Running Ethernet cable in the basement

[richtes]

I saw online not to run Ethernet cable next to power lines. Prior owner drywalled the ceiling which makes things hard. Where it would be easy to run has the big service entry cable to the subpanel. 

If the power cable is on one side of an i-beam down the center of the house, can I be on the other side? The A/C failed at one point and there's a cut off 1" copper line that I think I can run through which would be the easiest way over the drywall (30 feet).

Thanks,
Rich

[TDKPE]

This is very far from my areas of expertise, assuming I have any areas of expertise in the first place, but I don't see how glacial 60 Hz electric fields could have any real effect on bullet speed MHz signals.

I've run mine right next to branch circuit and feeder cables, which are along one of the steel beams down the middle of the house in the basement, and they seem to be working just fine for the last couple of decades since I did the work.

Maybe in truly high speed, high bandwidth data center type applications it makes a difference, but for streaming movies and surfing Woodnet (
), I don't have a problem.

But there are technical type people down here who know this stuff, so listen to them.  If and when they post something.  

[Robert Adams]

It's an inductive capacitance issue when you run them parallel to AC power. Running perpendicular is not an issue. Just do your best to keep them a few inches away from each other.

         In your case the I beam will stop any issues. Running it through a copper pipe would be like having an extra shielding around the wire. 


 
         As for the AC stuff.. I have had guys ask me on a commercial wiring job what's wrong with this neutral wire in a conduit not hooked up that is showing 90v between it and ground or a hooked up neutral. That's induction at work. It's 90v but very little amps on it.

[crokett™]

If you run shielded cable you will be much better off. Many years ago I worked at an office, we had a guy who complained that network access in his office didn't work. However he would never let us in his office during working hours so we would come in after hours. For months all of our tests never found a problem, until the evening I was in there with another guy. He left to go to the rest room, the guy's network port quit working. He came back, it started working again. We retraced his steps and figured out the problem was unshielded wire running near a lighting ballast. Those lights were normally off in the evenings when we did all our testing. We moved the wire away, that fixed the problem. We did call in a work order to get his drop cable replaced with shielded.

[Scouter]

Go with Cat-6 cable, aside from higher data speeds it's made to repel some of the interference. You might also thing of running it through conduit to offer additional protection.