Long range ethernet / homepna

I've been doing some voluntary work at a local scout camp site, they have cat5 buried in the ground to link the close-together buildings together (for broadband and CCTV over IP) when they need to extend to network out to further locations they string cat 5 from tree to tree with repeaters where necessary.

They now need to look at permanently cabling up some of the further locations, they have 20-pair phone cabling in the ground and have used equipment borrowed from a telephone company to send data over the cabling, It worked very well (it should it was worth 11k ukp)

They are of course very price sensitive so are looking at perhaps homepna Ethernet bridges, is there any particular box suited to driving over long distances (250 - 300 metres) and/or is there somewhere they should be looking to pick up used kit (they haven't found anything on eBay so far!).

Thanks in advance.

Reply to
Neil
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Given that HomePNA is pretty much stillborne I doubt you're going to find much used equipment. It was an OK idea but its real market was older homes that didn't have structured cabling and wireless has pretty much killed its chances in that market and there isn't any other niche that would result in enough sales to make it worthwhile for the manufacturers to keep the stuff in production.

If you're on a tight budget you'll probably have better luck finding some used 802.11 equipment and rigging the famous "Pringles can antenna" (google that) if you can get a clear line of sight.

Reply to
J. Clarke

On 2004-08-06, Neil wrote: [snip: scouts and cat5 in trees]

If there's electronic people in the neighbourhood they could try and have them build their own optical link:

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(If they try, it would be interesting to know how you fare.)

Reply to
jpd

Thankyou for your ideas so far, keep them coming!

I should mention a couple more limitations this site has, it has no line of sight between buildings as it is full of trees and the pathways meander through them also high-evelation is also not possible as they are at the end of the runway of a small airport.

One idea I had was perhaps using a truckload of old wifi routers and configuring them as a mesh though as trees are great at asorbing signal we would need a lot of them.

Another thought is if there anywhere around that would sell old lan extension kit?

I think if we win the lottery tommorow or someone gives us a load of old ducting we'd sink fibre into the ground until then we're glad of your information and ideas!

Thanks again.

Reply to
Neil

How about T1? (Or if you are in Europe, E1).

Used T1 routers and CSU/DSU aren't so hard to find, and should run fine through your multipair phone cabling. It is only about

1.5 megabits/second, but maybe fast enough for what you want.

There has also been suggestions along the lines of running

802.11 signals through coax cable. One might need attenuators to avoid saturating the receiver, though a cable with wire loops at each end placed near the antennae might also do it.

Cheap coax has fairly high loss at 2.4GHz, but that might not be so much of a problem.

-- glen

Reply to
glen herrmannsfeldt

I'm curious--how many people have been killed due to lightning striking CAT5 cables strung from tree to tree and used to carry data?

Reply to
J. Clarke

What you are doing is a great way to get people killed if there is lightning in the area and cabling has no protectors. All protectors should be solidly grounded to AC service ground(s).

Reply to
nospam

This sounds like a great idea!

A solution and cisco practice rolled into one!

So if we get a couple of old routers from ebay we could have a solution!

Would I need NTE's to convert it from d-connector to phone pair or can I just bring the twisted pair straight to the d-connector (with help from a friendly soldering iron) ?

thanks in advance!

Reply to
Neil

Background material for this task was discussed previously in multiple posts of thread entitled "267' and no ethernet connection. Wrong cable ???" in comp.dcom.lans.ethernet on

21 Oct 2002 including this post at
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The problem solved by the telephone company to protect their switching computer is the same solution you must provide to protect transistors in that router. All incoming utility wires must connect less than 10 feet to a single point ground before entering the building. Concept is not difficult but does require care by a network installer. If not, then one building becomes the lightning rod that carries a destructive surge to earth ground - through router in other building.

There is no less expensive soluti> Thankyou for your ideas so far, keep them coming!

Reply to
w_tom

If the boxes have builtin CSU/DSUs, you don't need NTEs (=external CSU/DSU). Just wire 'em up.

Regards,

Marco.

Reply to
M.C. van den Bovenkamp

I've managed to get hold of a couple of DTE - G703 converters can I simply run the signal from the RG45 connectors over the distance or do I have to use synchronous modems?

Reply to
Neil

I have a read though the website you gave me a link to, though we can't use the optical link due to not having line-of-sight, the same circuit can be used over twisted pair.

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So this may be an option after all.

Thanks for the link!

Reply to
Neil

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Reply to
James Knott

Cisco Long reach ethernet is great little solution, unfortunatly it is out of our league price wise

Reply to
back_ache

Looking at it, I'm surprised at how low the prices are, in the US anyway. It's almost down into the range of consumer equipment.

Reply to
J. Clarke

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