Very useful if you can get one as it allows close monitoring of nbn™ speeds to your premises. Helped us sort out an issue with our ABB speeds. Nothing guarantees a SamKnows (white box) router, only by registering and waiting will you find out if successful or not. Being on one of the 1Gb speed plans will certainly improve odds at the moment of being offered one. The box is sent from the UK so even after acceptance it can take a little bit to arrive.
Power and water yes, but I didn’t realise data cables required a cabler - understandable but tedious. Suppose small rectangular conduit along top of skirting would be OK?
It’s all in the interests of protecting the tradies. Personal safety and some might also suggest incomes.
Looking to the past standards were not so rigorous. Our 30yo phone line is loose clipped to the bearers and joists under the floor. There is no sign of conduit, and only minimal separation from the household power at several locations.
With our NBN upgrade path Fixed Wireless there is no outside cable to connect, assuming FW service is possible. The greatest risk arising from improper fixed cabling in the home is misadventure or inadvertent connection or coupling to the household 230V. The ones at greatest risk, those in the household.
I’m more curious if the fixed connection was fibre in lieu of copper. I suspect the same rules apply!
Adding on to @mark_m’s comments I am fascinated by (noting this is the text from a WIki that reflects the rule)
It’s also to preserve the integrity of the public telecommunications network by ensuring that all connected cabling meets acceptable standards.
In the PSTN days the entire home wiring loom faced the network, different from today where a cable of whatever type comes into the premises to meet with a modem. On the premises side of a modem making it illegal to run cables to ostensibly protect the external network is curious at best, although could be justified as protecting an errant cable or drill from meeting with a live electrical wire in a wall; yet it rings hollow for myself since it assumes many things, including that we are all inept and careless.
Many licensed tradies do some fairly ordinary work and nobody cares so long as they pay their annual fees, but let a homeowner transgress and it is different.
So we individuals can get licenses to DIY our own homes by taking a test, and paying an annual cost roughly the same as hiring a licensed tradie.
Sort of, if you buy a ready made ethernet cable with connectors (RJ45 ends), then no. If you run cable through the house and then add RJ45 ends/sockets, then tecnically yes. Ready made cables can be run through conduit or walls if one is careful and can come at very long sizes (up to 50m or more). It is treated no different to electricity (extension leads for power) or water (hoses).
So to do it legally, use premade ethernet cables and run these from the router to where they are needed in the home.
I am having trouble getting hold of this idea. If I make up my own ethernet cables and use them on the house side of my router what problem might any errors I make cause on the other side of the router?
Does this mean that all the cables you buy pre-made ought to be made up by a qualified person? What about organisations that have their own IT dept who walk about with huge rolls of cable a, pocket full of fittings and a crimper (or whatever it is called)? Is there any evidence that these two groups are actually qualified?
As an aside I do have a 50m run (commercially made) that works just fine, I believe the theoretical limit is actually longer.
Yeah I usually cant be bothered crimping cables, and we certainly don’t bother doing that in our server room and throughout our office (though we do have qualified cablers and electricians). If not doing PoE I’d worry about signal quality over 50m cables (even CAT6) though it’d likely be fine for uses that aren’t A/V intensive.
The protocol supports the run for compliant UTP cable to be 100 metres (328 feet) to avoid data loss in most general uses (collision detection and noise are some reasons for the limit). If a run of over 100 meters is required then active hardware such as a hub/switch or a router must be used to keep the segments to that roughly 100 metres.
Cat 5 types (I would be inclined to use 5e compliant cable as it supports 1 Gbps against 100 Mbps that Cat 5 is rated for) and Cat 6 types (both rated to 10 Gbps but if running a 10 Gbps network I would use Cat 7) can be roughly 90 metres of horizontal solid run and 5 metres of stranded patch cable between patch panel and device at each end, a little longer in total eg a metre or 2 will make little difference. So a 50 metre cable that is compliant with the cable type requirements is perfectly fine but usually a waste of cable and in a server and/or patch panel room is very untidy and space wasting. Cat 7 as it uses bandwidths up to 600 MHz to transmit data at up to 10 Gbps is very touchy about the 100 metres limit.
If you use premade ones, yes (and you can’t make your own unless you are qualified). If you plan to cut cables, install/crimp on RJ45 connectors and install sockets etc, the rules are no different to electric cables. One needs to be qualified electrician to wire a house (install wiring, circuit breakers, power points etc), but one can run an extension lead without any qualifications. The same applies to ethernet cable, where cabling qualifications are needed to legally wire a house/office with ethernet cables or make ethernet cables.
They will be qualified. Qualifications are different to that of an electrician…and an electrician needs to have cabling qualifications on top of the trade to install cabling. One also doesn’t need to be an electrician to install cable.
Thanks for that and to @phb as well. I still don’t know what terrible calamity will befall the broader network if a mistake is made with the cabling on the house side of the router though. In other words what is the supposed point of this regulation, whether it is a real threat or not?
I agree and the current requirements seem a little over the top. My own thoughts is if you do it commercially (or as part of your employment), then yes, you should have cabling qualifications to run out a LAN network. If you want to do it at home, then one should be allowed to. The risks to a homeowner is very low and no different to other handyman jobs which could be legally performed in a house (drilling a hole in the wall to mount something etc).
I suspect the regulation stems from the old days of wired telecoms when eaves dropping devices could be installed etc. Possibly also industry protectionism. I agree the risks are very low and maybe it is time for review of the regulations. An easy change would be that cable connection upstream of the modem/router must be installed by a qualified person…and that downstream for individual/own purposes, by a competent person.
A few things could be counter to the larger network operations. PoE if incorrectly connected could pass voltage larger than the permitted maximum through copper wires to as an example the FTTN hub and burn out equipment. If FTTC this could destroy the pit device that converts the data transmitted over copper to fibre optic carried data.
Data that is sent to NBN Co equipment needs to be sent in a manner that does not damage that equipment, an employee or contractor or interfere with others use of the nbn™ network. Power even while low voltage in general could cause a worker injury while they’re working in pits particularly if water is present.
So anything that connects to the nbn™ or other telecommunication systems that are external to the local home network must be certified as compliant. A cable made by a certified/manufacturing party is (should be) covered by their insurance, if not done by someone who has that public liability insurance it places a severe financial risk on the user. That’s why modems or routers and cabling that directly connect to the nbn™ and it’s equipment are to be certified as compliant eg the NBN Ready certification, modems or routers beyond that direct connection do not have to be compliant as the nbn™ network is protected by the certified device. The gateway device will sacrifice itself before allowing the internal LAN network to do damage to the WAN.
Hopefully that explains some of the risk. Who knows when a non compliant cable could be innocently plugged in to directly interact with the external network.
Not necessarily. Each Australian state has variations on the requirements for electrical work including restricted licenses for specific tasks; or requirements for competent persons for some tasks; or other/no requirements.
“Electrical work” does not include the following—
…. (d) assembling, making, modifying or repairing electrical equipment in a workplace under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 that is prescribed under a regulation for this paragraph, if that is the principal manufacturing process at the workplace, and arrangements are in place, and are detailed in written form, for ensuring that—
……
General Comments, (QA Engineers hat on)
If made in a factory, the production lines are not manned by qualified electricians or cabling technicians. That applies whether in Australia or for the 99.99% of items made somewhere in SE Asia.
Simpler items such as a compliant Cat5e cable should have the manufacturers details, specification and Australian Standard markings printed on the sheath. If not beware. If purchasing on line from OS one does the homework and takes one chances.
Working with ethernet cables isn’t electrical work.
As outlined above, they are two separate trades/functions and separate work activities.
A factory situation is quite different to a person making a ethernet/LAN cable at home or at work.
It is like power point or electrical conduit manufacturers don’t have qualified electricians manning production lines. Making a extension lead at home/work or changing a electrical lead connector plugged into mains, one needs to have the required qualifications.
But that was not the question that was being asked. It was about the assembly of pre-made cables, assumed to be mass produced, as per those sold by a local retailer
If you are able to point to the relevant section of the applicable legislation that specifies the requirements for the qualifications of those involved in the manufacture and assembly of communications cables in a factory. I can only locate requirements for standards compliance of the product and certification by the supplier.
I’ve found no specific evidence of a requirement, other than that which relates to the exemption for electrical items in general.
My apologies for misinterpretation of your reference to electrical work and the general question re pre-made cables. There’s no need to relate back to your original parallel of electrical work for house hold wiring, or my parallel suggestion that manufacturing is exempt.
Which says what in respect of the manufacture of a premade communications cable, IE such as a patch lead or 20m Cat5e cable with RJ45 ends supplied from:
A) overseas
Or
B) by an Australian manufacturer?
I found zero of relevance prescribed by that legislation to the manufacture of a cable, cables or apparatus. The product simply needs to meet the applicable standards. The reference supplied applies to the competencies for work required to install the cable. It is not the requirements for the employees at the place of manufacture.
Or is the suggestion the operator in the corner of a small manufacturer in Taiwan responsible for operation of the semi-automated RJ45 termination tooling is an Australian qualified cabler?
We are a long way from the topic.
Perhaps the original reply was sufficient?
You have looked at the wrong section. Schedule 2, Part 1, section 1.1 states competencies by a qualified person, namely:
The competency requirements are based on the requirements in the Wiring Rules within the context of the:
(i) installation and modification of cable support, earthing and termination infrastructures;
(ii) installation, maintenance and modification of communications cables and earth wires;
(iii) termination and testing of communications cables and earth wires;
(iv) creation of specific records in relation to the completion of the work referred to in paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii).
Making of a ethernet cable at home falls under modification of a communication cable. Modification as the cable has been altered from the purchased form by adding RJ45 connectors at the end of a Cat X cable.
