Ideas for linking two properties requested

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Mark

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#140958 25-Feb-2014 13:48

Hi there,

I'm looking for some ideas on how to best link up two properties, technologies and pointers to suitable products.

If you look at the picture the main house is top left and the cottage is bottom right. Internet comes in to the main house and I want to share it with the cottage, I also want the option of giving the cottage access to the NAS in the main house (through a firewall)

The cottage sits at a higher elevation than the main house, but line of sight is obstructed via the trees (possible if an antenna was on a pole I could get a clear way through). All the land in between is mine so a physical cable is possible but I'd prefer the cheaper wireless option :-)

Are there any wireless bridges that will work semi OK through the forest ?

Any ideas are most welcome!

(The picture seems to show small on the site .. but the little blue lines bottom left show measurements of 20M)

Mark

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#994131 25-Feb-2014 14:05

Getting a clear LoS will be the key to getting any performance on a wireless link. I've punched wireless through trees before, but was a bit 'interesting' and the buggers had a tendency to grow and move over time which was a PiTA.

If I had to try I'd go with something like these http://www.gowifi.co.nz/ubiquiti-networks-nanobeam.html (mostly because I want to try them out) hopefully someone with more long range wireless experience can comment.

Warning: reality may differ from above post

andrewNZ

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#994132 25-Feb-2014 14:05

Ubiquity wifi. Nanostation or maybe Picostation (no real world experience with them)

As long as you can get line of sight, they'll kill it.

http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#airMaxHardware

woollettg

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#994422 25-Feb-2014 20:49

no show unless the antenna is above the treetops. and even then trees grow...

woollettg

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#994433 25-Feb-2014 21:06

How far apart are the two buildings?
You can use cat 5 up to 100m.
Compare the cost of that to -
2 antennas @ $100 each
2 access points @ $120 each.
and maybe 20% of the data rate offered by cat 5.

SteveON

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#994440 25-Feb-2014 21:09

or you could dig a trench...

http://www.hirepool.co.nz/equipment-hire/s1/1/s3/211/FetchGroup/572B

InstallerUFB

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#994470 25-Feb-2014 21:45

woollettg: How far apart are the two buildings?
You can use cat 5 up to 100m.
Compare the cost of that to -
2 antennas @ $100 each
2 access points @ $120 each.
and maybe 20% of the data rate offered by cat 5.

A copper (UTP) connection would require additional isolation network equipement at at least one end, as I would expect that the two buildings don't share common Power distribution and earthing.

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coffeebaron

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#994503 25-Feb-2014 22:22

Does a phone line link between the two houses?

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nakedmolerat

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#994506 25-Feb-2014 22:26

Dig and put your own fibre link ;-)

dwl

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#994508 25-Feb-2014 22:35

I have used these EnGenius radios which have PoE and integrated antenna and I am quite happy. At current website price of $85+GST they are cheap but note limited to 802.11g max (i.e. about 30 Mbps).

I agree with others you really want need LOS but not so hard with this form factor which can be easily strapped to a pole and pointing accuracy not critical (100 deg H beamwidth). Over this distance probably get full rate. Trees are a pain and you need to allow for growth.

For higher speeds there are 802.11b/g/n or 802.11a/n at higher price - probably a better idea if you want NAS access.

Outdoor Cat5e might be a better idea if trees too much nuisance but may need a POE Ethernet extender in the middle (e.g. like this one but I don't know how well they work or quality).

Edit: To punch through trees there are 900 MHz radios but they cost quite a bit more and with the limited bandwidth the data rates are quite low.

raytaylor

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#994551 26-Feb-2014 00:17

No Way would you get through that many trees unless you could get both ends of the radios above the tree-line to get clear line of sight.
Over 100m I find with a 2.4ghz link and couple of 16dbi Airgrid M2's you can usually go through one tree, maybe two if its not raining. Any more than that, and you will have issues.

If there is a common telephone line running between the two buildings then there is a high chance there will be a spare pair you can wire up to act as a link using VDSL ethernet extenders. They will usually do 30mbits up to 1km over a copper telephone wire - provided the wiring remains isolated from the chorus network. These are what we use in such situations. You can also use cat5 cable and go more than 100m if you have the vdsl ethernet extenders at each end.

Ray Taylor

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Mark

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#994570 26-Feb-2014 06:29

woollettg: How far apart are the two buildings?
You can use cat 5 up to 100m.
Compare the cost of that to -
2 antennas @ $100 each
2 access points @ $120 each.
and maybe 20% of the data rate offered by cat 5.

About 350M if I went in a straight line, if I went around the borders it would be a fair bit more! I've love a hard line to the property though :-)