[Tfug] Cabling between buildings

[Choprboy]

On Monday 25 May 2009 14:04, Bexley Hall wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've a friend who has several buildings on his property
> (many acres) between which he would like to run network
> cabling.  Wireless is out of the question (paranoia
> as well as distances).
>
> I imagine you can purchase CAT5 cable suitable for
> direct burial.  But, I am not sure that even that would
> handle the distances involved (think:  many acre ranch).
>
> Optical fibre comes to mind as a solution (especially
> to tolerate any large common mode voltages that you
> could encounter in such an installation -- think:
> lightning).  But, are there any better options?  He's
> not keen on spending a lot of money to do so (e.g., he
> could always purchase multiple cell phones with "data
> service" and route packets through TPC to get from location
> A to location B  :-/ )
>


I think you have pretty much summed up the options available, but we would 
have to actually know the distances involved to give the best options. Past 
300ft (per the spec, 500-800ft if you don;t mind lots of errors) CAT5 is not 
going to be an option. CAT5 will also require lighting protection on both 
ends... At that distance lightning will fry it even with strikes a couple 
miles away.

Wireless is the obvious choice, a properly designed system will travel many 
miles and be highly secure. (I.e. "it wireless so anyone can see me" is a 
rant by people who either don;t understand encryption or can;t be bothered to 
set proper options or buy equipment with more than the most basic protection 
built in.) No one, within a reasonable amount of time, is going to break 3DES 
to snoop on your conversation... It a whole lot more secure than a cable 
across the desert floor waiting to be tapped.

Fiber is probably the second best choice for long distances. You can get 1000M 
spools of military field cable (2 pair MM in a heavy jacket) for dirt cheap.

And the final option is some sort of packet based wireless transfer, there is 
lots of 433MHz/etc. modems out there for playing with.

Adrian