Does Cat5 Cable break down over time ?

[leachim]

I run a cable from a router for around 100m outside to a caravan.

 

It has been in place for a couple years no problem.

 

Half of it is between telegraph poles and the other half is overground in a plastic water pipe.

 

Suddenly stopped receiving signal from the router, so we changed the 2 plugs on the end - no difference.

 

Then made up a connector which joins wires 1+2, 3+4, 5+6 and 7 +8 and plugged it into one end of the wire.

 

Came back to the other end and ran an ohms meter between 1+2 etc and got an average reading of 84ohms

 

Tried the same measurement on a 100m of new cable and got a reading of 17ohms.

 

What does this mean ?

 

I had a similar problem with another cable to the caravan over 2 years ago which had been in place for 2 or 3 years ????

[davethetekkie]

Is the cable rated for outdoor use? If it's not then you may find that there has been some ingress of moisture despite running it in the pipe potentially causing some oxidisation and in turn higher resistance?

[leachim]

You could be right - wasn't sure if there is a cable for outdoor use

[3s-gtech]

Solid core cable, strung between poles, will fracture over time with wind, cold and hot weather, etc. It may well be broken down inside. You'll need proper outdoor rated cable to really last.

[MattGibson]

If you do have to replace it I would go down the route of armoured cat5 which I have used several times.

 

[m25man]

Even Solid core copper can breakdown if constantly flexed, like a spoon constant bending eventually breaks the spoon.

This is generally negated by using quality catenary wires to restrict movement.

You can get stranded copper for flexible runs.

External Cat5 has a treated external sleeve to resist uVA and weather from making in brittle and cracking.

Your worse enemy is CCA.

Copper Clad Alloy.

This awful stuff will fracture has a much higher impedance and will let you down if left flapping around.

Edited April 24, 2016 by m25man

[SchoolsBroadband]

Also you shouldn't really have a cat5 cable over 85m long as it may not work at all due to signal degradation

[cpjitservices]

What about Cat6 same story I presume ?

[Boredguy]

any cable that is not externally rated with have issues over time.

 

Cat5e is fine for that distance upto 1Gb, just make sure it's external (normally in a nice thick black sleeve) and its best to put them either into a socket or patch panel as it can be a pain getting the RJ45 connector on them at times.

[Michael]

If you use internal grade cable, it'll probably last a few years in the British weather. External grade should last in the region of 50 years. It's a lot more expensive and is typically black in colour (but not always).

 

If moisture has got inside the cable, it'll create a short, which in English means no data, no IP, nothing basically.

 

Ideally (wherever possible), even when using external grade, you should bury it as much as possible in a solid conduit.