you are dealing with until you do it.

Honestly though, you should be fine with regular UTP. I'd give it a go and see.
 
I found out the pipe collapsed so cables are no longer an option. Thanks for your help anyway!

I guess I'll look into power bridges next.
 
You're better off with creating a wifi bridge. Since the distance is only ~100 feet, you really don't even need any special antennas. Just two off the shelf APs, one in bridge mode. Powerline networking isn't nearly as great as it seems. For instance, generally only half of the outlets in a given house will work.
 
i was about to say...if its just a garage system, slap some wireless in there.
 
GlobalFear said:
You're better off with creating a wifi bridge. Since the distance is only ~100 feet, you really don't even need any special antennas. Just two off the shelf APs, one in bridge mode. Powerline networking isn't nearly as great as it seems. For instance, generally only half of the outlets in a given house will work.
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+1. Get two Linksys WRT54x Routers, slap on Tomato, and you're set. :)
 
Wi-Fi bridges can be a bit slow for high capicity networking, e.g if you got a big fat noisy server in you garage! Otherwise its +2 wireless bridge or even a wireless router and stick a wireless card in ur pc.
 
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