I've got a customer who has an office building next to his business. His previous IT/CG person got him 300' pre-terminated CAT5e indoor patch cable to run between the building. Obviously not the best situation. I informed the customer that the jacket on the cable will break down from UV and weather and he'll have no network connectivity until the wire is replaced. He has business cable internet installed at his office, with a network connection to his business that has point of sale computers and security system.

So I'd like to install a more permanent aerial, outdoor grade, UV/weather resistant CAT5e cable. I say aerial because there is a paved driveway between the two buildings and it would be expensive to dig up to put in conduit. Customer does not want to go the conduit route. Plus winter is almost here and most of the asphalt plants have shut down or are shutting down.

The distance between the two buildings is pretty short, 50 to 70ft. Wire goes down the side of the business and into the basement. On the office side, it goes into a garage, and then into his office. See picture below. Red dots are where the existing wire is run from building to building, green dots are the entrance into the building.

Should I put up a guide wire, and then attach the CAT5e to it, or should I get CAT5e with an embedded steel leader (if such a thing exists) to hang the cable between the two buildings? Also a source for this cable would be great.

I also discussed with the customer about installing fiber optic cable between the two buildings. Obvious advantage is electrical isolation, no ground potential issues, lightning protection, etc. Unfortunately I have limited experience with fiber (I terminated some SC multimode in college several years ago). Unless terminating fiber has gotten cheaper or easier to do, I know someone who has terminated a bit of fiber, so I could hire him to do the termination.

Thanks for the advice.

[Linked Image from lh3.ggpht.com]