Yes, probably run an outdoor CAT6 cable and bury if needed.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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Home Networking
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- Use proper outdoor/direct burial rated cable (regular cat5/6 isn't gonna survive..)
- Grounding is an issue. Make sure you do not have a ground potential issue. Also, install an ESD/surge device just to help. Cheap, and better safe than sorry.
- Honestly, media converters and/or SFP capable network switches aren't expensive. Conduit plus fiber doesn't have any of these issues. Worth considering.
I don't see any cops here.
Another option is just a wireless bridge.
For example (and certainly there are cheaper versions)
https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-wifi/products/ubb
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Yes, you can run Ethernet from your home router to your shed.
Ideally you'd use conduit to protect the cable, or use Ethernet cable designed for outdoor use. However, I've seen normal Ethernet cables last 10+ years outside without issue.
As others have mentioned, ideally the router in the shed will have DHCP turned off, and the incoming line will go into one of the normal Ethernet ports (not the WAN/Internet port). This will allow two-way communication between your house and shed (IE, your computers, network drives, network printers, network cameras, etc. can all see each other no matter which router they are connected to). However, if you only need Internet you can just plug the Ethernet cable into the WAN/Internet port on the shed's router.
I've seen normal Ethernet cables last 10+ years outside without issue.
Northern New England here, have had a UTP Cat 6 cable running from my house to the shed for about 5 years, I didn't even bury it. Not suggesting its the right way to do it, but it works fine. I do network installs all day, last thing I feel like doing at home is work :p
You can, but depending on the setup you should be aware of a few things:
- make sure you don't have a ground potential difference.
- use appropriate rated cabling and not plain UTP
- you may want surge protection on that line coming in from outside
Do your homework and stay safe.
Study hard, don't do drugs
I just think fiber is cheaper and easier on these cases.
For these reasons I would personally use a poe switch in my house and a poe powered access point in the second building.
Can you?
Yes.
Should you?
Probably not.
I have $6000 worth of burned out electronics to help you understand that this in not the best idea.
I'd use fiber instead. If you are not using fiber and you insist on going with copper you need a really good burial AND really good surge protection on each end.
There is no problem with doing that in principle, as long as the cable is protected and the run is less than about 100m.
If longer than 100m what would be different?
Theoretical maximum distance of ethernet.
you can but you should run fiber instead unless you want lightning to fry a bunch of your stuff
Or just use a surge protected hub at the shed end.
Lighting will travel thru fiber .
just use a switch and access point in the shed instead of a router. you would have to make sure you get all the router specific settings turned off and some routers don't let you do that. if you are unsure about it, access point and switch is much simpler.
I was going to say the same thing …I kept reading to see if anyone else did.
Thats a bit more money though
not really. a gigabit unmanaged switch is about 10 quid these days and you can get older enterprise access points from Aruba for about 15 quid on eBay. or a slower consumer unit from TPLink on Amazon for about the same price.
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Just wanna throw it out, unless you have a brand that allows meshing routers…. Like Asus! It’s literally just a setting in the control panel haha. You just select the backbone method after plugging it in and it pretty much handles the rest!
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I'll have to ask my dad first, but I'll get back to you.
Don’t run any copper cable outside your building .WLAN or fiber converter is your solution. You can lose your home not only the LAN 🫵
If your shed is only 15M away, you’ll be fine using CAT6 OSP shielded. It’s designed for direct burial so no conduit needed. If you are really concerned about anything getting fried make sure to use shielded RJ45 connectors and shielded patch panel.
Id lay some conduit and just run a long cat5e/cat6 cable out there. If you are just watching YouTube or googling stuff out there you can get away with a good mesh network but if you want some decent reliable speed hardwiring is the way to go
I say yes - what does your wife/GF/Other say?
Router to router isn't the best idea. Do you need to connect more than one device in the shed? If yes, switch or access point.
Yes. Use CAT6 direct burial and appropriate connectors. Good to 328-feet.
City code might have rules on detached structures. But usually it’s for power not internet.
Oy! you got a license for that?
personally I would use fiber instead.
Yes. Also consider just using an AP outside. It may be a simpler solution.
You can, but I recommend to run single mode fiber. It's stupid cheap, you put a media converter on each side and avoid grounding and electrical discharges issues.
Straight to jail
yes
Mesh network is the easy solution. No wires needed if you can arrange the nodes where they don't get too much interference. (metal siding would be a problem unless you can place the node in a window or similar.)
No, you cannot. Believe it or not, straight to jail.
You may want to trench and lay 1" PVC conduit so you can pull wire in the future if things change.
Just do a point to point wireless link. Less issues with ground difference and no trenching to do.
If you do trench use fiber -not- Ethernet cable
I get downvoted every time I respond to one of these posts but hey why not...
I strongly suggest running Fiber with a media converter on each end. This reduces the potential for lightning to travel from 1 structure to the other. Removes grounding concerns. It is by far the safest option.
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It's safer to run fiber between two buildings. If lightning strikes nearby it can enter the ethernet cable and destroy equipment and potentially start a fire. They even have direct burial armored fiber.
I'd personally find a cheap switch with fiber ports on both ends and use fiber. It's non-conductive so a lot of the complexity of grounding and lightning protection is off the table.
may cost a few hundred, but if you fry you're pc in the shed from a lightning strike it will probably cost more than that.
2.5gb unmanaged switches with 10gb sfp ports can be found for $50-75ish new and sfp's are maybe 10 a piece. Depending on the local market you may be able to find a used Cisco 3750 for $10-20. If you just need one port you can find a pair of 1gb media converters with sfp's for about $60. You can find pre-terminated direct burial fiber in various lengths for $110 or so for 250 ft, if you want to go overhead run a steel wire and attach the fiber to it, but you probably still want the armored fiber.
Depending on the speed and line of sight, a wireless point to point bridge may be an option.. you can find a pair for anywhere from $50 for 300mbps (I wouldn't bet that's real world, probably 50-100mbps) to much more expensive options (I ran 4 between 2 buildings at my last office that ran at very high, licensed frequencies that were probably $5k a piece, but they did 10gbps on a good day, and we're pretty rock solid even in the rain)
Also, lightning may be a real hazard.
Bury it if possible. Maybe conduit. Use cable appropriate for burial. Also how long is the run?
I did coax with MOCA adapters.
Fiber.... that being said, it wouldn't cost much to run a few ethernets out as a failsafe.
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