Need some advice on Network.

[woodenman80]

Right i need some networking advice as i dont know jack!

Im moving into a big ole static caravan near my house well actually 100m away, (small office) but my ISDN interface box jobby is in the house. At present there are 5pc in the house networked together through a cheapo 10 mps cat 5 hub made by MRI and one pc is a dedicated linux firewall thing which deals with the internet through your browser e.g. connecting etc.. I dont know much about network cable but would it run that far, without major loss and would i be better off having a hub in the caravan f(or future upgrades??) and running the uplink port to the other hubs uplink port or no hub and straight cable back.???? im broke so dont say get wireless, but i have cat5 cable available. And another 4 port hub.

Any ideas.

[frodoski]

100 meters is the limit for CAT5, but if the hubs you have had a 10Base2 (coax) port you would be in good shape the max for 10Base2 is 185 meters. It is older technology but is still effective at 10 Mbs. If not then you can try the CAT5 connection. Is it 100 meters exactly or less?

Wouldn't even think of wireless for this kind of application, unless absolutly necessary (sic). 100 meters is a bit to far for reliable connection using the standard wireless antennae, you would need to set up a high gain antenna at each end of the link to convert it to a point to point link (High $$$ or Pounds Sterling).

But, all that said if you are within 100 meters, you should be ok with the CAT5 cable.

[woodenman80]

Its probably less realistically !! but im taking into account a large bank etc !!! so im being genorous with the measurments!.

:) thanx for help though.

[Huckleberry]

Considering your budget, I'd give the cat5 a shot. Worst case is that it doesn't work and you have some spare cat5 cable about.

Just don't tell the Ethernet wiring police. :)

[Turando]

u SHOULD be ok, but u might need to get a repeater to regain the signal, these arent to expensive so u should be able to do this pretty cheap:)


Cheers, Turando

[Army_Of_1]

where would you get a repeater at?

[Huckleberry]

A multiport repeater is also known as a hub.

As you would have to place it somewhere between the house and caravan, it may not be an option.

[woodenman80]

LOL im going to risk just cat5 at this rate i will need a shed with power in between to run the network boosters LOL!!!

I will give just the cat5 a try and will try and shorten the distance by putting the hub as close to the caravan as poss!!

the other bit was can i connect a hub to a hub over that distance through its uplink port???

hmmmm better get a big reel of cat5 lol........

[rogerdugans]

You should be ok with cat5 at 100m; that is the max its RATED for, but it is rated for a distance that it is 100%(well....99%:D) reliable.

I have seen installations with 120m or so of cat5 run fine;)

Try it ouy, and move the hub as close to the cable's run as you can- worst case: 20 foot extension cord and the other hub mounted in a waterproof box at the other end:D

[Huckleberry]

Yes, you can go hub to hub.

Assuming that your network doesn't consist of more than 4 total hubs, linking the 2 hubs won't be an issue. When your home network gets to the point of having 4 hubs (if indeed it ever does) you will then need to look into getting better equipment like a switch or higher density hubs.