A recent storm damaged the siding of my house so I’ll have to have it replaced. The thought occurred to me to run some network cabling behind the new siding (and likely new insulation) while its all pulled off. Should I run standard riser cabling or outdoor-rated cabling if I do so?
Obviously the most ideal solution is standard in-wall but I don’t have the appetite for such a project given half the house was built in the 19th century and I know such an undertaking would involve quite a few surprises that I almost definitely lack the know-how to handle, and I’ll probably be moving in a couple of years so I don’t want to invest too much time or money into the endeavor.
Alternatively is there a good type of conduit I could run instead?
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Standard riser cable is fine if the cable won’t be exposed to sun (UV) or water. If any of the cable run is exposed to the sun then I’d use outdoor (CMX) rated cable like this: https://a.co/d/gOOUBGW
Cat6 is fine for home use - you really don’t need Cat6A. Cat6 can do 10Gbps up to 55 meters (180 feet) and it’s very rare for residential use cases to require cables longer than that.
When you terminate the cables inside, use keystones. If you have a lot of cables that go to one place, use a patch panel with keystones. Also make sure that the cable is pure copper, not CCA (copper clad aluminium).
That’s pretty much it. I personally would run conduits too while the walls are open, they’re pretty cheap and once you have them in place you can just run whatever you want and easily replace cables if needed. Maybe even add an extra conduit to expand wiring later on, but that depends on quite a few things.
If it’s not going to be exposed to the elements, it doesn’t need to be outdoor rated. In-wall riser is fine.
I would go with direct burial shielded twisted pair and coax if I were doing it, especially if it will run directly inside for termination.
