[big john 1983]

Hi guys,

Just rennovating my house at the minute and am about to start networking my house with CAT6. I am going to put the patch panel and hub in the loft and distribute from there into each room.

I will mainly be distributing music and the internet around the house to my Sonos players and maybe the odd file transfer between PCs. If it makes any odds the music will be stored on a NAS.

My question is...

Can the CAT6 go near power cable? (obviously I won't run with the power cable, but innevitably they will cross at some point.

Does anyone have any advise?

[IanW]

You can do, but the risk you run is picking up interference from the power cables. Most CAT6 cables at the moment seem to be unscreened.

Ideally you would keep the cables apart as much as physically possible (not sure what is min distance). General rule of thumb is that if they MUST come together, then always cross at 90 degrees, this limits the exposure to interference.

Ian.

[SONiC_86]

As mentioned they should ideally cross. Wiring standards state that they should not run together.

Buying Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) instead of Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) would reduce potential interference.

Also if STP is a fair bit more expensive, consider Cat5 STP - it'l still do gigabit.

[vex]

Industry Standard is 2" or 5cm seperation minimum and cross at 90 degrees.

HTH

V.

[darkjunky]

Originally Posted by vex

Industry Standard is 2" or 5cm seperation minimum and cross at 90 degrees.

HTH

V.

Hi I've got a very simpliar problem whereby I want to run some CAT6 cables from upstairs to downstairs and there is a pre-existing ducting for power and heating pipes.

I assume it's unsafe to run any extra wires down this ducting? since if the CAT6 cables get to closes to the pipes it's a problem and same with the power cable? The ducting is about 8"x 3".