First off, I'm a tech with half a century of experience in the telecom industry and more recently networks. I agree shielded cables are a waste of money for home networks. There have only been a few jobs when I used shielded Ethernet cables and that was when there was a risk of interference from machinery or radio transmitters. One thing to bear in mind is you shield at only 1 point, to avoid picking up interference. In telecom offices, there are 4 grounds, frame ground (cabinets, cable rack, etc.), power ground for DC, AC power ground and signal ground. They only meet at the common ground point for the building. You mentioned that little switch that didn't have a power ground. Well, if that's the end point and the rest of the cable, etc. is grounded at the other end, then you're fine, as you only ground at 1 point.
Correct James. In the case of using a small residential switch that operates on a AC/DC power connection you will have to bond to ground at the patch panel, if using shielded cable. The keystones of course need to be shielded as well, in order to continue the bond from the cable shield to the keystone and then the patch panel. The patch panel frame itself should then be bonded to either a RBB mounted in the rack frame OR directly using a mechanism such as our truePLUG ... www.truecable.com/products/shielded-ethernet-patch-panel-bond-ground-extension-wire-adapter-1.
Thank you! This is really helpful Don. Scenario: I have a switch with an internal AC power supply connected to the mains socket via a 3-pronged plug. Just one shielded patch cable is used to connect a shielded keystone jack (within the shielded patch panel) to the switch. In this scenario, is a bond wire required or beneficial?
Hello Jonathan! You are welcome, and I am glad you found the content useful. From what you indicated, the cable shield is bonding to ground as thus: PERMANENT CABLE CABLE SHIELD > SHIELDED KEYSTONE > SHIELDED PATCH CORD > SWITCH WITH AC PWR > OUTLET GROUND VIA POWER CORD. Considering this is a single drop, I don't think you will need to do anything more than what you proposed. Obviously, it would be helpful if the shielded patch panel itself was bonded to ground as well to increase the effectiveness of the bond path, but considering the simplistic situation you described, I think this is a good way of proceeding. It goes without saying, but be sure your AC outlets are properly grounded!
Hello. Thank you for your video on bonding and grounding patch panels. I have a small bar that goes on the wall, however my patch panel does not have a screw for placing the grounding wire on. What should I do in this case? How do I attach the grounding wire?
Hello Archibald! So, essentially, you have a shielded patch panel without a bond/ground wire attachment point nor a bond wire? I would be sure that it is actually a shielded patch panel. If it is supposed to be a shielded patch panel but lacks any ability to bond to ground, you can drill and tap a screw in and attach a bond wire that way. OR, you can purchase a new shielded patch panel. They are not terribly expensive. trueCABLE sells for $29.95. Here it is: www.truecable.com/products/patch-panel-24-port-1u-blank-modular-shielded.
What about the paint or other coatings on the patch panel and the attaching screws. Would those coatings not be a barrier to the connection ? Those outlet screws are usually pretty well coated.
Hello! You are absolutely correct. The surface should be free of any kind of paint. Paint will interfere with draining ESD to ground. All connections for bonding should be nickel plated, pure copper, tin plated, and stainless steel screws/lug nuts. I also recommend the use of No-Ox anti-oxidation conductive compound between bonding surfaces to prevent any type of electrolytic corrosion. Hope this helps!
This video may have just done a lot for me, Thank you! I had a PoE switch and a patch panel for the CCTVs I dont necessarily run all shielded cables, most are just UTP, but my rack near the patch panel is tingly and sometimes shocks me a little, so I needed to figure out how to earth or bond this. One thing I did was change everything to 3 prong, but I am not sure if my dboard is earthed. So my main question in this video is, how can I check if my socket is grounded properly, is there a device or a test I can do?
Hello and we are glad the video was useful. Yes, you do have a an issue. The tingling you feel on the rack might be common mode voltage being injected back across your communications cable or through the rack frame due to a ground loop condition also. I strongly recommend consulting a licensed electrician to make certain you don't have ground loops in your AC grounding system. Ground loops are typically induced by having more than one actual AC ground point (more than one ground rod in the same system, unequalized, we are not talking about multiple bonds to the SAME ground system). This can occur when running communications and/or power cabling between two structures with multiple (but not equalized) ground points involved as a common example. Another common example is pounding in a ground rod on your own without equalizing it to your original AC system ground.
Hello, I am trying to figure out if I need shielded cable to install some PoE security cameras. I live next to a 5kW AM radio tower, and in the past it used to interfere with the analogue TV signals in the area. I have existing 10m runs of ethernet in my roof and haven't noticed issues. For the cameras the longest run will be 50m around my perimeter fence, inside plastic conduit. Do you think I should use shielded cable in this scenario? I know it's probably a difficult question to answer, but any insight is appreciated!
Hello Nidstang! YES. You do need shielded Ethernet cable, and I further recommend you run that cable(s) through a minimum of 3/4" EMT (metallic conduit). PVC won't help, as the thin foil shielding found inside Ethernet won't be enough. Ensure the metallic conduit is bonded to ground outdoors. Pick up the EMT, bond collar for the size of the ENT, ground rod, and 10 AWG bare copper wire from Home Depot or Lowes. If the fence is metal and already grounded, then you can bond to the fence posts instead. The conduit should not be bonded to your indoor AC ground system so that any RFI or ESD discharge is directed to ground away from your home. That should do it. AM and FM radio towers are rather infamous for causing issues. Use compression connectors if you need to use more than one section of ENT conduit. Leave the ends of the conduit open-air so it can breath.
@@trueCABLE Thanks for the reply :) I live in Australia and metal conduit is only used for commercial/industrial applications, so it is very expensive. The fence it will run along is a Colorbond fence i.e. made of steel. Do you think just grounding the foil will be sufficient? What would the AM tower actually do to the cable? Is there any risk of electrical damage to the cameras/PoE switch, or will it cause lower bandwidths / packet loss? I've seen an ethernet cable with an integrated 0.4" tin coated ESD drain wire - is that an option?
@@NidstangAU Hello! I understand about the expense of the metal conduit, but it will ensure you avoid issues. From my understanding (anecdotal evidence only) the AM signal can actually shut down the communication on the Ethernet cable by causing severe packet loss depending on how close the AM transmitter is to you. I don't see how you would bond the Ethernet cable shield outdoors to your metal fence as bonding the cable shield and drain wire is done at the termination hardware (keystone jacks, patch panel, etc.). I don't have much advice apart from what I have already shared. As to your question about electrical damage to your cameras or LAN equipment, that is not likely unless the fence takes a direct lightning hit.
@@trueCABLE I wasn't planning on bonding to the steel fence, but following your tips in this video to bond the foil to my house earth! Thanks again for your advice, I appreciate it.
Hello J. Normally you would bond your patch panel to ground only if you are using a shielded patch panel with shielded Ethernet cable. That is all you really need to do for a residential setting. That said, there are times when you should bond network equipment and equipment racks to ground as well--a great example being a commercial situation. The three prong AC power supply connection for the network switches and servers themselves won't be enough in that setting. Best practice dictates (and in some local jurisdictions required by Code), that you should (or must) must bond ALL metal used for the structured cabling system to ground like metallic conduit, ladder rack, cable tray, the racks themselves, etc. This is not only for safety reasons, but also for your structured cabling system reliability.
I have a couple of questions... 1. Can you use a surge protector to your outlet from your switch since that is considered grounded ? Example: Shielded CAT6A in from multiple areas throughout the new house build to the patch panel, then to the switch plugged into the surge protector ? Also my switch will be connected to my router from my modem in the closet set up for all this, also all plugged into the surge protector. 2. How do you make your shielded ethernet grounded with the male & female plugs/ports ? do you have a video that shows that ? Thank you
Hello Cris! Good questions. First, it is a great idea to use a surge protector to plug in and protect your equipment. Second, using a surge protector does not bond your cable shield to ground; that is a separate process. The cable shield is bonded to your connection hardware and the connection hardware is then bonded to a ground path. In order to accomplish this with shielded Cat6A Ethernet cable the tool-less keystone patch panel should be shielded and so should your keystone jacks. If you are using a traditional 110 punch down patch panel than likewise it would need to be shielded. There is a bond wire present on the patch panel that would then be bonded to your rack bonding bus bar (in a commercial installation) or you will need to get creative about how to reach a properly grounded three prong outlet so you can bond to the center screw of the faceplate. This video demonstrates bonding your patch panel to an outlet in a residential setting. As for specific instructions on how to bond your cable shield to your connection hardware, it depends on what kind of connection hardware you are using. We have many videos on our channel that address termination of shielded Ethernet cable. I suggest taking a look at any of those videos. Let us know if this helps!
@@trueCABLEsome surge suppressors are designed to connect to the shielding and could relay on this instead of a local ground which is an option that has some benefits its hard to say when its most effective but when you have more then one ground you could induce current that need not be in play having a longer then ideal ground could fail to bleed off surge current from say a near lighting strike I was thinking of using a surge suppressor for this reason but at 15 dollars each not doable a patch panel really expensive but would work then I would end up with few 3 foot cables just connect a fire wall into a switch that are less then a foot apart to start with so no easy answer for this just wrapping a wire around the end of your shielded cables at the intended ground location would be an option not ideal this patch panel is really doing it propper
Hello, and thanks for your comment! We appreciate your concerns and know the challenges which is why we put out this product and the content. Bonding of Ethernet cable shields to ground has been a vexing issue for residential installations for a long time. No longer. Let us know if you have questions!
Hello Max Amps! Assuming you are talking about pounding in a separate ground rod and attaching to that, you could do that, but you risk a ground loop situation if you have any of your equipment bonded to your house AC ground at the same time. If you are asking if you can attach a bond wire from the patch panel directly to your existing house AC ground then yes, no problem. The key thing is don't do BOTH at the same time!
@@trueCABLE in my case, it's a high school campus. it's not feasible to connect at one point due to the size of my service area. how about I drive multiple ground rods 100-200 meters apart from one another?
@@maxamps45 Hello again! You can do that, but you need to equalize those ground rounds to the same potential. Typically, thick bare copper wire and exothermic welds are used for that, and everything is buried. To confirm multi-point equalization of the potentials, you will need to have a Megger or equivalent device on hand.
I am converting a 12 x 14 space in a detached garage into a workshop and plan to run six to eight cat 6a plates (four in two gang boxes with 20 amp outlets as the second and four in standalone wall terminals for future PoE cameras). I will have an 8 port PoE switch which I assume will not be three prong in a media wire box on the wall. There will be an outlet in the media wire box for the switch. If I ground the switch to the outlet in the media wire box, do I have to ground everything I plug into each of these ethernet wall jacks as well? For instance, if I plug in a PoE camera does the camera end have to be grounded as well? Everything ends up going to a sub-panel that is properly grounded to the main panel in the house by the way. I was originally going to use cat 6 until I read i needed cat 6a for PoE. Maybe i am over enginneering for such a not critical small project? I mean, until I can run ethernet from the house all the erhernet cables are ultimately going through an ethernet jack on a wifi extender!
Hello! I will answer your various questions in [ ]. "If I ground the switch to the outlet in the media wire box, do I have to ground everything I plug into each of these ethernet wall jacks as well? For instance, if I plug in a PoE camera does the camera end have to be grounded as well?" [The camera end does not need to be grounded. In this case, you want the switch end to be bonded to ground.] "Everything ends up going to a sub-panel that is properly grounded to the main panel in the house by the way." [Excellent, this is exactly how it should be done to avoid any ground loops.] I was originally going to use cat 6 until I read I needed cat 6a for PoE. Maybe I am over-engineering for such a non-critical small project? I mean, until I can run ethernet from the house all the ethernet cables are ultimately going through an ethernet jack on a wifi extender!" [Yeah, there is a lot of misinformation out there. You DO NOT need Cat6A at all for this project unless your cameras require 10G connections. Quite frankly Cat5e can handle 2.5Gb/s and our Cat5e can handle 100W PoE. What limits PoE on Ethernet is cable bundle size due to resonant heat, especially in conduit. You are nowhere near the limits of even Cat5e. When picking a cable for your project, it makes sense to have some future upgradability to be sure, but don't overkill it. The reason is that the more features a cable has, the more difficult it is to work with. Cat6 is a good balance, and still a bit overkill.] Hope I was able to help answer your questions!
@@trueCABLE It's nice to see someone else recognize CAT5 is good enough for most users. Gigabit Ethernet was designed to run up to 100M over plain CAT5, before 5e was even available. 5e is just CAT5 with tighter tolerances.
@@James_Knott Hello James. I am sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Cat5 is completely insufficient these days. In addition, TIA no longer recognizes it as a valid Category. All installations should be Cat5e or higher.
@@trueCABLE I agree plain CAT5 is obsolete, superseded by CAT5e, but it is what Gb was designed for. Incidentally, I have some plain CAT5 in my condo, installed by my cable company, back in the late 90s, when I first got a cable modem. They actually fished the cable up inside the walls, along side air ducts, etc., when they were running to coax to my "office". I supplied the CAT5 and they pulled it in with the coax. That CAT5 is now supporting Gb and carrying IPTV, though those boxes only run at 100 Mb.
Do you need to bond the patch panel if your electrical plug and connection has a ground wire? I know that in some places the electrical plugs don't have a ground wire connected to the electrical switch, but where we are every switch has a ground wire ... so in that case do you still need to do the bonding?
Hello! That is a great question. If your Ethernet switches all use 3 prong AC power cords (in other words they have AC/DC internal power supplies) AND you are using shielded patch cords from the patch panel to the switches then you do have a complete ground path. It is not the strongest or most resilient path, however. I would still add a bond to that shielded patch panel. The more bonds the better. What you have now, assuming you met my conditions above, is the bare minimum. On the flip side, if you don't have a dedicated formal telecom bonding infrastructure then you can increase your bond effectiveness with our truePLUG accessory which we just released.
@@trueCABLE "You do NOT want multiple grounds. You want multiple bonds to the SAME ground" FINALLY someone who explained this in a short but very clear way. Thank you!! It's pretty confusing all the advice floating around about loops and that ALL cables after the wall socket should be unshielded, because the computers are already grounded and thus would create a loop. I have now the following (residential) situation: fiber -> ont (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> gateway (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> patchpanel (grounded with cord) -> shielded cat6a -> wall socket -> shielded cat6a -> switch (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> NAS/workstation/desktop/printer (all AC grounded). No loop right? These are all bonds to the same ground, correct? If we add a UPS to the mix, do we also feed it the cat6a in and out or only the power cords?
@@EddieBogart Hello Erwin! I am glad you found the explanation understandable and useful. Your setup won't introduce any ground loops, all are on the same AC ground. As for using a UPS to pass-through any type of Ethernet; don't do that. The UPS may introduce its own brand of EMI and interfere with performance. Restrict UPS use to AC power only.
couple questions since I've been trying to figure out the optimal method for a while... Should you bond the other similarly and if so does that create a ground loop? If your switch is not bonded to the patch panel, does that cause more interference?
Hello and thanks for your question. A ground loop is not a risk unless you have two actual AC system grounds involved (like two different buildings with separate electrical systems), or you decided to bond to your AC system ground AND then pounded in a ground rod separately and bonded to that too (a big no-no). I think you are worried about multiple bonds to the SAME ground, and that is a good thing--not bad. The more bonds you have to the same ground, the more resilient your shielded cable installation will be. If your switch is not bonded to the patch panel/rack frame that is not a major issue, as many small residential/SOHO switches don't have the ability to bond to the patch panel/rack frame anyway. In that case, you would bond the patch panel itself to your AC ground system as shown in the video. You would not get any benefit from using shielded patch cords from the patch panel to the switch in this situation, as the bond path cuts the switch out of the equation.
Awesome videos, I appreciate the quality of information. I do have a question though, are shielded cables able to be bonded to ground through the chassis of connected devices if your switch doesn’t have a three prong plug and you don’t use a patch panel?
Hello and yes, under certain conditions that would be an effective bond for one end of the run. For example, if you have a desktop PC with a power supply that makes use of a three prong power cord (and all do) then a bond would occur there and form a path to AC ground. The ultimate effectiveness of the ground path in this situation is questionable and might not be "solid". I would not rely upon that method solely. I would bond both ends to ground just to be sure.
thanks for the video, very informative and i think i have a similar problem..... i have a radiolink to a remote remote warehouse from home, powered with an poe injector ( radiolink is at the roof ) and and injector is connected to switch at home and all devices are on the same UPS ( 10kva) . once a week (sometime a month) the radiolink disconnects even the power is on (and every device at the warehouse is unreachable) and when i unplug the poe injector and plug again the problem is gone. i checked some forums and think than i need the ground the poe or ethernet cable or something for the system to work smoothly. any ideas ?
Hello Orkun. Yes, this definitely sounds like a bond/ground issue. The key is to use shielded solid copper Ethernet cable terminated to shielded hardware and also shielded patch cords to be sure those patch cords can drain off to ground. That might not be enough, though. Oftentimes, consumer Ethernet switches use DC power adapters and therefore don't shuttle off ESD/EMI to ground. This might be the problem. The PoE injector might not have a three-prong grounding plug either, which could be a second problem on top of the first problem. The way to defeat this is to mount your cable into a toolless shielded patch panel using shielded keystone jacks or couplers. The patch panel bond wire needs to extend (and be long enough to reach) your AC ground system. The middle screw of your typical wall AC outlet is usually the best you can do. trueCABLE has an accessory and shielded patch panel combination coming up that will make this entire process much simpler and resolve many residential bonding-to-ground problems. Early August. Stay tuned!
Hello Nolan! This is a potential option too. In this case all rack mounted hardware should be bonded to the rack and then rack itself bonded to ground. That said, it requires potentially a lot more work if you don't have a RBB (rack bus bar) as you would need to remove a paint from the rack surfaces for each and every bond and you would also need more hardware to attach each bond wire to the rack. It is not sufficient that the rack mounted hardware merely makes contact with the rack itself as there is paint insulating the metal and this can result in unreliable bonding.
@@trueCABLE Half a century of experience speaking here. Signal grounds, which is what the shield is, is not connected to the cabinet. They are grounded separately. In telecom offices, you will see the ground bus is insulated from the rack.
To me, using a 10awg ground wire is kinda pointless when grounding to a receptacle like that, considering the ground wire in the electrical cable is going to be 12 or 14awg running back to the main panel and into the ground rod
Agreed. 14AWG is sufficient. I overstated the diameter in the video, thinking there may be some commercial installations where someone may try this in a commercial building and could be using 10AWG for their common AC branch circuits (240V or less). I guess the trick is knowing what the conductor gauge is behind the wall plates you plug into.
I installed in my rack a grounding bus. I pulled a 10 AWG (6 mm2) cable from my house ground to the grounding bus and a smaller cable from the grouding bus to my network switch (has a separate grouding screw). Now my whole rack is grouded through the network switch. Is this normal approach? The network switch has a metallic DIN rail mount and the DIN rail is also metallic. In the case if I install additional aquipment, it will be grouded two ways (through the the first network switch and the directly through the grounding bus).
Hello Klaus! Yes, it sounds like you are doing this correctly. I would also be sure to directly bond the rack itself to your copper bus bar. The more you bond and equalize all metal objects used in your rack and other items like metallic conduit used to support your cable to your AC ground, the better off you will be!
Isn't 10 awg (=6 mm^2) a bit too much for that application? Or it's just an American standard? I'm used to the European-Italian one, where sockets have normally a 2.5 mm^2 wires (=14 awg)
Great question Paolo. In the USA the minimum residential requirement is 14AWG for 15 amp circuits, but some homes are constructed with 12AWG and even 10AWG depending upon the circuit ampacity or the home may just be overbuilt as there are no rules preventing it. The recommendation for 10AWG is to ensure the bond wire is not smaller than the wiring used for AC ground in all situations and to give a low resistance path to AC ground up to 6 feet.
@@trueCABLE I've never seen the sockets circuit wired with a 10 awg (6mm2) here in Italy, but since in the US u have 120v that means higher currents, it's fair enough... 🤔
10 awg is ridiculous! What about the 75 feet (or more) of 14 awg ground (yes, even when the hot and neutral are 12 awg) in Romex between the outlet and main breaker panel?
Lol yes, 10AWG is way overkill. He is confusing a high voltage ground with an EMI ground. Most light fixtures have 14awg grounding their actual 120v cable. If you ever have 120V or 15Amps running through an EMI ground wire you have bigger problems than cable thickness.
what if I just need to bond one ethernet cable? I want to run shielded aerial ethernet to an outbuilding. I'm envisioning a shielded keystone jack, wrapped with the ground wire with heatshrink installed over it and then connected to the screw on the power outlet.
Hello cdogg. Good idea and pretty innovative. Be sure that one end is bonded to ground (not both) if the two structures are on different AC systems. If both buildings share the same AC system, then bond both ends the same way if you can.
lol ... the blind leading the blind 🤣 It's much simpler than that. The power supply / surge / conditioner that is powering your router, switch, etc. is going to be grounded hence the 3-prong plug because the rack mount enclosure is metal hence you only need to crimp a ring terminal to your ground wire and insert a sheet-metal screw into the rack-mount power supplies metal housing to bond it to your electrical system's ground 😉
Hello! Your solution is valid, given a certain situation with the right equipment. Our demonstration here is not only for those who possess equipment that have three-prong grounding plugs on their IT equipment but also for those who don't have that or a rack mount PDU. If there is no PDU that is rack mounted, nor equipment with three-prong AC plugs (common in residential cases), and the rack does not have an RBB (rack busbar), BUT you have a shielded patch panel that needs to be bonded to ground you would use the solution we demonstrated here. Our solution also applies to someone who has a simple 2U to 4U wall-mount rack bracket where the only piece of rack-mounted equipment is a shielded patch panel for a simple residential setup. Since releasing this video, we have introduced a much more direct solution called our truePLUG, which attaches to our shielded multimedia 24 port panel and then plugs directly into a 3 prong AC outlet, as well.
Hello and thanks for your comment. It is quite the reverse, actually. Bonding both ends is strongly recommended by BICSI and in the ANSI/TIA 607-D specifications. This increases the effectiveness of the cable shield as there will be less resistance to ground. The only time you risk an "antenna" situation is if you leave the cable shield completely unbonded, which is known as a "floating cable shield". There are (rare) times when it is required to bond one end of the cable to ground only, and that would be to avoid a ground loop.
@@trueCABLE So when terminating the ends of your run, you should still leave the ground/foil/drain wire connected to chassis of the wall plate keystone, as well as at panel. Then lifting the ground connection via a non sheilded cable at the wall plate device connection? I'm not fully clear on that.
And what about ground loops, when the ground potential on both cable ends is not equal? This is typical when using PE cable from electrical socket nearby, those potentials can drift a bit, and therefore cause continuous 50hz current flowing through cable shielding… should you therefore not bond just one side of the cable leaving the other one hanging?
@@trueCABLE I have to disagree and half a century of experience in telecom to back me up. I used to do a lot of work with DS1 (T1) connections and they were only grounded at one point. Same with Ethernet cables. Maybe you should have a word with some telecom engineers.
First off, I'm a tech with half a century of experience in the telecom industry and more recently networks. I agree shielded cables are a waste of money for home networks. There have only been a few jobs when I used shielded Ethernet cables and that was when there was a risk of interference from machinery or radio transmitters. One thing to bear in mind is you shield at only 1 point, to avoid picking up interference. In telecom offices, there are 4 grounds, frame ground (cabinets, cable rack, etc.), power ground for DC, AC power ground and signal ground. They only meet at the common ground point for the building. You mentioned that little switch that didn't have a power ground. Well, if that's the end point and the rest of the cable, etc. is grounded at the other end, then you're fine, as you only ground at 1 point.
Correct James. In the case of using a small residential switch that operates on a AC/DC power connection you will have to bond to ground at the patch panel, if using shielded cable. The keystones of course need to be shielded as well, in order to continue the bond from the cable shield to the keystone and then the patch panel. The patch panel frame itself should then be bonded to either a RBB mounted in the rack frame OR directly using a mechanism such as our truePLUG ... www.truecable.com/products/shielded-ethernet-patch-panel-bond-ground-extension-wire-adapter-1.
Thank you! This is really helpful Don. Scenario: I have a switch with an internal AC power supply connected to the mains socket via a 3-pronged plug. Just one shielded patch cable is used to connect a shielded keystone jack (within the shielded patch panel) to the switch. In this scenario, is a bond wire required or beneficial?
Hello Jonathan! You are welcome, and I am glad you found the content useful. From what you indicated, the cable shield is bonding to ground as thus: PERMANENT CABLE CABLE SHIELD > SHIELDED KEYSTONE > SHIELDED PATCH CORD > SWITCH WITH AC PWR > OUTLET GROUND VIA POWER CORD. Considering this is a single drop, I don't think you will need to do anything more than what you proposed. Obviously, it would be helpful if the shielded patch panel itself was bonded to ground as well to increase the effectiveness of the bond path, but considering the simplistic situation you described, I think this is a good way of proceeding. It goes without saying, but be sure your AC outlets are properly grounded!
Hello. Thank you for your video on bonding and grounding patch panels. I have a small bar that goes on the wall, however my patch panel does not have a screw for placing the grounding wire on. What should I do in this case? How do I attach the grounding wire?
Hello Archibald! So, essentially, you have a shielded patch panel without a bond/ground wire attachment point nor a bond wire? I would be sure that it is actually a shielded patch panel. If it is supposed to be a shielded patch panel but lacks any ability to bond to ground, you can drill and tap a screw in and attach a bond wire that way. OR, you can purchase a new shielded patch panel. They are not terribly expensive. trueCABLE sells for $29.95. Here it is: www.truecable.com/products/patch-panel-24-port-1u-blank-modular-shielded.
@@trueCABLE, Thank you so much for your response. It was very helpful.
@@archibaldsimms7440 You are welcome Archibald!
What about the paint or other coatings on the patch panel and the attaching screws. Would those coatings not be a barrier to the connection ? Those outlet screws are usually pretty well coated.
Hello! You are absolutely correct. The surface should be free of any kind of paint. Paint will interfere with draining ESD to ground. All connections for bonding should be nickel plated, pure copper, tin plated, and stainless steel screws/lug nuts. I also recommend the use of No-Ox anti-oxidation conductive compound between bonding surfaces to prevent any type of electrolytic corrosion. Hope this helps!
@@trueCABLE Thank you.
This was super helpful, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
This video may have just done a lot for me, Thank you!
I had a PoE switch and a patch panel for the CCTVs I dont necessarily run all shielded cables, most are just UTP, but my rack near the patch panel is tingly and sometimes shocks me a little, so I needed to figure out how to earth or bond this. One thing I did was change everything to 3 prong, but I am not sure if my dboard is earthed. So my main question in this video is, how can I check if my socket is grounded properly, is there a device or a test I can do?
Hello and we are glad the video was useful. Yes, you do have a an issue. The tingling you feel on the rack might be common mode voltage being injected back across your communications cable or through the rack frame due to a ground loop condition also. I strongly recommend consulting a licensed electrician to make certain you don't have ground loops in your AC grounding system. Ground loops are typically induced by having more than one actual AC ground point (more than one ground rod in the same system, unequalized, we are not talking about multiple bonds to the SAME ground system). This can occur when running communications and/or power cabling between two structures with multiple (but not equalized) ground points involved as a common example. Another common example is pounding in a ground rod on your own without equalizing it to your original AC system ground.
Hello, I am trying to figure out if I need shielded cable to install some PoE security cameras. I live next to a 5kW AM radio tower, and in the past it used to interfere with the analogue TV signals in the area. I have existing 10m runs of ethernet in my roof and haven't noticed issues. For the cameras the longest run will be 50m around my perimeter fence, inside plastic conduit. Do you think I should use shielded cable in this scenario? I know it's probably a difficult question to answer, but any insight is appreciated!
Hello Nidstang! YES. You do need shielded Ethernet cable, and I further recommend you run that cable(s) through a minimum of 3/4" EMT (metallic conduit). PVC won't help, as the thin foil shielding found inside Ethernet won't be enough. Ensure the metallic conduit is bonded to ground outdoors. Pick up the EMT, bond collar for the size of the ENT, ground rod, and 10 AWG bare copper wire from Home Depot or Lowes. If the fence is metal and already grounded, then you can bond to the fence posts instead. The conduit should not be bonded to your indoor AC ground system so that any RFI or ESD discharge is directed to ground away from your home. That should do it. AM and FM radio towers are rather infamous for causing issues. Use compression connectors if you need to use more than one section of ENT conduit. Leave the ends of the conduit open-air so it can breath.
@@trueCABLE Thanks for the reply :) I live in Australia and metal conduit is only used for commercial/industrial applications, so it is very expensive. The fence it will run along is a Colorbond fence i.e. made of steel. Do you think just grounding the foil will be sufficient? What would the AM tower actually do to the cable? Is there any risk of electrical damage to the cameras/PoE switch, or will it cause lower bandwidths / packet loss? I've seen an ethernet cable with an integrated 0.4" tin coated ESD drain wire - is that an option?
@@NidstangAU Hello! I understand about the expense of the metal conduit, but it will ensure you avoid issues. From my understanding (anecdotal evidence only) the AM signal can actually shut down the communication on the Ethernet cable by causing severe packet loss depending on how close the AM transmitter is to you. I don't see how you would bond the Ethernet cable shield outdoors to your metal fence as bonding the cable shield and drain wire is done at the termination hardware (keystone jacks, patch panel, etc.). I don't have much advice apart from what I have already shared. As to your question about electrical damage to your cameras or LAN equipment, that is not likely unless the fence takes a direct lightning hit.
@@trueCABLE I wasn't planning on bonding to the steel fence, but following your tips in this video to bond the foil to my house earth! Thanks again for your advice, I appreciate it.
@@NidstangAU Hello Nidstang! I must have misunderstood. Bonding to your indoor AC ground will work great. Best of luck on your installation!
Is this something that would only be done if you have shielded cable is there any other circumstance where we would this with network equipment
Hello J. Normally you would bond your patch panel to ground only if you are using a shielded patch panel with shielded Ethernet cable. That is all you really need to do for a residential setting. That said, there are times when you should bond network equipment and equipment racks to ground as well--a great example being a commercial situation. The three prong AC power supply connection for the network switches and servers themselves won't be enough in that setting. Best practice dictates (and in some local jurisdictions required by Code), that you should (or must) must bond ALL metal used for the structured cabling system to ground like metallic conduit, ladder rack, cable tray, the racks themselves, etc. This is not only for safety reasons, but also for your structured cabling system reliability.
I have a couple of questions...
1. Can you use a surge protector to your outlet from your switch since that is considered grounded ? Example: Shielded CAT6A in from multiple areas throughout the new house build to the patch panel, then to the switch plugged into the surge protector ? Also my switch will be connected to my router from my modem in the closet set up for all this, also all plugged into the surge protector.
2. How do you make your shielded ethernet grounded with the male & female plugs/ports ? do you have a video that shows that ?
Thank you
Hello Cris! Good questions. First, it is a great idea to use a surge protector to plug in and protect your equipment. Second, using a surge protector does not bond your cable shield to ground; that is a separate process. The cable shield is bonded to your connection hardware and the connection hardware is then bonded to a ground path. In order to accomplish this with shielded Cat6A Ethernet cable the tool-less keystone patch panel should be shielded and so should your keystone jacks. If you are using a traditional 110 punch down patch panel than likewise it would need to be shielded. There is a bond wire present on the patch panel that would then be bonded to your rack bonding bus bar (in a commercial installation) or you will need to get creative about how to reach a properly grounded three prong outlet so you can bond to the center screw of the faceplate. This video demonstrates bonding your patch panel to an outlet in a residential setting. As for specific instructions on how to bond your cable shield to your connection hardware, it depends on what kind of connection hardware you are using. We have many videos on our channel that address termination of shielded Ethernet cable. I suggest taking a look at any of those videos. Let us know if this helps!
@@trueCABLEsome surge suppressors are designed to connect to the shielding and could relay on this instead of a local ground which is an option that has some benefits its hard to say when its most effective but when you have more then one ground you could induce current that need not be in play having a longer then ideal ground could fail to bleed off surge current from say a near lighting strike I was thinking of using a surge suppressor for this reason but at 15 dollars each not doable a patch panel really expensive but would work then I would end up with few 3 foot cables just connect a fire wall into a switch that are less then a foot apart to start with so no easy answer for this just wrapping a wire around the end of your shielded cables at the intended ground location would be an option not ideal this patch panel is really doing it propper
Hello, and thanks for your comment! We appreciate your concerns and know the challenges which is why we put out this product and the content. Bonding of Ethernet cable shields to ground has been a vexing issue for residential installations for a long time. No longer. Let us know if you have questions!
can I just connect the bond wire to my ground rod that's buried straight in the ground (earth ground)?
Hello Max Amps! Assuming you are talking about pounding in a separate ground rod and attaching to that, you could do that, but you risk a ground loop situation if you have any of your equipment bonded to your house AC ground at the same time. If you are asking if you can attach a bond wire from the patch panel directly to your existing house AC ground then yes, no problem. The key thing is don't do BOTH at the same time!
@@trueCABLE in my case, it's a high school campus. it's not feasible to connect at one point due to the size of my service area. how about I drive multiple ground rods 100-200 meters apart from one another?
@@maxamps45 Hello again! You can do that, but you need to equalize those ground rounds to the same potential. Typically, thick bare copper wire and exothermic welds are used for that, and everything is buried. To confirm multi-point equalization of the potentials, you will need to have a Megger or equivalent device on hand.
I am converting a 12 x 14 space in a detached garage into a workshop and plan to run six to eight cat 6a plates (four in two gang boxes with 20 amp outlets as the second and four in standalone wall terminals for future PoE cameras). I will have an 8 port PoE switch which I assume will not be three prong in a media wire box on the wall. There will be an outlet in the media wire box for the switch. If I ground the switch to the outlet in the media wire box, do I have to ground everything I plug into each of these ethernet wall jacks as well? For instance, if I plug in a PoE camera does the camera end have to be grounded as well? Everything ends up going to a sub-panel that is properly grounded to the main panel in the house by the way.
I was originally going to use cat 6 until I read i needed cat 6a for PoE. Maybe i am over enginneering for such a not critical small project? I mean, until I can run ethernet from the house all the erhernet cables are ultimately going through an ethernet jack on a wifi extender!
Hello! I will answer your various questions in [ ]. "If I ground the switch to the outlet in the media wire box, do I have to ground everything I plug into each of these ethernet wall jacks as well? For instance, if I plug in a PoE camera does the camera end have to be grounded as well?" [The camera end does not need to be grounded. In this case, you want the switch end to be bonded to ground.] "Everything ends up going to a sub-panel that is properly grounded to the main panel in the house by the way." [Excellent, this is exactly how it should be done to avoid any ground loops.] I was originally going to use cat 6 until I read I needed cat 6a for PoE. Maybe I am over-engineering for such a non-critical small project? I mean, until I can run ethernet from the house all the ethernet cables are ultimately going through an ethernet jack on a wifi extender!" [Yeah, there is a lot of misinformation out there. You DO NOT need Cat6A at all for this project unless your cameras require 10G connections. Quite frankly Cat5e can handle 2.5Gb/s and our Cat5e can handle 100W PoE. What limits PoE on Ethernet is cable bundle size due to resonant heat, especially in conduit. You are nowhere near the limits of even Cat5e. When picking a cable for your project, it makes sense to have some future upgradability to be sure, but don't overkill it. The reason is that the more features a cable has, the more difficult it is to work with. Cat6 is a good balance, and still a bit overkill.] Hope I was able to help answer your questions!
@@trueCABLE It's nice to see someone else recognize CAT5 is good enough for most users. Gigabit Ethernet was designed to run up to 100M over plain CAT5, before 5e was even available. 5e is just CAT5 with tighter tolerances.
@@James_Knott Hello James. I am sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Cat5 is completely insufficient these days. In addition, TIA no longer recognizes it as a valid Category. All installations should be Cat5e or higher.
@@trueCABLE I agree plain CAT5 is obsolete, superseded by CAT5e, but it is what Gb was designed for. Incidentally, I have some plain CAT5 in my condo, installed by my cable company, back in the late 90s, when I first got a cable modem. They actually fished the cable up inside the walls, along side air ducts, etc., when they were running to coax to my "office". I supplied the CAT5 and they pulled it in with the coax. That CAT5 is now supporting Gb and carrying IPTV, though those boxes only run at 100 Mb.
Do you need to bond the patch panel if your electrical plug and connection has a ground wire? I know that in some places the electrical plugs don't have a ground wire connected to the electrical switch, but where we are every switch has a ground wire ... so in that case do you still need to do the bonding?
Hello! That is a great question. If your Ethernet switches all use 3 prong AC power cords (in other words they have AC/DC internal power supplies) AND you are using shielded patch cords from the patch panel to the switches then you do have a complete ground path. It is not the strongest or most resilient path, however. I would still add a bond to that shielded patch panel. The more bonds the better. What you have now, assuming you met my conditions above, is the bare minimum. On the flip side, if you don't have a dedicated formal telecom bonding infrastructure then you can increase your bond effectiveness with our truePLUG accessory which we just released.
@@trueCABLE You do not want multiple ground connections, if you create loops with them.
@@James_Knott Hello James! Correct. You do NOT want multiple grounds. You want multiple bonds to the SAME ground, however.
@@trueCABLE "You do NOT want multiple grounds. You want multiple bonds to the SAME ground" FINALLY someone who explained this in a short but very clear way. Thank you!!
It's pretty confusing all the advice floating around about loops and that ALL cables after the wall socket should be unshielded, because the computers are already grounded and thus would create a loop.
I have now the following (residential) situation: fiber -> ont (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> gateway (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> patchpanel (grounded with cord) -> shielded cat6a -> wall socket -> shielded cat6a -> switch (no AC ground) -> shielded cat6a -> NAS/workstation/desktop/printer (all AC grounded).
No loop right? These are all bonds to the same ground, correct?
If we add a UPS to the mix, do we also feed it the cat6a in and out or only the power cords?
@@EddieBogart Hello Erwin! I am glad you found the explanation understandable and useful. Your setup won't introduce any ground loops, all are on the same AC ground. As for using a UPS to pass-through any type of Ethernet; don't do that. The UPS may introduce its own brand of EMI and interfere with performance. Restrict UPS use to AC power only.
Love your videos!
Thanks Paolo! We are glad you find the videos useful.
couple questions since I've been trying to figure out the optimal method for a while...
Should you bond the other similarly and if so does that create a ground loop?
If your switch is not bonded to the patch panel, does that cause more interference?
Hello and thanks for your question. A ground loop is not a risk unless you have two actual AC system grounds involved (like two different buildings with separate electrical systems), or you decided to bond to your AC system ground AND then pounded in a ground rod separately and bonded to that too (a big no-no). I think you are worried about multiple bonds to the SAME ground, and that is a good thing--not bad. The more bonds you have to the same ground, the more resilient your shielded cable installation will be. If your switch is not bonded to the patch panel/rack frame that is not a major issue, as many small residential/SOHO switches don't have the ability to bond to the patch panel/rack frame anyway. In that case, you would bond the patch panel itself to your AC ground system as shown in the video. You would not get any benefit from using shielded patch cords from the patch panel to the switch in this situation, as the bond path cuts the switch out of the equation.
@@trueCABLE thanks for the detailed answer!
@@trueCABLE Multiple grounds, regardless of AC ground, can create a loop that acts as an antenna and picks up noise.
@@James_Knott Hello James! Correct. You do NOT want multiple grounds. You want multiple bonds to the SAME ground, however.
Awesome videos, I appreciate the quality of information. I do have a question though, are shielded cables able to be bonded to ground through the chassis of connected devices if your switch doesn’t have a three prong plug and you don’t use a patch panel?
Hello and yes, under certain conditions that would be an effective bond for one end of the run. For example, if you have a desktop PC with a power supply that makes use of a three prong power cord (and all do) then a bond would occur there and form a path to AC ground. The ultimate effectiveness of the ground path in this situation is questionable and might not be "solid". I would not rely upon that method solely. I would bond both ends to ground just to be sure.
thanks for the video, very informative and i think i have a similar problem..... i have a radiolink to a remote remote warehouse from home, powered with an poe injector ( radiolink is at the roof ) and and injector is connected to switch at home and all devices are on the same UPS ( 10kva) . once a week (sometime a month) the radiolink disconnects even the power is on (and every device at the warehouse is unreachable) and when i unplug the poe injector and plug again the problem is gone. i checked some forums and think than i need the ground the poe or ethernet cable or something for the system to work smoothly. any ideas ?
Hello Orkun. Yes, this definitely sounds like a bond/ground issue. The key is to use shielded solid copper Ethernet cable terminated to shielded hardware and also shielded patch cords to be sure those patch cords can drain off to ground. That might not be enough, though. Oftentimes, consumer Ethernet switches use DC power adapters and therefore don't shuttle off ESD/EMI to ground. This might be the problem. The PoE injector might not have a three-prong grounding plug either, which could be a second problem on top of the first problem. The way to defeat this is to mount your cable into a toolless shielded patch panel using shielded keystone jacks or couplers. The patch panel bond wire needs to extend (and be long enough to reach) your AC ground system. The middle screw of your typical wall AC outlet is usually the best you can do. trueCABLE has an accessory and shielded patch panel combination coming up that will make this entire process much simpler and resolve many residential bonding-to-ground problems. Early August. Stay tuned!
Trimming the bonding wire so that it reaches without introducing bends will keep the inductance to a minimum, too.
Thanks for passing that along RB!
Curious as to why you didn't bond to the rack and then bond the rack to ground?
Hello Nolan! This is a potential option too. In this case all rack mounted hardware should be bonded to the rack and then rack itself bonded to ground. That said, it requires potentially a lot more work if you don't have a RBB (rack bus bar) as you would need to remove a paint from the rack surfaces for each and every bond and you would also need more hardware to attach each bond wire to the rack. It is not sufficient that the rack mounted hardware merely makes contact with the rack itself as there is paint insulating the metal and this can result in unreliable bonding.
@@trueCABLE Half a century of experience speaking here. Signal grounds, which is what the shield is, is not connected to the cabinet. They are grounded separately. In telecom offices, you will see the ground bus is insulated from the rack.
To me, using a 10awg ground wire is kinda pointless when grounding to a receptacle like that, considering the ground wire in the electrical cable is going to be 12 or 14awg running back to the main panel and into the ground rod
Agreed. 14AWG is sufficient. I overstated the diameter in the video, thinking there may be some commercial installations where someone may try this in a commercial building and could be using 10AWG for their common AC branch circuits (240V or less). I guess the trick is knowing what the conductor gauge is behind the wall plates you plug into.
I installed in my rack a grounding bus. I pulled a 10 AWG (6 mm2) cable from my house ground to the grounding bus and a smaller cable from the grouding bus to my network switch (has a separate grouding screw). Now my whole rack is grouded through the network switch. Is this normal approach? The network switch has a metallic DIN rail mount and the DIN rail is also metallic. In the case if I install additional aquipment, it will be grouded two ways (through the the first network switch and the directly through the grounding bus).
Hello Klaus! Yes, it sounds like you are doing this correctly. I would also be sure to directly bond the rack itself to your copper bus bar. The more you bond and equalize all metal objects used in your rack and other items like metallic conduit used to support your cable to your AC ground, the better off you will be!
Isn't 10 awg (=6 mm^2) a bit too much for that application?
Or it's just an American standard? I'm used to the European-Italian one, where sockets have normally a 2.5 mm^2 wires (=14 awg)
Great question Paolo. In the USA the minimum residential requirement is 14AWG for 15 amp circuits, but some homes are constructed with 12AWG and even 10AWG depending upon the circuit ampacity or the home may just be overbuilt as there are no rules preventing it. The recommendation for 10AWG is to ensure the bond wire is not smaller than the wiring used for AC ground in all situations and to give a low resistance path to AC ground up to 6 feet.
@@trueCABLE I've never seen the sockets circuit wired with a 10 awg (6mm2) here in Italy, but since in the US u have 120v that means higher currents, it's fair enough... 🤔
10 awg is ridiculous! What about the 75 feet (or more) of 14 awg ground (yes, even when the hot and neutral are 12 awg) in Romex between the outlet and main breaker panel?
Lol yes, 10AWG is way overkill. He is confusing a high voltage ground with an EMI ground. Most light fixtures have 14awg grounding their actual 120v cable. If you ever have 120V or 15Amps running through an EMI ground wire you have bigger problems than cable thickness.
what if I just need to bond one ethernet cable? I want to run shielded aerial ethernet to an outbuilding. I'm envisioning a shielded keystone jack, wrapped with the ground wire with heatshrink installed over it and then connected to the screw on the power outlet.
Hello cdogg. Good idea and pretty innovative. Be sure that one end is bonded to ground (not both) if the two structures are on different AC systems. If both buildings share the same AC system, then bond both ends the same way if you can.
@@trueCABLE Sorry, ground one end only.
lol ... the blind leading the blind 🤣
It's much simpler than that. The power supply / surge / conditioner that is powering your router, switch, etc. is going to be grounded hence the 3-prong plug because the rack mount enclosure is metal hence you only need to crimp a ring terminal to your ground wire and insert a sheet-metal screw into the rack-mount power supplies metal housing to bond it to your electrical system's ground 😉
Hello! Your solution is valid, given a certain situation with the right equipment. Our demonstration here is not only for those who possess equipment that have three-prong grounding plugs on their IT equipment but also for those who don't have that or a rack mount PDU. If there is no PDU that is rack mounted, nor equipment with three-prong AC plugs (common in residential cases), and the rack does not have an RBB (rack busbar), BUT you have a shielded patch panel that needs to be bonded to ground you would use the solution we demonstrated here. Our solution also applies to someone who has a simple 2U to 4U wall-mount rack bracket where the only piece of rack-mounted equipment is a shielded patch panel for a simple residential setup. Since releasing this video, we have introduced a much more direct solution called our truePLUG, which attaches to our shielded multimedia 24 port panel and then plugs directly into a 3 prong AC outlet, as well.
Why on earth would you bond both ends? This defeats the whole purpose of the shield! Your shield is now an antenna.
Hello and thanks for your comment. It is quite the reverse, actually. Bonding both ends is strongly recommended by BICSI and in the ANSI/TIA 607-D specifications. This increases the effectiveness of the cable shield as there will be less resistance to ground. The only time you risk an "antenna" situation is if you leave the cable shield completely unbonded, which is known as a "floating cable shield". There are (rare) times when it is required to bond one end of the cable to ground only, and that would be to avoid a ground loop.
@@trueCABLE So when terminating the ends of your run, you should still leave the ground/foil/drain wire connected to chassis of the wall plate keystone, as well as at panel. Then lifting the ground connection via a non sheilded cable at the wall plate device connection? I'm not fully clear on that.
And what about ground loops, when the ground potential on both cable ends is not equal? This is typical when using PE cable from electrical socket nearby, those potentials can drift a bit, and therefore cause continuous 50hz current flowing through cable shielding… should you therefore not bond just one side of the cable leaving the other one hanging?
That is my understanding also. A ground loop will be created if you bond both ends of a shielded cable
@@trueCABLE I have to disagree and half a century of experience in telecom to back me up. I used to do a lot of work with DS1 (T1) connections and they were only grounded at one point. Same with Ethernet cables. Maybe you should have a word with some telecom engineers.