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Background

I live in a two-story condo that doesn't have Ethernet wiring. My goal is to retrofit and get wires to as many locations as possible. After self-inspection and consulting with contractors and electricians, I have concluded that dropping wires from the attic to every room isn't an option.

Goal

  • Run a total of four cables from the office to other locations

  • Run three of those externally through the office window & power two security cameras & setup a jack in the ground floor living room

  • Run the fourth cable through the wall & attic to an attached garage

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/Vrov9KZ

Question

AFAIK, these 4 'backbone' cables must be solid and not stranded; any reason not to do so?

Three of that four cables will travel externally attached to the wall, not buried. Is there a lightning or water leak risk if I hole is punched through the external wall?

ThreePhaseEel
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shrajinator
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    Welcome to [diy.se]! Unfortunately, while all your questions are related to one project, they're really not related to each other to the point that any one answer could reasonably answer them all. Please [edit] your post to break this up into separate questions - nobody will think the worse of you for doing so - it's expected here. Also, your first question is fairly subjective and those types of questions just aren't a good fit. You may find that an acceptable substitute for a network cabinet, while others may not - who would be right? – FreeMan Mar 03 '22 at 02:08
  • "Discrete" won't cut it you need those external cables invisible, or you need permission from the condo board to install them. – Jasen Mar 03 '22 at 02:09
  • Yep. Please [edit] - copy /cut each question to your clipboard, hit the "ask question" button in a new window, paste - link them to each other if it helps context. Delete down to one question left in this question. In a home envrionment, I don't think a network cabinet is needed at all. Wall mount the switches, router, etc. themselves and be done, or put them on a shelf. Note that 2X 8-port is only 14 useful ports once they are connected, so not equal to a 16 port. – Ecnerwal Mar 03 '22 at 02:47
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    Thanks for the suggestions, I have made the question focused. – shrajinator Mar 03 '22 at 04:14
  • You can't use stranded wire for ethernet. – gnicko Mar 03 '22 at 04:30
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    @gnicko Oh yes you can. https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/solid-vs-stranded-ethernet-cable – Fredric Shope Mar 03 '22 at 14:11
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    @FredricShope That's for patch cables. – gnicko Mar 03 '22 at 18:36

1 Answers1

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To find outdoor rated cabling, I did a quick DuckDuckGo search for "outdoor rated Ethernet cable" and came up with quite a variety of purchasing and review sites. I suggest you take a look at what's available and make your choice from among those. (Do note, a couple of "review" sites simply list their "top 10" choices with absolutely no analysis of why they've chosen them, so I consider those nothing more than "advertisement sites", YMMV.)

I would recommend going with something that is outdoor rated, as several of the vendor sites note using different jacket materials in order to be UV resistant and waterproof. I believe that gnicko's comment is correct in that all Ethernet cable is made up of solid core wire inside insulation, twisted in pairs, then put in an outer jacket, so I don't believe you have an option to go with stranded. When I've looked at cabling, solid vs stranded was never among the choices I saw listed. It seems I was wrong as Ecnerwal and Fredric Shope point out. According to the page linked by Fredric:

Solid copper conductors are more durable and tough...great for outdoor installations

So that firmly answers the question for "Solid".

Also:

Solid copper conductor Ethernet cable is typically sold in the variety needed for in-wall or plenum (HVAC) space installations, and for outdoor scenarios. The outer jacket type matters a great deal

and is followed by a link to another article at their site describing the outer jackets.

Frame challenge:

Don't go wired from upstairs to downstairs.

I'm a big fan of wired instead of wireless networking (improved speed, reliability and security), but this may be a good use case for WiFi as your main network infrastructure. At a minimum, you might want to look at using WiFi as the bridge to get from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, then run everything on the 1st floor from a 2nd wired router. If you have this WiFi connection used for nothing but this bridge, then you can pick a very long random password for it for maximum security and only have the inconvenience of having to enter it twice - once in the host router, once in the access point that's picking it up. You might consider wireless cameras, as well, simply for ease of installation.

My router has a main WiFi network and a secondary, "guest" network. I can deny the guest network internet access if I want. I'd suggest a setup like this where your WiFi bridge does not have internet access at all. That would also improve security as someone would have to be inside the wired network to get access to the wireless, and if they managed to hack your password to get on the bridge, they wouldn't have direct access outbound. This is about the extent of my network knowledge, so you'd have to do further research on this on your own.

Another alternative might be to use Ethernet power line adapters. These inject the Ethernet signal into the electrical wiring already in the walls and pick it up from any other outlet in the house. I believe there are suggestions like the best signal strength is from another outlet on the same circuit breaker, so this might make it difficult in your situation to find one breaker with outlets both upstairs and downstairs. You may also run into bandwidth limitations that you find unacceptable. I thought I'd throw this out as an idea to consider, though.

FreeMan
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  • Patch cables are typically stranded construction - though most "outdoor-rated patch cables" you'll find are just solid outdoor cable with plugs put on it. I highly recommend "dry gel" outdoor cables - they are far less of a gross mess to work with (so long as you don't get the end you are working with wet.) – Ecnerwal Mar 03 '22 at 13:17
  • Fair enough, @Ecnerwal. I, personally, have never noted on any packaging or literature an indication of stranded vs solid wire construction. Also, I haven't purchased _that_ many Ethernet cables (though my wife might beg to differ). – FreeMan Mar 03 '22 at 13:20
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    I recommend a "drip loop" at each end of any outdoor run - so that you don't end up piping rainwater into your home along the cable! – Khrrck Mar 03 '22 at 16:54
  • [Slow network speed on wifi and powerline extender](https://superuser.com/questions/1704594/slow-network-speed-on-wifi-and-powerline-extender) - because those are horrible. Get *mesh wifi*. Try an **eero**. - Or a *Smart Things* - but that's Samsung and their customer service sucks. – Mazura Mar 03 '22 at 19:48