Re: fiber - cat5 - wireless
On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, Helber wrote:
>What is the best way to conect two points at about 350 m away?
>When I say best I´m talking about $ and performance.
Here's what I would do if I was paying.
350m is twice the maximum length of a segment of 10baseT/100baseT. So put a
cheap hub or switch between them. You may think it's crazy to use a switch,
but when you consider that a cheap switch (like the one I've got in my
loungue) costs $120 and gives you 100M full duplex it's probably worth it.
The only problem with this is that it relies on there being a good half-way
point that you can run a switch. If you are considering running a line
between two buildings then this won't work. But if the line is outside then
there's the issue of electrical interferance and earth-loops.
In that case I would consider the bandwidth requirements. If 2Mb/s is all
you need then WaveLAN is a good solution. It can do 1Km with ease and 4Km+ if
you use the right antennas and there's no interferance (NB it is generally not
advertised as being capable of really long distances). WaveLAN does 2Mb/s
over unregulated frequencies (you don't need a permit).
Currently work is in progress on IEEE 802.11 wireless at 11Mb/s speed. AFAIK
there are no available products that implement it.
If all these options are unsuitable then you can use fiber. Fiber apparently
isn't as difficult as it used to be. A former colleague of mine was
considering implementing a gigabit Ethernet network in his home because fiber
is so cheap and easy! This thing of taking an hour to do a termination is
apparently a thing of the past.
Russell Coker
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