Cable selection advice needed

Sep 30, 2021
18
19
East coast
Will be running 5e soon for POE cameras. Double wide with vaulted ceilings, no attic. Planning on cable being hidden in metal soffit, behind vinyl siding, under house and up through floor to switch. Not planning on having any runs “front facing” the elements. Do I still need exterior ratted cable? If so, definitely don’t need direct burial , right?
 
Should be fine with regular 5e, I wouldn't waste money on anything else

The main killer for exterior cable is UV, which you'll I assume have none of
 
Look at Monoprice, good selection, no issues with quality that I have seen.

Yeah, been looking there per others suggesting it in other threads but I don’t seem to see any outdoor unless it’s direct burial. Could be just a newb not knowing what he is looking at…. Or they don’t have exterior (non direct burial) in stock and therefore don’t even show it??

 
Usually CMX cable is good enough for direct burial anyway, so its all direct burial. Sitting out in the sun is more harsh than being buried anyway
 
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You want indoor Cat3 cable for all your networking needs.

haha....NO! just joking
Cat5e works for camera systems in today's world. Cat6 is better only because future proof. Though I do not see cameras going 1000baseT anytime in my lifetime.
To play it safe as folks mentioned above... if the cable sees grass or sunlight, go direct burial cable that has UV protection. For my 2nd floor soffits, I did not follow my own advice, only because I know the pro's/con's. My cable is plastic stapled to the underside of the soffit/rafters. They will never see direct sunlight, rain, nor snow...however are exposed to indirect UV. I am thinking...5-20 years I may have to replace.

I did dig a 50' trench to install a 24v DC lamp post, security system PIR, Dahua 5442 IP camera, and future LPR camera...all using direct burial Cat6 inside of 1" PVC. Just takes one shovel or fence post to make your day bad if you just slap in cable without protection. And yes, you can put DC on solid core Cat6 cabling...same for security sensors.
 
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Keep in mind that 10G Ethernet doesn't support PoE, so we will probably never see cameras get there (And they would never need that much bandwidth, not for a very long time anyway)

But, multi-gig does support PoE, and you can still do 2.5G on Cat5e at 100 meters officially

Unofficially, I've run 10G over long 5e runs with no problem.
 
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