Jeff, any suggestions on this project

A friend of mine wants to have high speed internet access at her place on the top of a rural hill in Vermont. She has had the satellite internet geeks in to look at the situation but there is not a clear path because of some beautiful large maple trees that no one would want to cut down. They talked about getting the antenna to a clear area but they said that the run was too far for the signal.

I thought of the possibility of building a small "dog house" down in the field and placing the satellite antenna on it and then either running cat 5 cable to the house or setting up a directional wireless net to the house. I figure that it would run 2-3 K $ to do this with a power cable to the dog house etc.

Any suggestions as to equipment for a project like this and do you have any technical contacts in northern Vermont.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Ansley Sawyer

Reply to
Ansley W. Sawyer
Loading thread data ...

"Ansley W. Sawyer" hath wroth:

I think they mean running coax cable from the remote satellite dish to the RF modem. It might be possible up to about 500ft with lower loss coax. For example, instead of using the typical dual RG-6/u, use 1/2" or larger CATV coax or Heliax. See list of approved cables at:

Before I grind any numbers, how about you supplying the cable run length? Also, is the proposed location visible from the house?

Yes, that will work. I saw a phone of such a system. However, you don't really want the dog house unless you want better snow protection. It wouldn't be much of a stable platform for the big heavy (and poorly balanced) dish anyway. Hint: Don't put it in the middle of a field.

Instead, dig a hole in the ground, insert big heavy pipe (dia unknown), and fill with concrete. Mount antenna on top. Get an outdoor fiberglass or aluminium box to store the receiver/modem/router. Mount the box on the side of the pipe. Mount it high enough off the ground to keep the kids out. The local aesthetics committee may have something to say about the appearance, so be prepared to paint or camouflage the installation.

Power is going to be a problem, especially in winter where the modem box will need to be heated to prevent condensation problems. Solutions vary depending (again) upon the wire run length, which you didn't provide.

Sure, lots of suggestions. However, I need to know what you have available to work with, how far in cable feet/meters, and whether you're going to use HughesNet, WildBlue, or one of the Candian birds. I don't know anyone that does this in Vermont.

Incidentally, I think this question might be more appropriate for the various satellite internet newsgroups as the wireless component is both un-necessary and a fairly trivial part of the project.

I recall seeing a photo of such a remote satellite internet installation somewhere on the web. It was solar powered with a wireless link back to the main house which was on the wrong side of a hill. I've tried to find it again and failed. I recall reading about how the plastic indoor plants used to camouflage the dish froze and crumbled in the winter. Oops.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff,

Thank you for taking the time to think about this. I will get back to you if I get any more info.

Cheers

Ansley Sawyer

Reply to
Ansley W. Sawyer

If they said the run was too far, are they referring to over 330 feet (100 meters) or 100 Mbps ethernet with CAT5 cable?

CAT5e is good for

Reply to
nevtxjustin

If they said the run was too far, are they referring to over 330 feet (100 meters) or 100 Mbps ethernet with CAT5 cable?

CAT5e is good for just over 1,100 feet (350 meters). Now if you run 10 Mbps over CAT5, you can go even further. Or run an ethernet extender for 2 miles at 5 Mbps speeds.

Next...power requirements. PoE is out of the question to run the satellite electronics. Solar power will cost several thousand dollars. Keep in mind you have to have a solar array big enough to store up to five days of power in a short 4 hour window on a clear day.

I'd bury several hundred feet of 10 gauge 3-conductor wire (basically a long extension cord), ground the heck out of everything and power surge protect it all, then run a short wireless hop back to the cottage from the dish.

Reply to
nevtxjustin

if you need to do this and have to bury the power cable - why not put some Cat5 / co-ax down as well rather than use wireless?

remember to segregate the 2 for safety.

thin Ethernet and old 3Com kit was tested for 300m of cable, the standard supports 185m or 600 ft.

or - anyone know how far homeplug style powerline networking will go on a simple main feed?

Reply to
stephen

I realize this is way late.. but I'm using Tranzeo 900 mhz radios to broadcast a dsl signal over a half mile through trees here in Canada. I'm getting about 10 MB per second dl speeds and have no issues with it. The Tranzeo system uses POE for powering the access point that is located at the antenna. The antenna is housed in a hard plastic shell and the unit is fully water proof. There has been zero downtime on these unit for us and I am most impressed with the quality. If your nearest internet is close enough, you could get away with one radio...otherwise you can hop them from the last dsl drop on the line.

Nick.

Reply to
Nick M. Walsh

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.