mains sockets and and network faceplates

[pja123]

I want to mount a 4 port network faceplate about 2 inches away (ideally, space an issue) from a mains double socket, is this likely to pose a problem with interference? What's the recommended distance between rj45 faceplates and mains sockets? It's unshielded twisted pair cat5e running to the faceplate.

Thanks

 

[pja123]

Anyone?

 

[plugwash]

Interference between network and mains is a non-issue, ethernet runs at frequencies way way above mains frequency.

Safety is potentially an issue, IIRC mains and network cables are supposed to be kept at least 5CM apart unless in seperate sections of a conduit/trunking system but this is frequenty ignored in practice.

 

[pja123]

Thanks Plugwash, just be clear you mean safety as in seperation being a preventable fire hazard or seperation as a means to prevent harmful (to humans???) cross frequencies.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

Thanks Plugwash, just be clear you mean safety as in seperation being a preventable fire hazard or seperation as a means to prevent harmful (to humans???) cross frequencies.

The safety aspect is more to do with mains voltage appearing on low voltage ie cat5 wiring if there is a fault. For instance if the cables conductors were to become exposed and touched each other.

 

[pja123]

A great stuff, thanks for clearing that up - nowt' to worry about then.

 

[Rutter]

Just thought I would drop a note to say, main voltages running next to Cat5e (network) cables can cause interference, in work we only cross mains cables at right angles and never run them in the same cable tray.

Clipping the network cables to the mains cables will definitely result in lots of packet loss and slower connection speeds.

Saying that this really should only really bother you if you are expecting to use the network heavily, but if your only doing a bit of browsing the web shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[pja123]

Hi,

It's all in now, network seems to be working fine - i haven't noted any drastic packet loss (in laymans terms of speed), how much would you expect to lose, can you substantiate/quantify e.g 50%, 30% ? What would you recommend as a comprehensive test that i could perform?

Part of the network (2 of the 4 runs to each room) will be segmented for hi-def visual/audio data using baluns, how much interference is within acceptable limits, in terms of bandwidth/throughput?