Long range WiFi? Cat6? Getting internet from points A to B

I do most of my work at a shop on my Mother In Law's property, which is separate from the house. The house has internet, the shop has none, which I need to fix. It's a clear 260' span from building to building, with open lines of sight. A cable run would be about 320' as it would have to make a few twists and turns.

So, what's the best way to get a signal down there? Is that too long of a run for buried Cat6? Anyone have any hands-on experience with directional antennas? What's the actual hardware configuration like with the directional setups (i.e., what boxes go where)? Or is all of this just a patch and I need to just suck it up and have the cable company run a second drop to the shop? Man I don't want two internet bills on the same property, though. That just seems stupid.

Do you have any signal at all down there? I have a router I can give you that you can set up as a repeater.

No signal from the house at all. No intermediate place to plug in a bridged router anyway.

Sounds like you need to implement power over ethernet.

DIY grassroots method: http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

How is the power run out to the garage? If its underground can you fish a cable through the same conduit as the electric?

You might want to look into powerline networking adapters. Might cost a little more than some routers/cantennas, but there would be no new wires to run as you already have power out to the garage. Distance limit is 600-900 feet (200-300m). Recent specs are for 200 or 500 mbit raw speed. Works out to about 40/80 mbit usable throughput.

Derick Freese wrote: Sounds like you need to implement power over ethernet.

Separate power service. No common wiring.

Here's the property: https://maps.google.com/?ll=29.256748,-81.151017&spn=0.002253,0.003449&t=h&z=19

You can see there's great sight lines from the house to the shop. Just that one tree, basically, and a pond. It would be easy to do something line of sight.

The DIY antenna was interesting, but they lost me when they started connecting dishes to wireless cards, since I have nothing that uses outboard wireless cards.

Also, I have no idea what the latency is like over a long-distance wireless network like that. I fear the ultimate solution may be just having the cable company install another drop, but if there's something that can be done to properly utilize the signal that's already coming on the property I'd like to do it.

I'd start looking at burying fiber or I'd go wireless. Something about the low voltage & long run issues here make me nervous about lighting, ground loops, etc.

I wouldn't try wireless for that sort of range. Cat6 supposedly has a maximum allowable length of ~320 so I'd look into running a wire out there with a switch at each end. Just make sure you use the appropriate conduit or in case they make it, the appropriate type of wire.

How often do you use the internet in the shop? Any idea howuch data you use?

If you have a smart phone, it may be easiest to just use the phone as a hotspot. Even if you increase your data plan, it's probably cheaper than a second cable bill.

Get a router with screw on antennas and replace one with a large directional mounted in the attic or on the wall that faces the garage.

Either that or get a router to use as an access point with a directional facing the house.

jstand wrote: How often do you use the internet in the shop? Any idea howuch data you use? If you have a smart phone, it may be easiest to just use the phone as a hotspot. Even if you increase your data plan, it's probably cheaper than a second cable bill.

That's what I'm doing now, and I can easily max out my 10GB plan every month. We move a lot of large pieces of data around, so in order for the internet to be useful to me it needs to be pretty unrestricted.

I invented the LaserNet about 20 years ago. My friend had a working prototype, but that was as far as we got. Today, you can buy one that someone else invented and brought to market. 2 LASER transceivers communicating across open distances and bridging 2 ethernet networks with virtually 100% security. Not sure what they would cost. Our prototype might have been thirty bucks. Commercial version?

Otherwise, get a high power USB WiFi and a directional antennae, as suggested above. I have a 1 watt L-Com USB WiFi and a flat panel antennae. It does a couple hundred feet through the trees.

I think with proper router placement, a wireless link wouldn't be a problem. I've installed with omnidirectional antennae and maintained a steady connection. Any decent router that can run DD-WRT should work just fine.

Repeater and fiber. As stated before Cat6 max is around 320ft plus you have the grounding issues. I would recommend having the cable company putting a drop out there. Depending on the company it should cost you anything. I only had one drop at my house and initially purchased two cable boxes. I told them I had no way to watch cable in the bedroom and they came out it installed it for free. It's worth a shot. If not run fiber.

I don't know much about these, but I've heard that they work over much longer distances than you've got to deal with. Get a pair of 'em, spend some time configuring them, and you should be golden.

There seem to be several variants, I'll leave the detailed research to you :)

I imagine a 320 foot run with a good strong router on either end would work fine, remember that spec almost certainly has some safety factor in it and is published predominantly for commercial use, 100meters is safe max, not absolute max. Should be no problem with quality cable.

So, is that pond stocked with fish, or is it just a pond? That would be a cool thing to have on your property.

320' is just a bit too long for consumer grade wifi to work well. While the link below is probably overkill, one of these at each end will most definitely work: http://www.ubnt.com/airmax/nanostationm/

I subscribe to a wifi ISP that uses the 5ghz model and I'm currently getting signal from about 3 miles away through some trees. They may seem pricey, but once you really get into parabolic antennas, masts, and a ton of time to get them right you're way ahead with UBNT.

Derick Freese wrote: So, is that pond stocked with fish, or is it just a pond? That would be a cool thing to have on your property.

There's a few, but probably nothing big enough to be catchable. When my father in law was alive he met a local "pond guy" at a bar (he met some interesting characters at bars) who came out and "stocked" it once. Basically turned into a heron and osprey buffet.

There's a couple good sized soft shell turtles, though. And enough fish of reasonable size to attract a heron at around the same time every night. But nothing you could catch on a pole currently. Unless they're hiding really well.

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

CAT5/6 Ethernet is rated for 100 meters (328 feet). If you can bury the cable, I would run that. If you do run it, spend the extra $$ and put in a second one for backup.

Mark.

nymalo wrote: In reply to JG Pasterjak: CAT5/6 Ethernet is rated for 100 meters (328 feet). If you can bury the cable, I would run that. If you do run it, spend the extra $$ and put in a second one for backup. Mark.

You know, the easiest thing might be to just run the cable on the ground to see if it works. If yes, bury it. If no, well, you'll need the cable for something eventually.

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

Also gives an excuse to invest in a roll of cat6, bag of connectors and a good crimper, never buy overpriced cables again.

what are you using out in the shop? (laptop, or what)

large bits of data scream wired to me... but if you've got or can get your hands on router with removable antennas and can be flashed to ddwrt (think old blue linksys) you could make a repeater out of it fairly easily and build a directional antenna...

this guy seems to have the right idea for a GRMer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udF_02S79fE although prob not strong enough for your needs

anyway... for some good info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KbS42Dye5M