Extremely long LAN connection?
 

I want to network two parts of a farm together - the farmhouse and an outbuilding. They are about 300yds apart as a crow would fly, and the building is about 200 feet above the farmhouse. It's not line of sight either :( On the point to point line between them there is a field that can't have any wires across it.

So how can I put them on to the same LAN, and at a reasonable price?

One suggestion is to broadband the building (which is feasible) and use the existing broadband in the farmhouse and use VPN technology - £20 pcm extra for the BB in the building and I don't know the cost of cheap (but secure) VPN software, but seems an expensive option

Much too far for just a length of Cat 5..can you get (solar-powered) Cat 5 'repeaters'?

What about N (or pre-N) wireless? Would it go that far? And would the lack of LOOS make it infeasible anyway?

Any other ideas...
TIA, Martin

VPN can be done for free (or very little) depending on hif you have a few old pcs kicking around.

BUT - As both ADSL lines will have 256K Upload - That is allyou will get between them. And if you're running that flat out then you wont get much else out of the DSL at either end. Surfing from either building would slow to a crawl as soon as you tried to copy a file between buildings for example.

How far away from line of sight are they ? - You can get directional wireless aerials that should do the distance. Could they be mounted on large poles on the buildings and get the line of sight ? Wont be cheap though.

For Example....
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop...?ProductID=619

How about pre-terminated multi-mode fibre which provides support for transmissions upto 2km. Although you would need a suitable device (switch or network card) at each end. Would need suitable containment to protect the fibre against damage along its route where necessary.

I'd second the optical fibre idea. I have a customer with a campus type layout & each building is connected along a fibre backbone. If you build in some spare fibre capacity, you can also use it for phones. You can get a fibre to UTP converter box which may be suitable for you as you woudn't need expensive switches.

deffo fibre, can be bought reasonably cheap.. you can buy it preterminated from places such as Minitran, or speak to Tony Booth on here, who is a director at The Weston Group.

You could then simply buy some cheap switches with fibre ports, or just use fibre transceivers on existing kit.

David

Cheers Dave :)

Fibre would be the most resiliant and offer the best performance bar none. As you mention it is on a farm the fibre optic cable (50 micron) would need to be rodent proof which involves a layer of glass aramid yarn under the outer jacket. You would need a media convertor at each end to convert fibre back to copper and just a basic 4 port switch at each end would suffice.

The second option is wireless. There are some fantastic wireless products available now and I don't mean Linksys, Netgear or D-Link which IMHO are a waste of money.

Finally if it's available in your area SDSL which is like a souped up Broadband as it gives the same upload speed as download. Set up is not cheap though and BT have currently suspended it's roll out due to low take up.

PM me if you want to know anything else

Cheers

TONY