"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
om...
I'm in the awkward process of trying to get cat5 cable through my
victorian terrace (seems funny to be laying this stuff alongside
long-defunct gaslight piping). At least the drain rods I bought to
save being ripped off by emergency plumbers are finding a use in
pushing cable through dusty holes.

Anyway, I'm only planning on using the cable for telephony for now -
it's just that it seemed more sensible to lay cat5 just in case rather
then telephone cable. Anyway, bearing in mind that I'm not setting up
as an ISP I'm not sure how strictly I really need to follow the cat5
rules.

At the moment I have some points where the cat5 cable emerges into the
same double patress box as mains electricity. Is this going to cause
me problems? If it does will it only be a problem if I try to shove
several megabits of data down the cable, or will it interfere with
telephones too? I could put in separate patresses, but I'm fed up of
chiselling holes in the wall.

On a similar note there are places where the cable run through a void
will be very difficult unless I run it for a short distance alongside
a mains cable.

Finally at the moment I have cat5 cables festooned around the cellar.
I have an itching urge to clip them to the overhead joists but I know
this is a no-no and I should be using trays. Will it really make that
much difference if I clip them ever-so-gently?

It's been a while since I looked, but last time I checked the IEE wiring
regs prohibited running comms cable in the same trunking or channel as
mains wiring.

Double patress boxes are available with spaces for two single socket
outlet size plates and a separator between them, this would be an option
but you would need to route the cable separately.

Personally I wouldn't use CAT5 cable for telephones anyway, but that's
just me :-)

Ivor