water in the cat5

[four4875]

im having some difficulties at work recently. with the wireles ISP, we have had 2 clients in the last few days that have gone down from water getting into the cat5 run to the roof and corroding the plugs and insides of POE injectors (one was a linksys POE setup for a wet11 and the other a home made POE injector for a senao CB3) and im wondering how te water is getting into the cable. is it somehow penetrating the outer plastic? i would tihnk that if it was coming in through the other end up by thr equipment on the roof or tower it would cause that equipment to get wet as well. but its just coming down the inside of the cat5 and running out into the POE injectors.

could it be because its regular cat5 cable being exposed to the elements instead of using cable designed for outdoor installs? should the cable be relaced? how would we go about sealig up the plugs on the cable to prevent water from getting in and out?

thanks for the advice

 

[JDXNC]

I personally would replace the cable with outdoor cable, its hardly any pricier, at least around here. I have a few runs outside using th outdoor stuff from Reno Depot and have never had any problems with it. Maybe you could seal the ends up with some silicone as well to make sure its water tight.

 

[Ddruid_SMP]

could it be because its regular cat5 cable being exposed to the elements instead of using cable designed for outdoor installs?

Yes the indoor cat5 will not last long outside if exposed. The normal PVC jacket will allow water to seep into the cable, once it is there it will 'wick' and draw more water in..

should the cable be relaced?

Yes

how would we go about sealig up the plugs on the cable to prevent water from getting in and out?

Purchase outdoor rated cable that is gel-filled, this will keep water out of the cable.

 

[four4875]

pooey.... this means that.... about 60 runs of cat5 should be replaced sometime.

gotta love fixing other peoples penny pinching shortcuts. i guess ill have to convince the boss to get some outdoor rated cat5.

thanks for the input guys

 

[nebben]

water leads to corrosion (and fast), which leads to data corruption and a slow-down overall if not a complete breakdown.

Sorry for the lateness- I just had to add my .02

-ben

 

[Diggrr]

If it's in an office building, I'd look more closely at the path the cable takes through the building, and the type of cable used before replacing it.

They are correct that normal indoor cable will disintegrate out in the weather, but the type of cable used is important. If the cable passes through a plenum ceiling, it must be plenum rated cable (a plenum ceiling is part of the airduct system for heating/cooling..there will be vents in the ceiling panels that don't have ducts connected to them). Non plenum rated cable is illegal to install in these spaces as it emits poison gas when burned in a fire, so it gets recirculated by the hvac system, exposing the whole building--bad.

Now the fun part, there's no outdoor rated cable with a plenum rating that I know of, so you either have to find a way to connect the two types together and use them where appropriate, or use a pvc conduit with an enclosure on the roof, so the wire is protected from the elements.
You could use all outdor rated cable, but use conduit on the cable where it passes through the plenum ceiling...again the pvc conduit is fine.

It's not cheap or fun, but you won't get sued or have a fire inspector forcing you to remove your network alltogether (while he issues a fat fine).

 

[four4875]

well... im not sure of the plenum stuff, but i know its just cheap cat5e that is run. and water does lead to lots of problems. suprisingly, the commercially made cable we had a problem with drained in ALOT more water than one that we (the company) crimped. it actuallt had water run out of it when the end was cut off. the one we made was just enough to corrode the crap out of the plug and the socket on the poe injector. the commercially made one was enough to have standing water in the linksys wet11 injector, corroding away the solder on ll of the components n the board and pretty much making it useless. i guess i could go and resolder everything and put in a new RJ45 jack but it would take ALOT of work and mending of the traces that arent there cus the copper corroded away.

 

[JDXNC]

There's a wireless ISP supposed to be setting up in our area, when they come to do the install at my place I will be paying close attention to what they use for cable, I won't stand for normal PVC outside I see here what can and has happened.

 

[four4875]

hey when they install find out what equipment they usin :-D

and on the install, mke sure you agree with where they put the antenna, that it isnt sloppily mounted and dont cause damage to the structure in which its attached. make sure its all tight and wont move in wind and snow and ice and stuff. if it gets moved could cause issues with loss of signal lol.

 

[JDXNC]

They are using Motorola Conopy hardware: http://xplornet.com/e/4000/4003e.asp

I talked to a rep and they also allow self installation. I know networking very well, and I have also installed and setup several satelite dishes, it can't be any more difficult than that.

 

[Diggrr]

Yeah, if you're getting that much water in it, I'd put the wire in pvc conduit and the box in a weatherproof enclosure, no matter what kind of wire it was. Lowe's has some nice enclosures on the shelf that are actually watertight (I used one for a watercooling reservior) and is pretty inexpensive. I don't know what size your equipment is, I'm a cabling guy, not a hardware guy...

And yeah, pay close attention to installers. My neighbor's DirecTV installer actually tossed two cables up and over the roof diagonally to reach the other side of the house!...what a chump!!!.

 

[four4875]

we are putting the equipment in weatherproof enclosures, which is whats got me stumped. the equipment up on the tower / roof / wherever is perfectly dry. but water still coming in through the cable

and the setup isnt hard at all for a directional antenna. just sucks when you're 4 miles out in the country and cant get a visual on the transmitter due to that line of trees a couple hundred yards away, then you have to go off of signal and with just like a wet11 its hard to do. thankfully i always have the laptop up there with me for that purpose.

at times i wish we were using sometihng like the canopy stuff instead of just 802.11B... would make it much easier at times, sometimes customers randomly pick up the netgear or linksys down the road and get connected to it instead of our APs. but then again maybe this is a good thing, less use of OUR bandwidth haha...

 

[JDXNC]

You're getting 4 miles on 802.11B???? Hmmmm, I could use some of your techniques to beat the WISP here At least to get myself broadband!

Please share some info!

 

[four4875]

well.. alot of the info on our setup is in this thread... http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=377369

and anything else you wanna know PM me or ask here.. or aim and yahoo, i gave ya the sns in pm lol.

 

[Diggrr]

we are putting the equipment in weatherproof enclosures, which is whats got me stumped. the equipment up on the tower / roof / wherever is perfectly dry. but water still coming in through the cable

Then your cable jacket is likely cracking due to UV exposure and/or temp extremes.

I gotta go check that link. One of these days I'll get DSL wether SBC is willing or not.

 

[darkknight187]

thats odd i didnt even know that there was such differences like outdoor rated cat5.....hell i have a long run that goes out my window down through the basement and up into the room with the other pc dsl modem and router....2years of pa weather and still running like a champ and it was only like the 15$ for 100ft from newegg stuff.

 

[Diggrr]

Yeah, they may have used plenum rated cable. It's made of teflon mostly and can't take UV light for beans. It fades fast, cracks in the light, and even cracks in your hands just taking it off the spool when it's below freezing.

There are regular indoor types that do about the same thing in the cold weather. The temp rating is usually stamped right on the jacket or the box.

Graybar sent us some Cat3 last January that wasn't supposed to be installed below 32F...that junk cracked at every staple, and I had to go back and reinstall 2 homes for free. Not what you'd expect from "thinking" people.