Network two houses together?

I'm planning of moving over the other side of the street, (out of my mums)
but ideally would like to leave my server in the attic here. Is it legal for
me to have some ethernet cable going from roof top to roof top like
telephone cables? it's a very very quiet street...

or is it just not do-able?

On Wed, 4 May 2005 23:56:49 +0100, "mark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Is it legal for
>me to have some ethernet cable going from roof top to roof top like
>telephone cables?

almost certainly not, at least without permission. There are also
issues with potential voltage differences that usually put people off
electrically connecting different buildings.

802.11g wireless would work, directional antenna would increase
security as well as giving a better signal.

Phil
--
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Come on down !

On Thu, 05 May 2005 00:22:42 +0100, Phil Thompson wrote:

> almost certainly not, at least without permission. There are also
> issues with potential voltage differences that usually put people off
> electrically connecting different buildings.

It's more of an issue that the buildings may be fed by different phases.
Tangling with the resulting current could put you off life.

nog wrote:
> On Thu, 05 May 2005 00:22:42 +0100, Phil Thompson wrote:
>
>
>>almost certainly not, at least without permission. There are also
>>issues with potential voltage differences that usually put people off
>>electrically connecting different buildings.
>
>
> It's more of an issue that the buildings may be fed by different phases.
> Tangling with the resulting current could put you off life.

What's electricity got to do with running *ethernet* cable over the
road......the op's not planning to run the power cable across the
street...and what has "different phases" got to do with anything?

On Thu, 05 May 2005 08:23:58 +0100, Gordon
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>What's electricity got to do with running *ethernet* cable over the
>road......the op's not planning to run the power cable across the
>street...and what has "different phases" got to do with anything?

the earthing of the two ends may not be at the same potential ,
generating current flow down the network that it isn't designed for.

The phase difference means that there can be 415V difference between
the lives in two houses, so a fault condition is potentially much
worse than if two lives on the same phase became connected where there
is no voltage difference, or the 230V from one phase to earth.

Its a safety thing. People use fibre, optical isolators and the like
in these situations. Just in case a signal wire contacts a live wire.

Phil
--
spamcop.net address commissioned 18/06/04
Come on down !

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Thu, 05 May 2005 08:23:58 +0100, Gordon
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>What's electricity got to do with running *ethernet* cable over the
>>road......the op's not planning to run the power cable across the
>>street...and what has "different phases" got to do with anything?
>
>
> the earthing of the two ends may not be at the same potential ,
> generating current flow down the network that it isn't designed for.
>
> The phase difference means that there can be 415V difference between
> the lives in two houses,

Can't see how an ethernet cable would join two different live feeds......



> or the 230V from one phase to earth.

Phase to Neutral actually, if you connect phase to earth you get
infinite current!

>
> Its a safety thing. People use fibre, optical isolators and the like
> in these situations. Just in case a signal wire contacts a live wire.
>
> Phil

On Thu, 05 May 2005 09:01:04 +0100, Gordon
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Can't see how an ethernet cable would join two different live feeds......

fault condition, something cuts through adjacent data and mains
cables, fire in PC, prat sends mains down spare cores of Cat5 to power
wireless access point. All low probabiltiy stuff.

>> or the 230V from one phase to earth.
>
>Phase to Neutral actually, if you connect phase to earth you get
>infinite current!

not infinite, and I was talking voltage anway. You will also get a
very large current if you connect two phases together.

as the neutral is earther phase to neutral is effectively the same as
phase to earth.


Phil
--
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Come on down !

"Phil Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Thu, 05 May 2005 08:23:58 +0100, Gordon
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >What's electricity got to do with running *ethernet* cable over the
> >road......the op's not planning to run the power cable across the
> >street...and what has "different phases" got to do with anything?
>
> the earthing of the two ends may not be at the same potential ,
> generating current flow down the network that it isn't designed for.
>
> The phase difference means that there can be 415V difference between
> the lives in two houses, so a fault condition is potentially much
> worse than if two lives on the same phase became connected where there
> is no voltage difference, or the 230V from one phase to earth.
>
> Its a safety thing. People use fibre, optical isolators and the like
> in these situations. Just in case a signal wire contacts a live wire.
>
> Phil
> --

All ethernet cards etc have magnetics to isolate the cable from the card.
Therefore there shouldn't be any current even if the earths are just a few
volts different. In real life they may be a volt or so different though
somewhat higher during a fault condition depending on the earth system used.

I don't see any need to put mains on such a cable.

You've now got me thinking. Your standard house power meter measures
voltage and "in phase" current to work out power. Drawing power from two
phases may be a way of reducing your power bill since, for a resistive load,
the "in phase" power would likely to be lower than indicated by both
consumer meters. I wonder. How much can a 415V to 240V transformer cost?

> You've now got me thinking. Your standard house power meter measures
> voltage and "in phase" current to work out power. Drawing power from two
> phases may be a way of reducing your power bill since, for a resistive
load,
> the "in phase" power would likely to be lower than indicated by both
> consumer meters. I wonder. How much can a 415V to 240V transformer cost?

Used to be easier to put a large inductance into the circuit or strip wires
either side of the meter and use car jumper leads. Both work but are
equally naughty.

And talking of 3-phase, a few years ago, my father's welding company started
getting riduculously small electricity bills. The electricity company were
surprisingly disinterested but eventually came out and discovered that their
engineers had somehow wired up the fork-lift truck charger "backwards" so
during the day the meter ran like the clappers because of the welding kit,
and at night it ran almost as fast, but backwards, because of the forklift
charging. Bizarre but true!

Paul DS.

> as the neutral is earth
>
>
> Phil

Except in the real world neutral can/will have a potenial difference to
true earth.

Dave

--
For what we are about to balls up may common sense prevent us doing it
again
in the future!!