Question Is it a good idea to have network cabling on an outside wall ?

[Oasis Curator]

I have an older house and without significant work, it's unlikely I'd be able to cable inside without them being very visible.

I do, however have an opportunity to run some cabling outside of my house, up the wall and into the loft where it can then potentially run to various rooms (main one being the Office).

It would be a south-west (but mainly west) facing wall.
It would also sit next to a terrestrial TV aerial cable - is this a bad idea?

Any old Amazon cable or should I buy something from a specific (UK) website?

Are there any other things to consider?

 

[Lutfij]

I do, however have an opportunity to run some cabling outside of my house, up the wall and into the loft where it can then potentially run to various rooms (main one being the Office).
What sort of length are you looking at?

Are there any other things to consider?
Cables that are rated to withstand the elements and heat/UV exposure, is the input I can offer.

 

[Dr3ams]

I have ran network cables from the living room router, through the window (using a flat female to female window feed-through adapter) outside into the kid's bedroom. Like "Lutfij" said you need a cable rated for exposure. In Amazon, type "CAT6 outdoors" or "network cable outdoors". For the adapter to run through a window, I have no idea what that is called in British English. Tried finding it in Amazon UK and got nothing.

 

[BFG-9000]

Technically, if you are running the cable between walls and above ceilings it is supposed to be plenum-rated cable which is not only fire-resistant but also does not emit toxic smoke. There's also a minimum bend radius. Otherwise it is like running any other low-voltage wire installation such as telephone or alarm wiring--no conduit or junction boxes are required.

There are UV-resistant plenum-rated cables available, but just painting the outside part afterwards should also take care of that. If it's your own house, it's easiest to just poke holes in the walls rather than rely on those dodgy short sections of flat cable to go through a closed window. In the UK, OTA TV frequencies are UHF ch21-68 which are 470 MHz to 860 MHz, while gigabit ethernet runs at a symbol rate of 125MHz, 2.5Gbe 200MHz, 5Gbe 400MHz, and 10Gbe 800MHz. While 10Gbe overlaps with TV, by the time the signal gets to your aerial the power will be too low to be of any issue with unshielded ethernet--as your TV does not transmit.

 

[evermorex76]

Solid copper cabling, too for the main runs, not stranded. Harder to work with since it's stiffer but better signal and best for the "permanent" sections. Plenum and outdoor might usually be solid anyway.

Also consider the possibility of lightning strikes when it's run outside. It is a good idea to put surge suppressors on each end, where you can ground the suppressors. Or you could run all of it through plastic conduit or grounded metal conduit.

 

[kanewolf]

I have an older house and without significant work, it's unlikely I'd be able to cable inside without them being very visible.

I do, however have an opportunity to run some cabling outside of my house, up the wall and into the loft where it can then potentially run to various rooms (main one being the Office).

It would be a south-west (but mainly west) facing wall.
It would also sit next to a terrestrial TV aerial cable - is this a bad idea?

Any old Amazon cable or should I buy something from a specific (UK) website?

Are there any other things to consider?

Another option is to put conduit on the outside and run the cable in the conduit. Your cable has physical protection and UV is not an issue.

 

[LinuxDevice]

I have an older house and without significant work, it's unlikely I'd be able to cable inside without them being very visible.

I do, however have an opportunity to run some cabling outside of my house, up the wall and into the loft where it can then potentially run to various rooms (main one being the Office).

It would be a south-west (but mainly west) facing wall.
It would also sit next to a terrestrial TV aerial cable - is this a bad idea?

Any old Amazon cable or should I buy something from a specific (UK) website?

Are there any other things to consider?

You would want to use "direct burial" cable if outside. If the run isn't too large (and for the length of a normal house this isn't usually "large"), then that is likely all you need. If the installation is longer or in a noisy (EM noise) environment, then you might want shielded.

Note that conduit is a great option, and if grounded at one end, then it even works as a noise shield. I would tend to still use direct burial cable though since moisture can condense and evaporate in cycles and degrade over a long time period.

For gigabit CAT 5e is likely good enough, but CAT 6a is not that much more expensive and prepares for 10 Gb/s or longer cable runs.

Note that most cables have an outer shield, but some have the twisted pairs inside individually shielded. Unshielded internal pairs are UTP, while shielded are S/FTP (unshielded or shielded Foil Twisted Pair). For shielded you would connect the shield at the root end, and leave the other end unconnected (for the shield); connecting both ends of the shield to ground can lead to ground loops (which have their own problems).

Overall, I would recommend direct burial. Everything comparing CAT 5e and CAT 6a is optional. Everything for shielding is optional. Even direct burial could be avoided, but your results will last longer and be less troublesome for direct burial. The thing to beware of with direct burial is that it can be thicker and less flexible; the connectors and any crimp tool might need to differ for the larger size.

 

[kanewolf]

You would want to use "direct burial" cable if outside. If the run isn't too large (and for the length of a normal house this isn't usually "large"), then that is likely all you need. If the installation is longer or in a noisy (EM noise) environment, then you might want shielded.

Note that conduit is a great option, and if grounded at one end, then it even works as a noise shield. I would tend to still use direct burial cable though since moisture can condense and evaporate in cycles and degrade over a long time period.

For gigabit CAT 5e is likely good enough, but CAT 6a is not that much more expensive and prepares for 10 Gb/s or longer cable runs.

Note that most cables have an outer shield, but some have the twisted pairs inside individually shielded. Unshielded internal pairs are UTP, while shielded are S/FTP (unshielded or shielded Foil Twisted Pair). For shielded you would connect the shield at the root end, and leave the other end unconnected (for the shield); connecting both ends of the shield to ground can lead to ground loops (which have their own problems).

Overall, I would recommend direct burial. Everything comparing CAT 5e and CAT 6a is optional. Everything for shielding is optional. Even direct burial could be avoided, but your results will last longer and be less troublesome for direct burial. The thing to beware of with direct burial is that it can be thicker and less flexible; the connectors and any crimp tool might need to differ for the larger size.

For an above ground installation, direct burial is not required and is much more difficult to work with. UV resistant is required, but even that can be mitigated by painting the cable (which many people do anyway to camouflage it).

 

[evermorex76]

For an above ground installation, direct burial is not required and is much more difficult to work with. UV resistant is required, but even that can be mitigated by painting the cable (which many people do anyway to camouflage it).

As long as they use exterior paint, not just the cheapest paint they could get closely matched to their house. But personally I think painted cable looks like crap, and it always ends up flaking off, and you end up with layer after layer of paint being applied, like outlet covers and outlets themselves in a rental apartment. Even those covers that stick to the wall indoors would look better, though they'd probably discolor fairly quickly.