In reply to a post by Sam1234:

Hello - I am hoping that some can help me.

I have a summer hose at the back of my garden, when I had this build I had a electrician run cat5 cable from the back of my main BT phone socket to the summer house. He tested the socket in the summer hose with a phone and it worked. I have now purchased a TP-Link wireless n router and want to make it work in the summer house. I have a BT smart hub connected to the master socket in my house for internet in the house. How can I get the router woring in the summer house?

Well I guess we have at least a CAT5e cable run from the house to the summerhouse which for some obscure reason is wired just as a remote phone extension. If indeed it is CAT5e cable run, then it needs to be rewired with a CAT5e socket on each end. Then we can start to provide the service you require.

To provide an internet wireless service in the summerhouse will mean a patch cable run from the socket in the house to a spare way on the router. At the other end a dedicate wireless adaptor (AP) is used with another patch cable from the summerhouse socket to the AP. Job done.

With the appropriate skills an unloved, wireless router can be configured as just an AP service.

If you want a phone extension in the summerhouse as well, then a pair of CAT5e Voice/Data Economisers will be needed plus a BT to CAT5e patch cable and a Master Line Adaptor BT to RJ45. (These items not required if it's a VoIP phone)

I do, however, have extreme doubts that the existing cable run is CAT5 and is more probably CAT3 or similar.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by funkydan:

Ask the electrician first if they can do this as they will have to disconnect the extension from the back of the main BT phone socket and attach an RJ11 plug to it.

Better an RJ45.

Cheers jchamier. Edited to correct my mistake.

And the cable should NOT be terminated in a plug. It should go to a socket.

You obviously do not understand te difference between solid infrastructure cable and multi-strand used for patch leads.

In reply to a post by MHC:

You obviously do not understand te difference between solid infrastructure cable and multi-strand used for patch leads.

And neither do we know what was installed by the electrician. Could have used a long run of patch cable. We just don't know

Well the OP says Cat5, easy enough to buy Cat5 infrastructure cable but apart from pre-made leads patch cable is not readily available.

And you can get plugs that are designed to go on infrastructure aka solid rather than stranded cable. For example

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003GSAM4C

or

https://cpc.farnell.com/tuk/pxspdy6c-10/speedy-rj45-...

Best not to admonish people for giving wrong advice when you are actually wrong yourself

A typical use would be for ceiling mounted access points where you don't want a socket and you just have the infrastructure cable sticking out a hole in the ceiling. They are also typically used with security/video cameras. again for similar reasons.

Er, not strictly true. Cat5e/Cat6 has four pairs and provided you are willing to live with 100Mbps which only requires two pais you can put both Ethernet and telephone (actually two of them) or in fact two Ethernet's down the same cable.

As nobody else has brought this up I will

Hum consumer grade router in a summer house. Unless this summer house is a "conditioned" environment, do yourself a favour and get a more appropriate access point that will survive the temperatures and humidity extremes.

Personally I would recommend the UniFi AC-Mesh as being just the ticket for this application

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-acces...

You can use it like a bog standard WiFi access point (you can ignore the mesh feature) and it's rated for -30 to 70 Celsius and 5-95% humidity. That is substantially better than the TP link router is going to be rated for which is unlikely to survive very long if this is a summer house rather than a proper garden office.

It can also be powered using PoE from the house which sidesteps a whole range of potential ground loop issues.

On a side note. Did the electrician run the CAT5 down through a separate conduit than the armoured steel power cable you’ll have had installed from the houses consumer unit? Electricians should be aware that they must do this (separate conduits) but some are bodgers. If not, you’ll likely run in to interference issues.

I’d be a bit worried if an electrician doesn’t know how to terminate a CAT5 so I’m sure it’ll be no issue getting them to swap socket out for a network plate. As he’s wired up CAT5 as a phone line then he’s likely been working on ‘new’ builds at they like to use CAT5e for phone lines rather than network socket as for some reason the modern world hasn’t caught up with the big house builders.

If it is in conduit, then you don't actually have to use SWA cable. That is only required for direct burial, though personally I would want to use SWA even if it's in a conduit. You can also get SWA Cat5e/6. I believe you can run both in the same conduit if you have fire retardant cable. Though I fail to understand the risk reduction of having the 100mm separated conduit because my spade is wider than 100mm. Besides which the SWA should be grounded so the protective equipment should kick in and Ethernet devices should be isolated to 1500V. Specifically they should not blow up, cause a fire, electrcute someone etc. if subjected to mains voltage. It has baked into the standard for as long as Ethernet has existed (so around 40 years at this point in time).

Anyway if the mains is actually SWA then it is effectively shielded so noise issues should be none existent. If you do have problems it would suggest the SWA is not properly grounded which is a fault condition that should cause it to fail inspection.

In the data centre at work power and ethernet run next to one another all the time without issue, and not just your bog standard twisted pair, but much more delicate 10/40Gbps Ethernet. and 100Gbps Omnipath on direct attach cables, without issue. It would be impossible to wire up the racks otherwise unless one switched to fibre optic for everything.

I would further add that in offices with the trunking on the walls the power and Ethernet all run parallel all the time. Usually for distances longer than your average garden too. Again without issue.

I feel an experiment coming on with an extension lead and long patch lead. Unfortunately I have a feeling I don't have any long patch leads at home and of course I am WFH at the moment.