Fibre LAN

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wally22

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#80682 2-Apr-2011 20:27

I am investigating a fibre optic LAN configuration of about 1km. Any advice would be appreciated. I have bit the bullet after 3-4 years of rural dialup and had installed a satellite broadband setup from WirelessNation. My neighbour is about 1km away and would like to share this, using wireless on their laptops.

I investigated a wireless only scenario which would require a boosted antenna (forgive me if the exact terminology is incorrect) at each end, going to another wireless base station at their end (say a Linksys WRT54G for example) on another channel to give them their local wireless connection to the laptops.

So to pre-empt any wireless issues I wondered about fibre-optic for the main link.

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#454616 2-Apr-2011 20:53

You're wanting to do something like this...?

Fibre (FTTD) -> router -> wireless antenna ~ ~ 1KM ~ ~ wireless antenna -> wireless AP(WRT54G) -> laptops?
-> Your own network/computers/etc

For the wireless link itself anything that isn't on 2.4ghz would be your best bet. UBNT products will do the trick however specifically Im not sure what would be best suited.

I really comes down to ability to do semi-complex configurations/setups more than anything, for such a short link hardware wont be your issue at all.

EDIT: Or money :P

PS: I'm not an expect in anyway shape or form ;)

wally22

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#454624 2-Apr-2011 21:14

You're wanting to do something like this...?

Fibre (FTTD) -> router -> wireless antenna ~ ~ 1KM ~ ~ wireless antenna -> wireless AP(WRT54G) -> laptops?
                                 -> Your own network/computers/etc.....

Not exactly. I have 2 alternatives here.

1. Satellite internet -> router -> Fibre ~~ 1km ~~ wireless(WRT54G) -> laptops
                                         - > my network

2. Satellite internet -> router -> wireless antenna ~ ~ 1KM ~ ~ wireless antenna -> wireless AP(WRT54G) -> laptops
                                         - > my network

I just thought that fibre would be a neater solution (in my eyes) for the 1km link but maybe the cost would be prohibitive. A learning curve for me too, whereas wireless is more known to me.

klasic

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#454626 2-Apr-2011 21:18

Well, again I'm no expert, however from what I've heard fibre costs about $75-80 a meter. So, 1km = $75,000 to lay. Further more; I'm not sure if that per meter cost was hanging (like power poles) or buried underground (and buried would be more expensive than langing, in anycase)

Wireless would be your best option; simple because Fibre would be a huge overkill as youre satellite connection would, at ALL TIMES, remain your bottle neck.

Do you have LOS between the two locations? and AC power?

wally22

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#454637 2-Apr-2011 21:39

Yes I had no idea fibre was that price. I had found some fibre kit for (2km max) either end at approx $200 each. A bit more than 1km wireless aerials (approx $150 each)
Ho hum, another bright idea capped by price!

klasic

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#454639 2-Apr-2011 21:41

You could do it all for about $500 bucks :P

cyril7

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#454736 3-Apr-2011 10:06

Hi, I purchased a 1km of 6core OM3 the other day, it was just on $5/m and was outdoor rated, if that helps.

Also if its line of sight to the other end a UBNT wireless bridge would be way cheaper and less hassle that running a km of cable/fibre.

If you do still want to go ahead with running a cable or fibre then runnning a km of 2pair outdoor phone cable with a VDLS2 bridge on it would be cheaper, speeds would be around 20-30Mb/s at 1km.

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klasic

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#454746 3-Apr-2011 10:32

cyril7: Hi, I purchased a 1km of 6core OM3 the other day, it was just on $5/m and was outdoor rated, if that helps.

60gigabit/s ? haha

Wireless is the way to go IMO :D

Zeon

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#454753 3-Apr-2011 10:53

You would probably be able to outdoor rated fibre pre-terminated for less than $1 per meter (may need to import though). But TBH thats a sh!tload of digging and if something breaks you'll need to get an expert in and it will be costly.

Personally I'd go for 2x Ubiquiti bullets for point to point. They can go up to 100mbps so that's pretty good.

Where abouts are you BTW, you may be able to get better internet than satellite e.g. some kind of wireless.

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wally22

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#454775 3-Apr-2011 12:23

I am way up the Honikiwi hill just west of Otorohanga. I did a lot of checking and there is no wireless service reaching here. While there is a mobile service available, for the amount of data I want to put through it becomes prohibitively expensive. The WirelessNation business package satellite still works out to be the best option in the long term when data is in the 5-7+GBytes per month. Still isn't anything like youse city fellas' broadband, but hey, I am living in a paradise here that cannot be matched in the city.

Zeon

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#454801 3-Apr-2011 14:01

wally22: I am way up the Honikiwi hill just west of Otorohanga. I did a lot of checking and there is no wireless service reaching here. While there is a mobile service available, for the amount of data I want to put through it becomes prohibitively expensive. The WirelessNation business package satellite still works out to be the best option in the long term when data is in the 5-7+GBytes per month. Still isn't anything like youse city fellas' broadband, but hey, I am living in a paradise here that cannot be matched in the city.

Hmm TBH looking at their website, XT is only slightly more expensive around the 7-10GB range but you will likely have far better performance than satellite (which is extremely slow for web browsing due to the latency). If you have poor coverage you could look at something like this:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Mobile-phones/Accessories/Antenna-boosters/auction-365979411.htm

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allstar1

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#454856 3-Apr-2011 18:03

I agree cell would work probably better and cheaper. All you need is enough coverage on 3G extended or xt to send an recieve texts .. thats all .. then add the magic toys and away it goes.. good for Voip as well.

Predictions are hard to make. Especially when they are about the future.

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wally22

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#454873 3-Apr-2011 18:59

Ahhh, I did not mention that the neighbour who wants to share already has a Telecom mobile connection and it has proved to be very unreliable over the last 3 months that they have had it. I suspect that the minimal signal strength that we get up here is contributing to the low speeds, dropouts and problems occurring to them. Telecom have been no help to them over this.
Hence my reluctance to go this route myself.

allstar1

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#454883 3-Apr-2011 19:14

Dont rely on telecom or vf to help. They need a proper router with antennae. then they will be in for a surpirse. Contact the trader on trademe based in Chch and he will help. Or the coffeebaron on geekzone lives near you and he helped set me up.

Predictions are hard to make. Especially when they are about the future.

eXDee

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#455213 4-Apr-2011 18:29

Zeon:Personally I'd go for 2x Ubiquiti bullets for point to point. They can go up to 100mbps so that's pretty good..

This.

Two nanostations would do the trick, a kit like this would give you a fine throughput if you have line of sight:
http://gowifi.co.nz/combo-wifi-kits/ubiquiti-ns2-zenbu-wireless-extension-outdoor-kit.html

webwat

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#456887 8-Apr-2011 23:30

You might find part of the area has better mobile coverage than you, and you could link up to a router located there. I suspect you could run a km of fibre along fence posts or something but its got to be handled the right way (eg. dont pull by the cable jacket, watch the bend radius) so best to stick with wireless I would say.

Satellite has slow latency so its got a really delayed action for anything that you normally expect to have a snappy response. I'm sure you can handle a 4 second delay on web browsing but it will drive you crazy on a Skype call.

Time to find a new industry!

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