CAT5E Cable - is it suitable for outdoors or not?

psd99

psd99

psd99

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Has anyone ever used a regular Ethernet cable outdoors, and despite it getting wet from the rain, it still worked years later? Might sound like a weird question, but I’m asking for a friend—are all Ethernet cables waterproof? And if they ran a 30-meter Cat5e cable outside, would it hold up?


ie it would run outside a property pinned to a home - is it worth paying extra for an outdoor cable or not?
 
I can bet my dollars that at least one of you reading this have ran ethernet outdoors for years and your network is probably still stable despite the horrible UK weather! :P
 
so the problem is well quite not a problem is I have nearly 200+ metre roll of cable that I got for £20 via facebook market place

I am setting up a wired network because I'm fed up of wireless - it is only a few cables across the house front to back to side etc
it's good to know there are others out there that have ran cat5e externally and not had a problem

I also have coaxial cable ran externally - never had an issue just wanted to be sure this cable is okay
and it sounds like others have ran it already
id rather not spend £20 on a 20-30metre cable if I already have 200+ metres..
 
Subliminal Aura said:
cat5e outside for approx 20 years - no problems

Only one problem but is as expected - Insulate any rj45 plugs, junctions or bridges that you may have
I had one that was there for donkeys years and all of a sudden one of the cameras started playing up, on inspection the rj45 plug literally rusted
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luckily no plans to run any external rj45 plugs, junctions or bridges etc
 
ServerIHardlyKnowHer said:
One I can answer, I run data cables in/on buildings and groundworks for a living.

If it's clipped to a wall, UV resistance is best, although regular cable could last 10+ years before falling apart depending on quality, so could last the 3 days of summer also.

If it's Gigabit or less, cat5e is generally fine unless it's rubbish quality (I've tested good quality cat5e upto 10Gbps fine on short cables).

For internal cable outside, especially unshielded cables, personally I'd use uPVC conduit, it costs peanuts, really easy to work with and makes future replacement a case of "cut and pull" where you tape a new cable to the old and pull the old until you see the new.
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thanks so this cable is called 'Time data cables' it says UTP, 4 pairs of 24 AWG and solid copper connector
Is that a good cable?
 
Right so it will prob be okay

Next question… is 2.5gb worth it? Lol

My pc lan port is 2.5 but the switch I got and my router iirc is 1gb
 
ServerIHardlyKnowHer said:
Solid copper, if it has the rubbery separator in the middle, it's probably closer to CAT6, if not it sounds like good quality 5e.

Look for CCS on the cable, that's copper coated steel, cheaper stuff but it's still good enough for home use.

If you've got a load of RJ45s and the tools, give making one a go and see how it goes before running it outside. It hits 1Gbps or better (if you have the hardware), it'll probably do just fine unless you're a datacenter or enterprise consumer.
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Yea good point
I did a few rj45 ends today and they came out ok except one cable was missing the one pin

I am planning to run the cables loosely and then rj45 and quick test to see if they are ok before neatening the cables
 
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