Long distance link. 2

[petermeachem]

My customer has a adsl router in the farm office and would really like to be able to use it where he lives which is a barn 800m away in the middle of a field. What are the options? As far as I have been able to find out, they are either fibre or wireless. I'm not terribly keen on either, particularly the first.

http://www.accuflight.com

http://www.lettersdirect.co.uk

http://www.ourhouseinportugal.co.uk/

 

[bcastner]

Use powerline adapters:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030108S0003

 

[petermeachem]

Well deserved star for that. I'm not sure how the farm wiring is arranged, they may have a 3 phase supply and so the two buildings might be on a different phase, will check.

Thanks very much.

http://www.accuflight.com

http://www.lettersdirect.co.uk

http://www.ourhouseinportugal.co.uk/

 

[bcastner]

It injects the signal on all three phases.

 

[AvayaNovice]

I'm not sure if that scenario would work, depending on the power layout. Chances are you have a service feed going to both, rather than a subpanel feeding off of either... in which case you would run into a problem if they hit a transformer.

800M away is also of significant difficulty... do you have conduit in place to link the two?

If so... you may want to try to pull in a category 3 or higher drop between the two, place a protector on BOTH sides, adequetely grounded to meet requirements for your area, and then try a point to point DSL solution, Paradyne makes several products that will meet those needs, and there are a few documents available on the web describing how to use Efficient (aka flowpoint) SDSL bridges to communicate point to point.

If the power solution works, that would be super -- and go that route, much easier.

Fiber would be a challenge, although you could buy a preterminated cable to spare you the expense of termination... you'd need to pull it within tension specs, and also use a special pulling eye/sock combination to protect the preterminated connectors.

 

[jimbopalmer]

http://www.tutsys.com/mtu/products/lanextension/index.cfm

is another choice

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[bcastner]

AvayNovice makes a good point: the current standards for powerline are at 300 meters; the new standard (you cannot yet but the stuff) is 4.5 miles at 120 mbs. You cannot without repeaters run 800m with anything other than fiber. If you allow for a repeater somewhere, then all options are open to you.

This in fact may be a good case for wireless. If you have a clear line of site between the buildings, then a wireless bridge is certainly possible over these distances, and would be significantly cheaper than any cabled solution.

As an example, you could purchase off the shelf Access Points from Linksys or others, and aim sector or yagi antennas for a point-to-point bridge.

I would give the powerline adapters a chance. I have never used them at this distance, but if any feeds are on the same side of the transformer it may well work well. Otherwise, wireless bridging would be the only alternative. You certainly do not want to run 800m of a new cable run, but AvayaNovice above makes a good point: Is there an existing conduit or cable run between the buildings? Even a phone line (direct) between the two offers interesting possibilities. If there is no connection at all between the buildings:

. test powerline
. use wireless bridging

 

[AvayaNovice]

Definetely a good idea, a point to point wireless solution, if line of site is available, would be a very easy setup.

The cheapest would be the point to point DSL solution probably... but would be more difficult, and that would really depend on your telephone setup.

I'd go with bcastner's point to point route if at all possible, wireless setups are very reliable these days... and as a technician in the CATV industry, microwave setups over hundreds of miles have gotten our feeds to distant communities... 800M is a piece of cake!

 

[bcastner]

AvayaNovice is on point. 800m is the problem, and as Avaya suggested, I would now learn towards a point-to-point wireless bridge. A cable run this far is to expensive. If you have line of site between point A and point B, you have a great case for a wireless bridge.

If it helps, without doing anything fancy other than specifying access points with removable antennas, and capable of bridge mode, I have shot reliably much farther than 800m.

The pure cheap solution: watch E-Bay for Linksys WAP11 sales. Buy two for around US $20. Upgrade the firmware. Bridge the devices with yagi antennas: for that distance you do not need anything fancy.

My best wishes to AvayNovice. Good advice, sir.

 

[petermeachem]

I shall be seeing the farmer tomorrow so we can have a think about it. Running a cable is a no-no. It would have to go across the farmyard first and then down a track. There might be a spare telephone cable run down there, not sure. I'm not sure about direct wireless line of sight, the farm office (where the dsl is) is a single story building. There is, however a whacking great tall barn between the two. I'll see what he says.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

http://www.accuflight.com

http://www.lettersdirect.co.uk

http://www.ourhouseinportugal.co.uk/