# Wireless antenna/router and repeaters ?



## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Hi, I am new to the computer forum here, and I have a computer related question...
my neighbors about 700 feet away just got satellite internet, and are willing to let me connect if I can find (and or afford) the equipment neccesary...
I know it involves routers, repeaters, and antennas, but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the new info. Can anyone set me straight as to what equipment would make getting wireless signal from that far away possible? I have a 'somewhat' line-of-site in the winter, but in the summer, its all trees and leaves for most of that 700 feet. They do have an outbuilding that I can see a little better from my house, regardless of season, so maybe a repeater could be installed there? Any info would be great! Thanks,

greg


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Hawking Technology - sells high power outdoor antennas and all the gear you'd need - lots of info. on their website regarding "point-to-point" wireless - which is what you'd need. You're not going to make it through 700 feet of heavy trees - you may have to run cable from the neighbors house to the outbuilding, and install the antenna and access point/bridge there. Email or call Hawking, they'll most likely answer all your questions.

It also may be possible to actually use "direct burial ethernet cable" with POE (power over ethernet) repeaters/extenders. A trencher, 1000 feet of direct burial cat5 cable, a POE ethernet repeater/extender (perhaps more than one) and some type of POE injector (switch or seperate supply). If there is an easy path to bury the wire, do a web search for "ethernet extender" or "ethernet wired repeater" - and contact some of the manufacturers.

How much would it cost? I'm *guessing* between $700 and $1000



greg273 said:


> Hi, I am new to the computer forum here, and I have a computer related question...
> my neighbors about 700 feet away just got satellite internet, and are willing to let me connect if I can find (and or afford) the equipment neccesary...
> I know it involves routers, repeaters, and antennas, but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the new info. Can anyone set me straight as to what equipment would make getting wireless signal from that far away possible? I have a 'somewhat' line-of-site in the winter, but in the summer, its all trees and leaves for most of that 700 feet. They do have an outbuilding that I can see a little better from my house, regardless of season, so maybe a repeater could be installed there? Any info would be great! Thanks,
> 
> greg


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

OntarioMan said:


> Hawking Technology - sells high power outdoor antennas and all the gear you'd need - lots of info. on their website regarding "point-to-point" wireless - which is what you'd need. You're not going to make it through 700 feet of heavy trees - you may have to run cable from the neighbors house to the outbuilding, and install the antenna and access point/bridge there. Email or call Hawking, they'll most likely answer all your questions.
> 
> It also may be possible to actually use "direct burial ethernet cable" with POE (power over ethernet) repeaters/extenders. A trencher, 1000 feet of direct burial cat5 cable, a POE ethernet repeater/extender (perhaps more than one) and some type of POE injector (switch or seperate supply). If there is an easy path to bury the wire, do a web search for "ethernet extender" or "ethernet wired repeater" - and contact some of the manufacturers.
> 
> How much would it cost? I'm *guessing* between $700 and $1000


 Thanks for the reply. I was guessing I'd need at LEAST $500 worth of equipment to make this happen. I'l check the places you mentioned.


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## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

That's a pretty spendy option. Check out all you options, BlueSky satellite internet can in installed for $250. But you'd still have the montly fee of course.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

OntarioMan said:


> 1000 feet of direct burial cat5 cable, a POE ethernet repeater/extender (perhaps more than one) and some type of POE injector (switch or seperate supply). If there is an easy path to bury the wire, do a web search for "ethernet extender" or "ethernet wired repeater" - and contact some of the manufacturers.


Just make sure it's Cat 5e, not Cat 5. Cat 5 is only good for 100 meters (about 300 feet). Cat 5e is good for 1/4 mile. You can make the run with no repeaters if you simply use Cat 5e. 

Cost: Just the cost of the Cat 5e cable, and the hubs of course.

If you can't find direct burial cable in your area get standard Cat 5e and bury it in PVC conduit. However, it will cost less and be less work of you look at eBay for direct burial cable.

By the way, if you don't pin the connectors properly you won't get more than about 50 feet before losing signal. You will need to use one of the following pinning schemes.










You will use either T-568A or T-568B, and whichever you select you will use the same on both ends. In other words, either do both ends with T-568A or do both ends with T-568B.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

1300 feet out of Cat5e? 

I don't believe there is any difference in maximum cable length between Cat5, Cat5e, or even Cat6 - still 100m (328 feet). 



Nevada said:


> Just make sure it's Cat 5e, not Cat 5. Cat 5 is only good for 100 meters (about 300 feet). Cat 5e is good for 1/4 mile. You can make the run with no repeaters if you simply use Cat 5e.
> 
> Cost: Just the cost of the Cat 5e cable, and the hubs of course.
> 
> ...


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

OntarioMan said:


> 1300 feet out of Cat5e?
> 
> I don't believe there is any difference in maximum cable length between Cat5, Cat5e, or even Cat6 - still 100m (328 feet).


That was my understanding too, but in the following thread Gary in Ohio corrected me.

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=220928

Note that what I said in post #8 agrees with you, but upon further research I ate those words in post #11. 

By the way, Cat 5e won't reach quite 1300' but it is rated at 350 meters, which is about 1150'.

******
_Cat 5e is an enhanced version of Cat 5 for use with 1000BASE-T (gigabit) networks and for long-distance 100 Base-T links (350 meters, compared with 100 meters for Cat 5)._
http://www.linfo.org/cat_5.html


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

I think the website you quoted is incorrect.

wikipedia "Cat 5e cable does not enable longer cable distances for Ethernet networks: cables are still limited to a maximum of 328 ft (100 m) in length".



Nevada said:


> That was my understanding too, but in the following thread Gary in Ohio corrected me.
> 
> http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=220928
> 
> ...


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Dulicate Post


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

OntarioMan said:


> I think the website you quoted is incorrect.
> 
> wikipedia "Cat 5e cable does not enable longer cable distances for Ethernet networks: cables are still limited to a maximum of 328 ft (100 m) in length".


Wikipedia is not authoritative. Try Googing for it. You'll find references from all over.

http://www.google.com/search?q=category+5e+"350+meters"&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS231US231&start=0&sa=N


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## CJ (May 10, 2002)

Save your pennies. Satellite is fine for one house, but add another too it and you're not going to be happy at all with the service, but more importantly, neither will your good intentioned neighbors.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

I install network cabling all the time

What you propose to do sounds like a fiasco for trouble shooting when something goes wrong.

If you spend the money to do this right, you might as well get the satellite service yourself. You will at least have tech support when it breaks.

If your neighbor gets mad at you, the first thing to go is your internet.

Some satellite providers limit the bandwidth that a subscriber can use. Check this out too. Between the two of you, you may jeopardize the connection every month by exceeding allowable bandwidth.

My two cents.

L


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

I think the confusion comes from cat5e cable being rated at 350mhz, which is a speed rating and not a distance rating. 

Instead of googling "category 5e "350 meters", try googling "maximum length cat5e" - and decide for yourself who/what website is authoritative.




Nevada said:


> Wikipedia is not authoritative. Try Googing for it. You'll find references from all over.
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?q=category+5e+"350+meters"&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS231US231&start=0&sa=N


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

CJ said:


> Save your pennies. Satellite is fine for one house, but add another too it and you're not going to be happy at all with the service, but more importantly, neither will your good intentioned neighbors.


 Please explain?


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

lharvey said:


> I install network cabling all the time
> 
> What you propose to do sounds like a fiasco for trouble shooting when something goes wrong.
> 
> ...



Thanks.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Bandwidth may or may not be an issue - it really depends on what you (and your neighbor) use the internet for and the bandwidth limits themselves. For example, my father-in-law, who has cable internet, spends all of 20 minutes per day checking his email and reading football news. In his case, "sharing" would not be a problem.

Bandwidth may be "limited" in various ways by different providers : they may cut the service temporarily, they may reduce the speed once the limit is reached, it may be a monthly limit, daily limit, etc. etc. 

Here in the city, lots of people "share" internet access.

Lots to consider.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

We have HughesNet in southern Missouri. Like it a lot, but if you are downloading big files, you will use up your daily allotment quickly, and then you are cut back to dial up speed. They have free download times in the wee hours.

Two households online, if you are both downloading, could cause a slowdown and an argument between households.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Rose said:


> We have HughesNet in southern Missouri. Like it a lot, but if you are downloading big files, you will use up your daily allotment quickly, and then you are cut back to dial up speed. They have free download times in the wee hours.
> 
> Two households online, if you are both downloading, could cause a slowdown and an argument between households.


I remember that when I had DirecPC. At that time they limited downloads to 160 megabytes/hour with what was called the "Fair Access Policy", or simply FAP.

I got a download manager to pace-in large downloads (I was downloading a lot of films at the time) at 155 megabytes/hour, 5 megabytes/hour below the limit. I got Fapped anyway. I called the HughesNet tech support and they acknowledged that I had not exceeded 160 megabytes per hour but that I was Fapped anyway. Evidently they had software that Fapped users, which tech support had no control over.

My problem with getting Fapped under the circumstances was that they weren't living up to their contractual obligations. HughesNet is a difficult bunch to work with. While I, of course, have no problem with HughesNet using software to administrate their contractual obligations, they are responsible for what that software does just as if it were being done by a live person.

By the way, while downloading was pretty good, web surfing with DirecPC was a disappointment. The web page response delay was pretty bad. With the severe delay, satellite Internet is not satisfactory for voice (VOIP) applications.

With the Fapping and slow web page response, if you have an alternative to satellite Internet you should take it.


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