Hey, guys. So behind the entertainment center I've got the separation of power and speaker cabling as best I can and it's really working great. I don't have any issues with hums, noise, pops, etc. So naturally I want to cause some trouble for myself.

With the addition of our home theater PC, we now have four devices in our setup using our wireless connection. Some of them will get knocked off or slow significantly if we run the microwave (it's dead smack in the path between the router and the devices, can't change that). Also, there's times when it's just slow making connections. Now I'm not sure if that second issue is a wireless one or a provider one, but I'm leaning toward wireless as we really don't see that issue on any of the four hardwired PC's.

So with all of the background exposition out of the way, here's what I want to do. I'd like to run a network cable from our PC Den in to the garage, up to the ceiling, over to the surround speaker wiring, then down to the floor and through the wall in parallel with the speaker wiring, and then cut left to the switch while the speaker wiring heads off to the right. The total length of the parallel portion of the run is about eight or nine feet.

Do any of you guys see any issues with this? Do I need to be using a shielded Ethernet cable (I doubt the switch at either side has a grounded chassis)? I don't think there's much danger of my speaker wiring messing with the network traffic; my big fear is the Ethernet traffic inducing noise in to my surrounds.

I don't think you'll have any problem but it's hard to be sure.

In general running the wires in parallel is bad. However your speaker wire is carrying relatively high currents while the ethernet is low current. Also the ethernet wire is twisted pair which helps limit radiated emissions.

Best to test it. Can you run the ethernet next to 9-feet of exposed speaker wire to see if there cross talk issues?

If you can keep the ethernet on the opposite side of the channel created by your wall studs that should be enough separation to prevent the cross talk.

Since both are very low voltage I would think that the field generated would be insignificant and no interference should occur. Even an inch of separation should be more than enough distance if you can manage that. In the past I have run power cable on the inside of 1 inch PVC conduit and speaker wire on the outside with no problem.

Hmmm... I bet I could route the network cable a little differently in the garage and then just run parallel for the wall penetration. If a few feet is most likely ok, then those few inches probably won't matter a bit. I'll have to investigate this weekend.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate the suggestions!