Ethernet cable from house to garage

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#3490127 12-May-2026 13:44

I may have a length of CAT6A gel filled to suit your application.

But if the garage is on a separate earth then use fibre would be my advice.

mdooher

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#3490136 12-May-2026 14:37

I know... yuck... but maybe power line ethernet would do what you want just fine, assuming you don't have separate metering or something in the way.

Personally I use fibre, just a super long non armoured patch lead in conduit

Having said that my original cat5e in a conduit I know to be full of water is still going strong after 15 years (has a passive POE camera on the end)

Matthew

nztim

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#3490356 13-May-2026 08:50

MichaelNZ:

But if the garage is on a separate earth then use fibre would be my advice.

^^^^^^^^ This

Glass and Airwaves don't have the risk of a potential difference between the two buildings

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

elpenguino

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#3490376 13-May-2026 09:41

nztim:

MichaelNZ:

But if the garage is on a separate earth then use fibre would be my advice.

^^^^^^^^ This

Glass and Airwaves don't have the risk of a potential difference between the two buildings

This gets mentioned in every single thread of this type. Ethernet is transformer coupled so it's therefore galvanically isolated from ground and from each end.

Also, if the cable is simply connected to a plastic AP, where's the flash over risk?

By all means suggest fibre for cost or practicality reasons, but lack of electrical isolation is not a disadvantage for Ethernet.

I know this is geekzone so of course the minimum spec is 100 GB/s, but if OP just wants to google part numbers in the garage, anything from CAT5 and up will suffice.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.

richms

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#3490432 13-May-2026 10:14

elpenguino:

This gets mentioned in every single thread of this type. Ethernet is transformer coupled so it's therefore galvanically isolated from ground and from each end.

Also, if the cable is simply connected to a plastic AP, where's the flash over risk?

By all means suggest fibre for cost or practicality reasons, but lack of electrical isolation is not a disadvantage for Ethernet.

I know this is geekzone so of course the minimum spec is 100 GB/s, but if OP just wants to google part numbers in the garage, anything from CAT5 and up will suffice.

The ethernet signal is transformer coupled but the centretap of that transformer is often either directly bonded to the chassis or thru some smallish capacitors for EMI reasons. The link between the 2 ends is not left floating.

Richard rich.ms

Seasport

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#3490503 13-May-2026 12:08

Thanks for all the comments guys. This is clearly something that a lot of people have done, or are wanting to do. I've decided to go with the MikroTik wireless wire solution. Like @CYaBro, I would have to run the cable, or the fiber, under my deck, under a garden, across the lawn, under another garden, into my garage and I figured this was just going to be too much work. The MikroTik is more expensive, but will save me a lot of time and avoid upsetting the wife by digging up the gardens! And I can get direct line of sight over maybe 10 to 15 meters from the house to the garage. Just bought another Eero 6+ AP for the garage. Maybe I can now stream multiple 4K videos in the garage 😀

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trig42

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#3490573 13-May-2026 13:34

Doesn't the Eero do a mesh network?

Can you put your new Eero in a house-facing window or something and see if it will mesh?

Seasport

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#3490609 13-May-2026 16:19

Yes Eero is definitely mesh and the WiFi is very fast inside the house. But the WiFi signal is so weak in the garage, I doubt whether another Eero would have worked well. Putting them in facing windows isn't feasible. But I can certainly try it out. Too late now though, I have the Mikrotik box sitting beside me 😀

snowfly

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#3490617 13-May-2026 16:49

Good to see you have a solution with the MikroTik wireless gear.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have a similar situation (house + shed), already have a working wireless bridge, and wanting to upgrade that to a fixed cable connection (shed is 90 sqm, and looking to build out a sleepout/office in 1/3 of that space).

I already have a wireless bridge setup as follows: (mostly Grandstream gear)

House: GWN7003 router + GWN7711P switch + GWN7664E AP (with SSID for house, and separate SSID for bridge to shed)
Shed: GWN7630 acting as wireless client bridge + PoE Switch (for wired devices in shed) + GWN7610 (acting as AP inside the shed)

From what has been mentioned in this thread (and others), looks like I have 3 options:

Cat6 gel outdoor cable in buried conduit out to shed - connecting house switch (GWN 7711P) with shed switch - easiest option for me, as I'm familiar with Cat6, can terminate, connect into keystone jacks in PDL plates at each end, etc
Shed has sub board (single phase), linked back to main house board (3 phase), and shed doesn't have it's own earth (that possibly may change in the future if we ever added a separate solar install on shed, and update sub board to 3 phase)
Fibre OS1 single mode
1. Cable: e.g. FSM-LCLC-30
2. Modules: LX SFP
3. Switches: GWN7721P (house with SFP) + GWN7700MP (shed with SFP)
Fibre OM3 multimode
1. Cable: e.g. FL-LCLC50-30
2. Modules: Grandstream F-MM850-550M-1.25G LC SFP
3. Switches (same as above)

And for the fibre, perhaps have LC keystone's into PDL, so I can then use shorter fibre patch leads at each end, but not familiar with this, and how delicate the fibre cables are when bending behind an open flush box / keystone and PDL plate/grid?

Out of the 3 options above, what would people recommend for a fibre novice (if wanting to install all this myself)?

Let me know if any of the above is wrong (all based on what I found online)

Thanks

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3490623 13-May-2026 16:59

snowfly:

From what has been mentioned in this thread (and others), looks like I have 3 options:

Cat6 gel outdoor cable
Fibre OS1 single mode
Fibre OM3 multimode

Forget multimode even exists.

The bend radius within the wall cavity won't cause an issue. You haven't specified which PDL gear you have. For the 600 series, I believe the part number is PDL615MKCWH to install keystone modules into the plates. This part is discontinued, but last time I needed these I was able to get clones (from Dynamix?) for a reasonable price.

snowfly

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#3490624 13-May-2026 17:08

SirHumphreyAppleby:

Forget multimode even exists.

The bend radius within the wall cavity won't cause an issue. You haven't specified which PDL gear you have. For the 600 series, I believe the part number is PDL615MKCWH to install keystone modules into the plates. This part is discontinued, but last time I needed these I was able to get clones (from Dynamix?) for a reasonable price.

Ok, so the single mode cable then, FSM-LCLC-30?

Yes PDL 600, and around the house for RJ45 I've used Dynamix FP-RJCWH RJ45 keystone clips.

What LC keystone would work for the FSM-LCLC-30 cable, something like this: https://dynamix.co.nz/fp-lcd-mm ?
And would this keystone to PDL 600 clip be the best for the LC keystone: https://dynamix.co.nz/FP-AVCWH ?

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3490639 13-May-2026 18:27

snowfly:

Ok, so the single mode cable then, FSM-LCLC-30?

Yes PDL 600, and around the house for RJ45 I've used Dynamix FP-RJCWH RJ45 keystone clips.

What LC keystone would work for the FSM-LCLC-30 cable, something like this: https://dynamix.co.nz/fp-lcd-mm ?
And would this keystone to PDL 600 clip be the best for the LC keystone: https://dynamix.co.nz/FP-AVCWH ?

The LC keystone and 600 series keystone adaptors mentioned above should work fine.

For outdoors, I would use an armored cable, even inside conduit. You don't want anything chewing through your fibre.

I can't comment on module and switch compatibility specifically. That's something you'll want to look into or for others to advise on. I've had no issue with 'Cisco' SFP(+) modules and TP-Link switches/Mellanox cards, but some brands are more picky than others.

richms

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#3490648 13-May-2026 19:05

Keystones do not really add any value to fibre. They have their place on cat-6 etc where you have a different cable on each side of them because putting a plug on solid wire always ends in tears when its to something that moves like a computer. I have them where I have a cable to a PC that I might want to disconnect at time when moving things around to clean and not have to worry about the wire hanging out of the wall being in the way like a bad old sky installation. But between switches etc its just out of the wall and into the SFP.

Richard rich.ms

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#3490811 14-May-2026 11:01

5 years ago I ran cat 5E 30m from my house to my garage.
Brought some irrigation pipe and used that to surround the Cat 5E.
Run the pipe under a cobblestone path and shallow trenched it near a fence.

Couple of proper plastic surrounds where cable goes through the walls.

0 issues in 5 years.

Runs an WiFi access point and a security camera quite happily.

Infact my whole house is Cat 5E and WiFi access points - never had the urge to upgrade it.

maxspeed

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#3491054 14-May-2026 21:26

If you plan on living there long-term and are already prepared to trench the lawn for conduit, running fiber is the Best Practice. Even if you only need 1Gbps now, you won't need to do any more earthworks if you decide to upgrade to 10Gbps in the future.

If you want to avoid digging up your garden and lawn， you can use something like the Mikrotik Wireless Wire mentioned by CYaBro, or Ubiquiti's Building-to-Building Bridge.

If you just want a simple fix, head to PB Tech and grab a roll of Outdoor Rated Cat6 to pull through the conduit. Remember to install an Eero node in the garage as a wired backhaul, this will give you the most stable experience for your mesh system.

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