CAT5 25 pair and 66M or 110 blocks

Actually using CAT 5e as CAT5 is limited to 100 meters and 5e is good for umm, what..325 meters or so?

110 blocks meet cat 5 spec, there was a $pecial 66 block that met cat 5 spec,but I've never used it. If you are burying the cable outside, I would reconsider and take a look at optical fiber instead. Lighting strikes do terrible things to UTP hubs and transceivers.

--Dale

Correct, but in both cases...you still have to fan out the twisted pairs several inches once the leave the bundled sheath and I was just wondering how that affects the bandwidth integrity.

Fiber would be nice, but still need copper pairs for the phone system. With proper grounding and shielded buried cable, I don't anticipate any problems.

All the runs will be under 1,000 feet, so that's within Cat 5e specs. If I have problems, the NICs will drop to 10 Mbps.

This thread borders on pathetic. The last time I checked, Cat 5 or

5e cable could pass data 100 meters or 327 feet or so, not 100 meters and 327 meters. Multi-pair cat 5 cable is specially twisted in that there are FOUR twisted pairs kept together in SIX distinct binders for 24 pairs. It works fine. You can screw around with 66 blocks, but I would't even consider it.

If you need copper pairs for the phone system, get copper cable designed for outdoor cabling and, if you really are running data at greater than THREE HUNDRED FEET, run fiber or a media converter to the other building. Now, your copper plant can have real protectors on each end per TIA/EIA specs. Yeah, you just added about $30 per pair, but it ought to be less expensive in the long run than a new phone system.

Carl Navarro

Excuse me! You need to look up a word or two in a dictionary.

With 110-type blocks the sheath is required to stay on 4-pair cables to help keeping the pairs untouched. With the 25-pair cable there is just physically no way to comply with that requirement, so you have to be extra careful with the pairs, and if you are careful, nothing bad is going to happen, and it will test out for CAT5E just fine. I'm talking about 90 meters (295ft) of 25-pair CAT5E maximum, not 1000 ft your trying to pull.

66-type block's form factor makes it impossible to keep the half-inch maximum untwist usually required for CAT5E cable, so you chances of getting a good link are slim. Your considerations about lengths are fundamentally wrong though (see below) 1000 ft is not going to work for 10BASE-T either, don't kid yourself. For the difference in price of CAT3 25-pair and CAT5E 25-pair times 1000 feet you can buy yourself a pair of good 100BASE-FX cards (or maybe even switch modules, especially if you try eBay), a piece of 4-strand 62.5/125 multimode fiber and have no problems in the future whatsoever and also have all 25 pairs available to your phone system.

On top of all that you have to realise that lightning protectors are different for data (high frequency pass) and voice (low frequency pass). Therefore your lightning protector panel will be a mess if you try to coer both voice and data in the same copper cable: you would have to peel of your data pairs onto separate data protector panel.

Get fiber for data and kill two birds with the same stone: get reliable high speed and natural lightning protection for your data equipment at the same time.

Good luck!

-------------------------------------

You need to check again.

Cat 5e cable is an enhanced version of Cat 5 for use with 1000BASE-T (gigabit) networks, or for long-distance 100 Base-T links (350 m, compared with 100 m for Cat 5).

would't even consider it.

That's common knowledge. But doesn't answer the my question on the post sheath fan out for both 66M and 110 blocks.

That's common knowledge use gel-filled buried cable outdoors.

CAT5e buried cable works, see above for cable length limits.

That's common knowlege again.

Your new at this, aren't you.

This sounds _very_ bad. Buried often means interbuilding. Interbuilding almost always means different groundstakes. Different groundstakes means greatly increased succeptibility to lightening damage. Run fiber! For phone service, Copper into a protector block.

It's not _so_ horrible, but the "icky pick" (waterproofing resin) is fluid and will run and attract dirt. You don't want it running into your block! So I'd use 110s, definitely with only bottom entrance and drip loops. Preferably only the lower row. There may be a solvent to clean off the "icky pick", but I'd bet it will get the insulation and copper first :)

-- Robert

Siemon Cat5e. Not premium priced. Shorter posts, closer spacing for paired conductors, further apart between pairs. Worked for me.

-- Robert

Both 66m and 110 would still have the same problem.

By pulling both conductors through the same slot and pulling one up and the other down when punch them down, you can stay within the half inch restriction.

Sudden change in plans this morning. There's going to be a 1,000 and

1,2000 foot run added. Will most likely just go with 22 gauge CAT3 buried for the phones and a 10 Mbps loop extender for the data. Since there's no PC to PC file sharing, only 5 Mbps internet connection...that will be fine for them.

Please insert a smiley (or other emoticon) if you're being sarcastic. Otherwise, I can't tell your tone of voice in such a short post. "umm, what" can be read different ways.

No, Cat5e is _not_ good for 325m at 100 MHz. Cat5e was created to cover some gaps for 1000baseT over Cat5. It is a marginal improvement over Cat5, and AFAIK mostly affects jack design, with very few (if any) changes to cable. Most Cat5 instals will pass Cat5e certification tests.

On a very good day, 10baseTX is possible over 1000ft of Cat5 when done just right. But I wounld not count on this in any system required to be reliable, nor in any shared-sheath application.

-- Robert

Since I alwys run gel-filled cable upwards into the blocks, post nasal drip, err...icky pic drip not a problem. A couple of rags diping in a citrus cleaning does a pretty good job of cleaing that gunk. Magnolia Chemical carrys a cleaning that the telcos use and that stuff is VERY agressive, it will etch plastic like acetone.

Sawry...the "ummm..." was meant to imply thnking in my head.

Ah, specialized hardware like BlackBox or Crisco LRE?

That should work, but consult the mfr for cable requirements. As a general rule, pair untwist counts for _very much_ more than simple sheath strip.

-- Robert

Please do not get annoyed at repetition. Many errors are possible, and it is better to eliminate them than assume they haven't been made. Such latter assumptions often turn out wrong!

No, Carl is not. And such remarks will hardly elicit anything helpful from anyone.

FWIW, I do not think this thread is pathetic, but wouldn't dispute Carl's sense of pathos.

-- Robert

Yeah...like this.

Have perhaps 20 clients using them.

I average doing a buried cable repair about once a month and splicing copper is a tad easier compared to digging up lots of fiber that got stretched before it broke.

1) No one thinks to call me first so that I can call the cable locater company.

2) Cable locater company was off by five feet on one job. I knew EXACTLY where I did a previous 50 ft. splice (someone cut the cable in TWO places), but the locater company "found" my cable 5 ft. north. Out of curiosity, we dug up that area, no cable found.

3) Contractors can't follow a straight line.

4) Crown on a toppled oil rig makes a deep crater.

5) Telco doesn't bother to test for anything other their lines.

I think there's something in the water that makes rednecks do these things. Or maybe its just their genetic redneck predisposition.

Jep!

A non-obvious drawback to Kevlar. I wonder if steel armoring might not be more maintainable, even with the corrosion and conductivity issues. I suppose it depends greatly on the installed location, and the frequency of backhoe attack.

Some do. You just don't hear about these cases!

Of course! What do you expect?

Did they find something else, like a pipe? Finding absolutely nothing would take conserable creativity, not usually in evidence.

Not even with lasers to help them!

No need to invoke racism. Construction trades all have specialized mindsets. You probably don't find beauty in crisp sidewalls and a clean trench bottom. The elusive competant backhoe operator might. Except one has yet to be found :)

-- Robert

Since I knew there was nothing of value near there, I had them backhoe out a bit and found the edge of a gravel septic lateral. Maybe the locater company detected the discontinuity in the soil.