Ethernet between houses

random.stranger

After convincing my neighbour that linking our houses networks was a great idea, I came across Watty's post in an older thread.

watty wrote: »

And the isolation voltage rating for equipment the Cat5 plugged into is for 220V mains. ESB uses three phases. Between phases is 380V.
If you want to connect a network or anything else between two premises you have to use particular earthing and barrier equipment for safety unless you are using wireless/WiFi.

Your switch/PC etc isolation may or may not be rated for 380V mains

We have invested a lot of time, money & effort running over 60m of cat6 cable underground between the houses. I found this post just before connecting up the network and was hoping there was some way this project could be salvaged.

I was hoping maybe one of these would solve our problem:
http://industrialcomponent.com/oem/protek5iso.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chris Hansen

random.stranger wrote: »

After convincing my neighbour that linking our houses networks was a great idea, I came across Watty's post in an older thread.



We have invested a lot of time, money & effort running over 60m of cat6 cable underground between the houses. I found this post just before connecting up the network and was hoping there was some way this project could be salvaged.

I was hoping maybe one of these would solve our problem:
http://industrialcomponent.com/oem/protek5iso.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Wireless?

swampgas

random.stranger wrote: »

After convincing my neighbour that linking our houses networks was a great idea, I came across Watty's post in an older thread.

We have invested a lot of time, money & effort running over 60m of cat6 cable underground between the houses. I found this post just before connecting up the network and was hoping there was some way this project could be salvaged.

I was hoping maybe one of these would solve our problem:
http://industrialcomponent.com/oem/protek5iso.html

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Seems like an expensive solution, but it will do what you want.

Twisted pair ethernet is transformer coupled, and if it were me, I'd just connect the cable and not worry about it. Cat-6 isn't heavy duty cable, the worst that I would be afraid of would be some damaged electronics, and the odds of that are so low that I would't lose any sleep over it.

Now if you were connecting POWER cables, or anything that wasn't transformer coupled like ethernet, I'd say be careful, but for ethernet, just plug it in and be done with it.

If you are really paranoid, find someone qualified to test whether the two premises are on the same phase or not.

Or go and buy the isolator - it will do the job you require, if you really want the peace of mind.

* Usual disclaimer applies *

random.stranger

Chris Hansen wrote: »

Wireless?

Thanks Chris, maybe if I was starting again wireless would be the best solution (although it can be a bit flakey with baby monitors, wireless tv senders etc.)

swampgas wrote: »

Seems like an expensive solution, but it will do what you want.

Twisted pair ethernet is transformer coupled, and if it were me, I'd just connect the cable and not worry about it. Cat-6 isn't heavy duty cable, the worst that I would be afraid of would be some damaged electronics, and the odds of that are so low that I would't lose any sleep over it.

Now if you were connecting POWER cables, or anything that wasn't transformer coupled like ethernet, I'd say be careful, but for ethernet, just plug it in and be done with it.

If you are really paranoid, find someone qualified to test whether the two premises are on the same phase or not.

Or go and buy the isolator - it will do the job you require, if you really want the peace of mind.

* Usual disclaimer applies *

Thanks Swampgas, I have come across a fair few examples of forums where people have done just that & everything was hunky dory.

At the same time I have come across some very informed posts by Watty & wouldn't disregard his advice offhand.

If I understand correctly, even if the houses are on different phases it should work fine, but if the routers catestrophically fail & send mains voltage through the network cables: things get messy. But I'm not confident of that.

I agree, maybe the Protek 5 isolator is overkill. Another option I was looking at was a network surge supressor that operates at 60V.
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PNET1GB&tab=documentation

I'm not so confident about this, I suppose it depends on my assumptions above being true.

swampgas

random.stranger wrote: »

[...]
I have come acros a fair few examples of forums where people have done just that & everything was hunky dory.

At the same time I have come across some very informed posts by Watty & wouldn't disregard his advice offhand.

If I understand correctly, even if the houses are on different phases it should work fine, but if the routers catestrophically fail & send mains voltage through the network cables: things get messy. But I'm not confident of that.

I agree, maybe the Protek 5 isolator is overkill. Another option I was looking at was a network surge supressor that operates at 60V.
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PNET1GB&tab=documentation

I'm not so confident about this, I suppose it depends on my assumptions above being true.

I wouldn't want to argue with Watty on the power side of things :-)

But given that the copper wires in Cat-6 are so fine, the cable is effectively a fuse. If by some bizarre circumstance something catastrophic happens and AC power gets to the cable, and breaks past the transformers, the cable wiring is just going to pop like a fuse would. I would think the odds of that are extremely remote, and even if it did, all you'd have to do is pull new cable.

Dardania

it frequently happens in data centres that cabinets at either end of data halls are running on different phases, and are connected together using ethernet, with no consequence. Indeed, sometimes those cabinets would be operating off difference transformers...

Where it can be a problem is if you use shielded twisted pair (STP) as opposed to unshielded twisted pair (UTP), and there is a fault to earth in one of the machines of mains voltage from the phase rather than neutral, in which case a large voltage can build up. However, these circumstances would be rare, and indeed STP isn't often used as it can contribute to interference...

Personally, I'd say you'd be fine. As an elec engineer, I've ran alot of ethernet cabling in harsh environments (both physically and electrically) without issue - just use good terminations. And bear in mind how telephone cabling gets to your home...