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Nick L
Nick L asked in Computers & InternetComputer Networking · 1 decade ago

Connecting two buildings ~400ft apart.?

I need to connect two houses together in order to share an internet connection among other things. Line of sight is terrible due in part to property between the two houses being wooded, however I have secured the permission of the property owner to run a cable across their property and I have several spools of Ca5e cable, however the length rules out Ethernet without any complicated repeaters or special wiring. Since speed isn't a big issue I thought the best way would be to use a T1. What I do have is a bunch of Cisco equipment, on my end a Cisco 3660 with a NM-ATM-4T1 and on the other end I have a few Cisco 1721s that I can buy a T1 Wic for. I have never really worked a custom T1 run so I have a few questions:

1. Is cat5e suitable for a 400' run using T1's signaling?

2. Are the Network modules and Wics able to handle the loading of a long wire length or would I require external DSUs?

3. Is there a better way of doing this? By better I mean cheaper as this project get basic internet access to the daughter of a woman escaping an drunk/abusive husband. Her money is tied up in a divorce and I cannot afford to put much more then my time into it as I am dealing with a slow economy.

4. Any other ideas or suggestions.

Thanks!

Update:

I have read the spec sheets cat5e seems to meet or exceed all the electrical and performance requirements of ABAM 600. But I have heard some say that regardless it can cause problems, which is one of the reasons I threw it up here.

Update 2:

As I have said prior I have no line of sight so I cannot use wireless.

Anyone here actually dealt with T1s? T1 signals at 1.544MHz vs ~100mhz for 100baseT and uses a higher voltage (+/-12V vs ~3v) they can go farther so suffers far less signal attenuation then Ethernet. If it can go that far is not really an issue (we routinely run lengths over 500ft with external DSU/CSU pairs) the issue is will using Cat5e cause me any unexpected problems.

Update 3:

Dang it... should read: T1 signals at 1.544MHz vs ~100mhz for 100baseT and uses a higher voltage (+/-12V vs ~3v) so suffers far less signal attenuation then Ethernet, they can go farther over the same cable.

4 Answers

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  • elven_rangers
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    The cat5e should do the trick. Another idea would be to use a wireless router set up as a repeater. With a good antenna, the range should exceeed 400 feet and you won't have to deal with cables. A card with an external antenna should do the trick on her end.

    For basic internet access this configuration should be more than sufficient.

  • Robert D
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    The maximum distance between 2 nodes is 100 m or 328 feet when using cat 5e. In order to take it further you need either a repeater or a switch to overcome signal degradation. I just don't see how you are going to overcome the distance problem with what you have proposed.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I can only suggest that contacting the cable manufacturer and asking them if the cat5e you have is suitable for the appliction. You might even be able to simply download a spec sheet from their website.

  • rickytomo2000
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Cat5e length is 100 meters.

    Max length is 500 m. To accomplish this it will have to be this diagram.

    PC ----cat5e(100m)---router-----100m----repeater----100m-----repeater----100m-----repeater----100m----PC

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