Not sure about legalities… Its only data.
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Ehernet is the most reliable solution. Then add a wifi router at the granny flat.
If you don’t want to go to the trouble of burying a cable then you could try a wifi mesh but it sounds like that is going to be flaky if the backyard signal is already no good. I’ve had good results with a 3 piece Orbi mesh in a multi storey brick building with internal brick walls, no ethernet.
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Also if you are running a trench. I would consider converting to fibre and back again.
It acts as a medium to lightning and surge so better if fibre is the medium between the two.
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Legally you do.
I guess you need to weigh up the risk v reward. You should ask yourself a few questions.
What are the chances of getting caught? Slim.
What are the penalties? Thousands of dollars.
What if there’s a fire and insurance won’t pay because it wasn’t installed legally? Possible.
For peace of mind, I’d get a pro to do it.
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What legal requirement is there for a registered cabler for ethernet? I’ve run stacks of cable, crimped it myself, are you telling me I have done something illegal?
It’s all low voltage cabling…
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If it’s not “permanent in nature”, that’s fine.
If you’ve buried it in conduit, run through walls, etc, it’d be hard to argue that it’s not permanent.
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That makes sense. But what legal requirement is there? Something in the BCA or council regulations perhaps?
I’m a sparky, but not licensed for the data side of things, so I’m unsure as to how it is regulated/monitored.
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I just did a google search out of curiosity. Seems that the Telecommunications Act 1997 applies, section 418 and 420. But the definitions of a “Carrier” and “customer cabling” are all aligned with large telecommunications operators such as Telstra/Optus, but possibly to private commercial ICTs systems.
So the wording seems to be aligned with commercial work generally but it’s open to interpretation I guess. No doubt back in 1997 when it was written is was a rapidly developing area with a lot of cowboy operators, so regulations were needed.
As Klawdy said earlier, hard to imagine that any private residential cabling could fall foul of that and get prosecuted but you never know. I can’t imagine that there could be an insurance problem like illegal wiring that could cause a fire, since it’s all LV.
Let’s say I get a certified pro to do it.
Then the house burns down.
The insurer wants to check who did the data cabling. What prof do I need to retain (assuming I need this for most jobs ever complete in the property)
Assuming it doesn’t go up in smoke with the house
You have to make a concrete plinth with the details etched into it, so it can’t burn down.
Nah. I’m unsure. With electrical work we lodge a COES with Energy Safe. But data, who knows?
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We needed to run WiFi to the garage and found the repeater/booster didn’t like brick walls that much.
Was going to run Ethernet cable underground but too much concrete and asphalt to disturb, could have run it in the air but Mrs Fox decreed that it would look ugly !
So I got external TCP WiFi repeaters placed on outside of house and garage ran cable from modem to one on house and then the same inside the garage.
Cost about $300 and works very well.
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So I have figured that I will have a qualified person do the cabling…
When this person does the cabling, can an electrician do the termination points irrespective of the cable?
For example. I run an ‘in wall’ HDMI cable, and it might have a male plug at each end. An electrician comes along and cuts the cable so it can be on a wall plate with a female end that I can plug into? Same with Ethernet.
The hdmi shouldn’t need to be cut. You can just get female to female wall sockets.
And yeah, data certified guys can terminate the data cables.
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Keep in mind a wifi repeater and mesh wifi is not the same thing. I’ve got a TPLINK DECO mesh and it works seamlessly 40m away through 4 brick walls.
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Mesh wifi is superlative for convenience and ease but if chasing peak performance you want stringer some sort of cat 6 ethernet to a wifi access point
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Given the plaster hasn’t gone in, it’s probably worth the effort and at most $100 to run the Ethernet cable.
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It’s a granny flat, I doubt the mother in law cares about latency issues while playing FPS.
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Yeh but every post THT has put in is basically frothing a hardwire connection
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It’s the thought of doing DIY. Then I get to buy a whole new AV set up, and everyone will say ‘oh, where are the wires and cables…?’
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