Home Improvement

Goatface · Sunday at 8:31 AM

has anyone ran cat6 rated for direct burial? i have looked at too many images of AI cable and reviews are all over the place. think i will need 50' from router under the house to a ground protector, then another 50' underground to the outbuilding.

BrutulTM · Sunday at 10:24 AM

If it's only 50 feet I'd put it in conduit. It won't cost that much and it will be a lot more protected. Plus if something does happen to it, you can just pull it out and replace it without digging up the yard again.

Burns · Sunday at 2:07 PM

Goatface said:
has anyone ran cat6 rated for direct burial? i have looked at too many images of AI cable and reviews are all over the place. think i will need 50' from router under the house to a ground protector, then another 50' underground to the outbuilding.

Edit: I can't remember if I went over this already in this thread, so sorry if I am repeating myself.
I looked into it some years ago and decided a wireless bridge was cheaper and easier. When you are building your house it's even easier, as you can have them run a Cat-6 out to the eave of your house for it (or do it yourself), and it's PoE, so no other wires needed.

Since the camera people at IPCamtalk recommend factory joined male connectors, if you are going to use male connectors, I used appropriate lengths from Monoprice for all Cat-6 runs. That was probably overkill and could have used female connectors for the in wall runs, then patch cables for that last few inches to the devices. It adds connection points, but they should all be protected enough not to cause issues.

The Unifi/Ubiquity bridge is very nice and can go a long way (~9 miles), as long as it has a direct line of sight. This is their equivalent current bridge listed on the site. [Edit: finding their various products can be difficult. HERE is what I am using, since it doesn't need all the features of the more expensive "pro" version. They have other bridges in their nano line as well, like here and here.] ~~They have other bridges and you might be able to find an older cheaper model, depending on how much data or devices you will be using.~~ You don't need a router at the other end, just an access point.

The recommendations I found for buried Cat6 was using conduit and underground rated wire together. Not only that, I read reports of people's systems getting fried by close lightning strikes, when nothing else was hurt, so the recommendation was to put protection at each end of the run. After reading that, I moved on to a fiberoptic run instead, which still needed conduit, but didn't have the issue with lightning. Even ordered the fiber line and part of the connectors... before seeing the wireless bridge from unifi.

Edit: Here is a dude walking through setting up the similar multi-directional disk, if you want to see how involved it is (I've used other videos of his to set up my system):

lurker · Sunday at 7:55 PM

Burren said:
Starting a garage remodel next week. Removing old epoxy (prior owner did it themselves and its awful) and having new epoxy put down with a thick clear coat on top. Fresh paint on walls. New LED lights in the ceilings. New garage doors with wall mounted motors and mostly vertical rails so they're higher up. And, a four post car storage lift on one side. Thankfully the ceilings are tall enough.
Probably going to add a mini-split or stand-alone AC unit for there too since it currently has no air system, which is pretty annoying for summers.

I'd put some version of this down before I'd epoxy a garage floor.

LINK

Lots of companies make it in different colors. Easy install, long lasting, washable.

Hatorade · Monday at 11:42 AM

Goatface said:
has anyone ran cat6 rated for direct burial? i have looked at too many images of AI cable and reviews are all over the place. think i will need 50' from router under the house to a ground protector, then another 50' underground to the outbuilding.

Yes I did it about 5 years ago and all is well, that said conduit would be the move if I ever did it again.

mkopec · Monday at 11:49 AM

Pretty much any wire you bury should be in a conduit of some kind. A pipe, PVC or conduit type flexible pipe. Its the only sensible thing to do.

Siliconemelons · 2026-05-26T15:21:23-0400

Goatface said:
has anyone ran cat6 rated for direct burial? i have looked at too many images of AI cable and reviews are all over the place. think i will need 50' from router under the house to a ground protector, then another 50' underground to the outbuilding.

BrutulTM said:
If it's only 50 feet I'd put it in conduit. It won't cost that much and it will be a lot more protected. Plus if something does happen to it, you can just pull it out and replace it without digging up the yard again.

Burns said:
Edit: I can't remember if I went over this already in this thread, so sorry if I am repeating myself.
I looked into it some years ago and decided a wireless bridge was cheaper and easier. When you are building your house it's even easier, as you can have them run a Cat-6 out to the eave of your house for it (or do it yourself), and it's PoE, so no other wires needed.

Since the camera people at IPCamtalk recommend factory joined male connectors, if you are going to use male connectors, I used appropriate lengths from Monoprice for all Cat-6 runs. That was probably overkill and could have used female connectors for the in wall runs, then patch cables for that last few inches to the devices. It adds connection points, but they should all be protected enough not to cause issues.

The Unifi/Ubiquity bridge is very nice and can go a long way (~9 miles), as long as it has a direct line of sight. This is their equivalent current bridge listed on the site. [Edit: finding their various products can be difficult. HERE is what I am using, since it doesn't need all the features of the more expensive "pro" version. They have other bridges in their nano line as well, like here and here.] ~~They have other bridges and you might be able to find an older cheaper model, depending on how much data or devices you will be using.~~ You don't need a router at the other end, just an access point.

The recommendations I found for buried Cat6 was using conduit and underground rated wire together. Not only that, I read reports of people's systems getting fried by close lightning strikes, when nothing else was hurt, so the recommendation was to put protection at each end of the run. After reading that, I moved on to a fiberoptic run instead, which still needed conduit, but didn't have the issue with lightning. Even ordered the fiber line and part of the connectors... before seeing the wireless bridge from unifi.

Edit: Here is a dude walking through setting up the similar multi-directional disk, if you want to see how involved it is (I've used other videos of his to set up my system):

I use tons of Unifi, the airmax is what to use when your not using unifi network / management stuff- the Building bridge etc. is super awesome and for unifi networks - I have a UBB and its very stable even in rain

use conduit if you can, you can rent form HD/lows a small trench digger thing.

BUT as people have mentioned... use these

Ethernet Surge Protection (Single-Port) - Ubiquiti Store

Bidirectional protection for up to 10 GbE, PoE++, and 20kA surge discharge for indoor installation.

store.ui.com

or

Ethernet Surge Protection Outdoor (20kA) - Ubiquiti Store

ESD protection for outdoor high-speed networks.

store.ui.com

or whatever brand you want- but those things are great- lightning strikes can travel far underground - a strike a few miles away can find your copper and endpoint goes poof.

these things will tripp or get burned and you replace them, and maybe re-terminate your copper

keep a few feet service loop at each end, happy dappy.

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Goatface

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BrutulTM

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Burns

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lurker

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Hatorade

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Siliconemelons

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Ethernet Surge Protection (Single-Port) - Ubiquiti Store

Ethernet Surge Protection Outdoor (20kA) - Ubiquiti Store