How many users can one satellite connection cover?

N

nbovk951

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
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I need to provide internet connectivity to about 8 users via satellite. Its out in bfe and other than dial up (not even any local numbers with that) Satellite is the only half broadband option I can get.
This setup is not only going to have to provide for up to 8 users. Most likely never all accessing the net at one. Maybe one person at a time or two.
But the distances are going to put a strain on things. We are talking about at times a total run of about 500 feet. Now I know that about 100 meters is the max I can go without signal loss. I plan on going from the satellite/modem/main computer/router about 100 meters to a switch. which then will run between 100-200 feet to each location.

Now heres the biggy. Most of this is going outside in the ground, There are 6 separate buildings two buildings with two connections and two single connection buildings.
This is all on one property whos total dimentions are about 600x600ft
There will eventually be about 16-20 pc's across the property. And I imagine there will have to be at least one or two more satellites to provide adequate bandwidth as one satellite will provide only 1.5mbs.

Anyways I would muchly appreciate some input on this. It'd be great to know if this will or wont work before we go and spend all the money on the hardware.

thanks
 
As long as the individual runs stay under 100m you will be fine. Its a pretty conservative estimate anyway. While I doubt you could pull off gigabit over Cat5e at distances exceeding spec, 100mb will be fine.

You are gonna want to run at least two pulls each from one main building to the of the other 5. Make sure to install surge arresters on all buried line. Either run the wire in pvc or look for some direct burial stuff. At each of the 5 buildings you'll need a small switch. Throw a decent business class router or a *nix firewall at the main building and you should be set. Might want to investigate which options support load balancing.This will prevent you from needing to replace gear later on as you expand.

If you're doing this all yourself it'll probably cost you in the range of $3000 or so.
 
If this is for a business then one 1.5Mbps circuit should be just fine. If we are talking residential then you will want to look at doing load balancing across two circuits with a pfsense box or other *nix firewall like GlobalFear was talking about.

While I would recommend trenching some cable you could also use wireless bridges to connect buildings to the central hub building. You could get a Cisco 1310 at the central office and then use some 1231 APs at the other buildings. Setup in a point to multi-point fashion. Performance won't be as good as cable but you won't have to trench anything either . . . . .:D
 
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