Posted: 3/22/2026 5:59:04 PM EDT
|
Planning to install some security cameras in the near future. There is an NVR and the cameras are POE. Unfortunately for me, the house has an addition where I cannot access the attic portion to run the wire through it to the NVR. Which means I'm going to have to do an outside run to the old section of the house. Looking at the various types of cable, I wanted to know if I could get away using something like the Cat6 Outdoor Ethernet Cable (Shielded) and just run the wire right behind the gutters on the underside and maybe with an exposed portion running 6 feet or so up a wall into the old section of the house or whether I need to run it in conduit the whole run or just part of the run. Since I have to get 500 ft of it, I was planning to just do the whole run for the cameras with this network cable. Thanks in advance for any advice you might be able to lend. |
|
The UV damage from the sun or possible physical damage (getting hit or pest damage, mowing, etc..) is the only thing I would worry about. Shielded cable is unnecessary and doesn't really work if you're not using shielded ends and equipment that is compatible with it. It's intended for industrial environments with lots of EM interference. ETA: You could have an electrician do the runs to where you want them and then do the rest yourself. |
I don't need therapy. I just need someone to rob me at the gas station so I can let it all out.
|
I have a dozen outdoor PoE cameras. I just got a spool of cat6 from amazon and ran it on out there. Its anchored to brick, buried in the dirt, anchored to trees, out in the open. 24/7/365 for 6 years now and not showing any signs that its not happy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JAVMYLM?th=1 |
|
Originally Posted By CoyoteGray: The UV damage from the sun or possible physical damage (getting hit or pest damage, mowing, etc..) is the only thing I would worry about. Shielded cable is unnecessary and doesn't really work if you're not using shielded ends and equipment that is compatible with it. It's intended for industrial environments with lots of EM interference. ETA: You could have an electrician do the runs to where you want them and then do the rest yourself. Originally Posted By CoyoteGray: The UV damage from the sun or possible physical damage (getting hit or pest damage, mowing, etc..) is the only thing I would worry about. Shielded cable is unnecessary and doesn't really work if you're not using shielded ends and equipment that is compatible with it. It's intended for industrial environments with lots of EM interference. ETA: You could have an electrician do the runs to where you want them and then do the rest yourself. It's all going to be two stories up so I'm not worried about that kind of damage. Good to know on the shielded. Thanks! Originally Posted By giantpune: I have a dozen outdoor PoE cameras. I just got a spool of cat6 from amazon and ran it on out there. Its anchored to brick, buried in the dirt, anchored to trees, out in the open. 24/7/365 for 6 years now and not showing any signs that its not happy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JAVMYLM?th=1 Great I'll check that out! |
| CAT 6 is overkill and you can save some costs going with CAT 5e if you are so inclined (remember we are talking strictly for the cameras). For outdoor runs, I really like the Shireen Dry Gel Outdoor/Direct burial rated cable but I run that stuff on towers, probably not necessary for the application. |
"Have you heard of the Gospel according to NIMS?" - Some EMC...Probably
|
Is there not a different attic access for the addition? Our house is 1/3rd an addition, and there's a different access point for that area in a back closet. The main thing with UV is extended periods of direct sunlight. Avoid that if possible. If you've never ran Cat cable before I would look up a video on the basic do's and don'ts of the runs. A big one that people get wrong is laying them across power or alongside power like putting an ethernet port right next to a power outlet. If it's bad enough you can actually introduce current via induction and kill devices. I talked to a guy who was having trouble with the AP's in one location on the ceiling dying at a client location and they couldn't figure out why. They finally traced the Cat lines and found where one of them was laying directly over power. They moved it and no more dying AP's. It was killing them one by one in about 6 months. The way shielded cable works is there is a foil liner underneath the jacket. The connectors are also metal, and you need metal patch panels that are hooked to ground to the network rack. Then the network rack has to be grounded. So if people are running a shielded cable but it's plugged directly into a switch or router port or device it's not actually doing anything, and if used improperly is worse than normal cable because of the conductivity in the foil. |
|
Subscribed as this is pertinent to my problems. Have a detached garage my father built for mom's car and his tractor[don't ask] that i want to run cameras to. There is a buried power to it "somewhere". From a previous post, cannot lay across. So, get out with a metal detector to trace from the corner of the shed where it comes up to that first outlet back to the house??? Oh, no way to dig through the driveway as it is 3 feet thick wetted then packed red clay/iron ore pebbles [if you've ever been in north Louisiana you know exactly where he got that hauled in from.] Even if I could, don't think that would be the ideal environment for it anyway. Is it even conceivable to run 40' from crown to crown in the air with Cat6 exterior? Or would some directional antenna point on each crown make more sense with power already in the garage to run "something wireless"? |
Call the tune and let's dance; but beware that the devil is the piper and the tab for that soiree will be hell to pay.
Training&Trigger Time are more important than chasing a hardware Holy Grail
Training&Trigger Time are more important than chasing a hardware Holy Grail
| One of the previous owners of my house ran overhanging electrical wires to a pole building and pump house. There's a steel cable run from building to building, and the power line was run with it. I imagine you could do the same thing and run a structural cable along with cat6. |
|
Originally Posted By wganz: Subscribed as this is pertinent to my problems. Have a detached garage my father built for mom's car and his tractor[don't ask] that i want to run cameras to. There is a buried power to it "somewhere". From a previous post, cannot lay across. So, get out with a metal detector to trace from the corner of the shed where it comes up to that first outlet back to the house??? Oh, no way to dig through the driveway as it is 3 feet thick wetted then packed red clay/iron ore pebbles [if you've ever been in north Louisiana you know exactly where he got that hauled in from.] Even if I could, don't think that would be the ideal environment for it anyway. Is it even conceivable to run 40' from crown to crown in the air with Cat6 exterior? Or would some directional antenna point on each crown make more sense with power already in the garage to run "something wireless"? You either need to lash it to a steel cable that can support it, or get category cable with a steel messenger wire like this. https://shireeninc.com/osc/dc-1023-outdoor-cat5e-ftp-shielded-cable-with-a-messenger-wire-1000ft-spool/ |
|
If you have power to the garage already, it's going to be easiest to put in a wireless bridge like a Mikrotik Wireless Wire (the OG kit with the wAP60Gs that comes pre-paired and you literally just plug it into power and network) and just run a PoE switch in the garage for cameras and that end of the bridge. I did something similar at my ex-in-law's house. Mikrotik wAP60G AP and two wAP60G clients to extend the network into the barns (commercial sheep operation). In total, was 5 cameras in one barn and 3 in another plus the wirelss APs. Worked really well until I stopped maintaining it. |
"Have you heard of the Gospel according to NIMS?" - Some EMC...Probably