Ethernet over power... or Cat5?

[bob]

My parents are starting to want DSL, I have all of the equpment (250.00 radio, router). Im about 100 feet from the main house, with a 2" pipe buried under the lawn carrying the Coax TV, phone, 220V and intercom.

Problem is, I would have to run ~80 feet of cat5 underground through the pipe diagnolly across the yard to where the 220v hookup is from the old hottub. From there, another 150 feet sideways across the cement foundation of the house, and a good 10-20 forward into the house. So its something like 300-400 feet total of Cat5 just to get the signal to the house. I dont have a problem with that, Its a matter of hooking up my air compressor to the pipe and blowing a string through the pipe to pull cat5 through.

The problem is, stringing the crap through the house. Part of the house has a supended ceiling, part doesnt.

Im trying to compare my time and cost of materials here for two different things. Those Ethernet over power wall-worts, or just buying a partial spool of cat5 and pulling it through the house. Im leaning toward Cat5, because its close to 8 cents a foot for the single-strand, and the HomePlug brand ethernet over power is close to $139.00 for a pair.

Any other thoughts or products I could look at? WiFi isnt an option here... Doesnt really travel through cement very well.

 

[Zamboni]

I would look at pulling Cat-5 or Cat-6 into the house and capping it with a wirelss router, then checking what your wireless strength would be in the various rooms. If the signal is too weak, then you can worry about wiring it then.

I've tried ethernet-over-power before, and went back to using Cat-5. The compressor in the fridge kicks in and you lose your internet connection.

If it shared the conduit with a power line, I'd be tempted to use shielded cable to cut down on possible interference (but I'm the paranoid type).

 

[Fark_Maniac]

buy your router from staples...they have either a 4 or 14 day no-questions-asked return policy. If it doesn't work, just return it.

edit: you could even buy a 2nd router and act as a bridge/repeater. I'm sure it'd still be cheaper/quicker than all that effort of running cable.

 

[XOR != OR]

Just keep in mind the max length of a cat5 run without any repeaters is 328feet.

Not sure if the same goes for cat6 though.

And you are going to be happier with a wired solution in the long run. Wireless can be flaky, even if you get the wireless bridge devices ( linksys has a few ), and the wall worts can be problematic depending on your power situation.

 

[hity645]

I would look at pulling Cat-5 or Cat-6 into the house and capping it with a wirelss router, then checking what your wireless strength would be in the various rooms. If the signal is too weak, then you can worry about wiring it then.

I've tried ethernet-over-power before, and went back to using Cat-5. The compressor in the fridge kicks in and you lose your internet connection.

If it shared the conduit with a power line, I'd be tempted to use shielded cable to cut down on possible interference (but I'm the paranoid type).

Thats what I was going to say, run the cat 5 to the house and setup a wireless access point.

 

[Baditude]

Just keep in mind the max length of a cat5 run without any repeaters is 328feet.

At work, I share a dsl connection with the guy in the next building. It happens to be 450 feet of cable to my office from the linksys router inside his office. I have a 4 port hub installed in my office and send the signal another 75 feet down the hall to another computer.

My buddy down the hall does a a page load problem from time to time, but is not bad.

 

[The_Mage18]

Question: is the 220V line still live? If it is you'll need to use STP Cat5. UTP will get too much interferance from the 220V line and cause massive packet degredation/loss. If it's not live anymore, then no worries.

Shielded Twisted Pair cost a fair amount more than your run of the mill Unshielded Twisted Pair.

 

[XOR != OR]

At work, I share a dsl connection with the guy in the next building. It happens to be 450 feet of cable to my office from the linksys router inside his office. I have a 4 port hub installed in my office and send the signal another 75 feet down the hall to another computer.

My buddy down the hall does a a page load problem from time to time, but is not bad.

That's the rated spec at least. Good cable will get you more distance, but you really are lucky with the 450ft ( from my experience ).

 

[moetop]

Or something like this...

Ethernet over Coax (No not 10 base 2 coax) this is more like the Ethernet over Power, but using the CATV wiring.

If I could I would try and run a peice of cat5e or 6 personaly.

 

[Taradino]

A layer 2 switch will be fine, no need for a repeator...
You WILL need something as the signal will go to hell.

At work, I share a dsl connection with the guy in the next building. It happens to be 450 feet of cable to my office from the linksys router inside his office. I have a 4 port hub installed in my office and send the signal another 75 feet down the hall to another computer.

My buddy down the hall does a a page load problem from time to time, but is not bad.

 

[bob]

Question: is the 220V line still live? If it is you'll need to use STP Cat5. UTP will get too much interferance from the 220V line and cause massive packet degredation/loss. If it's not live anymore, then no worries.

Shielded Twisted Pair cost a fair amount more than your run of the mill Unshielded Twisted Pair.

220V is live. Only way to get enough amps to run all my crap out here. Basically two seperate 110v circuits. Ill look into getting STP Cat5. The connection speed is only 10Mbps, so it should be alright with just cat5.

 

[amenthes]

Running any sort of copper ethernet (Cat6 or 5, STP or UTP, doesn't matter), is a Bad Idea. There's a little thing called ground differential that applies here. When running ethernet from one physical building to another, you encounter different resistance in the earth grounds of the building. This will play hell with ethernet connectivity, and theres a strong chance of hubs/switches being blown.

Now I'm not entirely familiar with the electrical building code, but if by some chance your ground is shared with the main building, and your building doesn't have a seperate earth ground, then you'd be ok. I don't think thats electrically possible though, I've never heard of a building not having an earth ground (well at least in modern times).

I'm sure it's not within your price range for this project, but the proper way to do this would be fiber, with a tranceiver on each end. Fiber is unaffected by ground differential problems, and also unaffected by electromagnetic interference.

Personally, I'd explore two good quality wireless APs and externally mounted directional antennas.