Running Ethernet Cable from roof space to rest of house

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Running Ethernet Cable from roof space to rest of house - thoughts

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prob

165 posts

Master Geek

#3032936 7-Feb-2023 16:30

mattwnz:

Slightly off topic, but if this is a new house, should there not be a head flashing over the top of that vent outlet? (eg simialr to the type of head flashing over windows). It looks like it only has silicon at the top and silicon will likely eventually fail over time.

True. The water path is into the metallised / plastic vent material which hopefully won't deteriorate.

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prob

165 posts

Master Geek

#3032939 7-Feb-2023 16:40

pih: Don't cut away the silicone and think it will be an easy job slapping some more in there when you're done. Silicone sticks to a lot of things, but cured silicone isn't one of them. Unless you get rid of every last bit of the old stuff, the new stuff won't stick and you may get a slow leak via capillary action.

I agree with conduit, but outdoor rated CAT6 isn't too expensive if you'd rather have it naked.

You can pay the Marley tax, or find Deta at Bunnings for about 80% less. Whichever way you go, if you're making a hole on your exterior wall and mounting a conduit box over the hole, only add sealant ½ - ¾ of the way around the top of the hole before mounting the box, leaving the bottom unsealed to prevent build-up of any moisture that does happen to get in. Again, be wary of capillary action.

Thanks and that was the kind of advice I was looking for.

I will use some conduit. There seems to be lots of reasonably priced 25 mm round stuff in the market, and I will get a junction type box to cover the hole with judicious use of sealant.

I am slightly worried this hole and the conduit will make repainting the house a bit trickier, but then again, I already have that problem with the penetrations and conduit for the air con.

I am also debating where to run the conduit. My current thought is to run it down the junction between the two walls (the 45 degree junction) to make the conduit look less obvious, then along the ground by concrete pad foundations and the wooden deck, and then back into the house just above the bottom plate. Does that sound right?

Another question, because I don't want to have to repeat this exercise, I am minded to put 4 or so runs in the conduit and run them all back to the server. Alternatively, I could just use one of the existing routers I suppose and rely on one run...

What does the team think?

neb

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#3032944 7-Feb-2023 16:52

MikeAqua:
Our Smart TV if run via wireless develops a network issue every day or two that can only be resolved by power cycling (or by deleting and reconnecting the WiFi). If run via wired, the issue does not occur.

Everything wireless eventually gets to the point where it stops working, only works when the sun is shining, needs to be power cycled every day, can't connect to the AP although it worked fine yesterday, keeps dropping out, and so on and so on. Everything at the Casa that can be is wired simply to avoid the headaches of the endless flakiness of WiFi devices.

neb

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#3032947 7-Feb-2023 16:55

prob:
Another question, because I don't want to have to repeat this exercise, I am minded to put 4 or so runs in the conduit and run them all back to the server. Alternatively, I could just use one of the existing routers I suppose and rely on one run...

Put in two runs - always run two of everything in a conduit because the cost of two lots of whatever is nothing compared to the cost of rerunning a new set of whatever - and only light up one, then put a switch in the home office, which means you can expand it as required.

mattwnz

19378 posts

Uber Geek

#3032953 7-Feb-2023 17:08

I would be wary of penetration's for this purpose, especially due to no roof overhangs over the walls. This page has penetration info and details but they are very basic https://www.buildmagazine.org.nz/articles/show/pipe-penetrations-through-claddings . Also some info in E2/AS1 here . https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/e-moisture/e2-external-moisture/

mattwnz

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Uber Geek

#3032955 7-Feb-2023 17:10

neb:
MikeAqua:

Our Smart TV if run via wireless develops a network issue every day or two that can only be resolved by power cycling (or by deleting and reconnecting the WiFi). If run via wired, the issue does not occur.

Everything wireless eventually gets to the point where it stops working, only works when the sun is shining, needs to be power cycled every day, can't connect to the AP although it worked fine yesterday, keeps dropping out, and so on and so on. Everything at the Casa that can be is wired simply to avoid the headaches of the endless flakiness of WiFi devices.

Is there any authoritive info on this? It seems that some tradies think that wireless is as good a substitute for wired solutions.

neb

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#3032958 7-Feb-2023 17:16

mattwnz:
Is there any authoritive info on this? It seems that some tradies think that wireless is as good a substitute for wired solutions.

Nah, just anecdotal, but for pretty much everything wireless I've got that's stopped working properly a google search to try and fix the problem turned up vast numbers of other people who had exactly the same problem, so it's not an isolated case, and in the majority of cases no-one had a good solution apart from reboot/reinstall/reflash/replace. In every single instance where I've replaced wireless with wired the number of problems I've had due to networking has dropped to zero, and by problems I mean things like "having to crawl up into difficult-to-access areas with a ladder to reflash firmware".

In terms of tradies thinking wireless is a good substitute, I dunno what they think but they can see that wireless = zero effort for them, wired = lots of effort for them, so from their point of view it's the perfect solution.

prob

165 posts

Master Geek

#3032995 7-Feb-2023 18:29

mattwnz:

I would be wary of penetration's for this purpose, especially due to no roof overhangs over the walls. This page has penetration info and details but they are very basic https://www.buildmagazine.org.nz/articles/show/pipe-penetrations-through-claddings . Also some info in E2/AS1 here . https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/e-moisture/e2-external-moisture/

Much appreciated.

prob

165 posts

Master Geek

#3032997 7-Feb-2023 18:32

neb:
prob:

Another question, because I don't want to have to repeat this exercise, I am minded to put 4 or so runs in the conduit and run them all back to the server. Alternatively, I could just use one of the existing routers I suppose and rely on one run...

Put in two runs - always run two of everything in a conduit because the cost of two lots of whatever is nothing compared to the cost of rerunning a new set of whatever - and only light up one, then put a switch in the home office, which means you can expand it as required.

Makes sense. I will put in more because I can... Also keen to get a 10 gig network running once the network adapters get cheaper.

elpenguino

2908 posts

Uber Geek

#3033065 7-Feb-2023 20:04

prob:

I will use some conduit. There seems to be lots of reasonably priced 25 mm round stuff in the market, and I will get a junction type box to cover the hole with judicious use of sealant.

I am slightly worried this hole and the conduit will make repainting the house a bit trickier, but then again, I already have that problem with the penetrations and conduit for the air con.

I cant see what the lower part of your house looks like (piles or pad?) but another option may be to drop the cable through the floor somewhere near the outer wall (back of a cupboard or wardrobe ?) .

Did you say you're happy making/patching holes in your GIB ? Another option is to drop through your dwangs to the height you want and then exit the house.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

prob

165 posts

Master Geek

#3033162 7-Feb-2023 22:52

elpenguino:

prob:

I will use some conduit. There seems to be lots of reasonably priced 25 mm round stuff in the market, and I will get a junction type box to cover the hole with judicious use of sealant.

I am slightly worried this hole and the conduit will make repainting the house a bit trickier, but then again, I already have that problem with the penetrations and conduit for the air con.

I cant see what the lower part of your house looks like (piles or pad?) but another option may be to drop the cable through the floor somewhere near the outer wall (back of a cupboard or wardrobe ?) .

Concrete pad so no way to put anything under the house.

I have had another look in the roof space and by going through the roof of a wardrobe that is just at the edge of the pitched roof I should be able to get the cable to my home office. Running it across that room to the rest of the house is a bit messier. It's either along the skirting board or I will have to makes cut outs to the jib and drill or cut through the studs...

Anyway, I have decided to try this as putting (more) holes in my weatherboard house is, on reflection, unappealing.

I will report back and thanks everyone.

Does anyone know of a good deal for cat 6 cable?

Bung

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#3033200 8-Feb-2023 07:41

prob:
hsvhel:

Slightly off point, but are there louvers for the vents that have been removed?

Yes, I took them down to clean them. They are real dirt magnets.

A friend's rangehood stopped working properly so I investigated. One louvre flap was sticking so that was enough to allow a bird to get in and build a nest. Because the duct sagged down from the vent there was about 500mm of the duct packed full of grass and leaves.

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