How long can I run an Ethernet cable with stable connection?

[Drama Lama]

So I have an internet connection in my house, my friend in another house not and I want him to access the internet over my connection 

he‘s about 500m away 

 

can i just run a normal cable to his house?

wat speeds can he expect?

 

my connection is 50 megabits per second 

 

or or would it be easier over WiFi 

 

I‘m curious about your answers 

[Tomthehitman]

100 Meters seems to be the maximum length before speed drop off for Cat 6 cables.

 

You are going to try and run a cable 500 meters to your friends house?

[Moonzy]

4 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

my friend in another house not and I want him to access the internet over my connection 

he‘s about 500m away 

not all hero wears cape...

 

but how would u even attempt to pull a wire that long? what about road? car?

 

pretty sure there are cables for it but... im interested in how you would pull the cable there

 

there's dish antenna that can transmit signal to a far distance, could consider those maybe?

[Drama Lama]

2 minutes ago, Tomthehitman said:

You are going to try and run a cable 500 meters to your friends house?

Yes

 

or should I try using a strong WiFi antenna ?

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Drama Lama said:

strong WiFi antenna

wifi is limited to 100mW of power, any higher and you'd get in trouble if people find out

[Drama Lama]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

im interested in how you would pull the cable there

the road is not asphalted so i can bury the cable

[Drama Lama]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

wifi is limited to 100mW of power, any higher and you'd get in trouble if people find out

So there’s no easy way I can get internet to my friend unless I use expensive enterprise gear ?

 

a 20 megabit per second connection would be enough 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Drama Lama

[Tomthehitman]

1 minute ago, Drama Lama said:

the road is not asphalted so i can bury the cable

Honestly the cost to buy that much ethernet cable and then the time spent trying to lay and bury it over 500m, plus the fact it's unlikely to have any decent speed at them distances if it works at all, would it not be easier for him to buy his own internet?

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Drama Lama said:

So there’s no easy way I can get internet to my friend unless I use expensive enterprise gear ?

yes, 500m isnt near

an ethernet cable required would be expensive due to the distance and quality needed

and to bury the cable, you'll need the council's permission unless it's private property

 

and dish antenna is... well... expensive

[Drama Lama]

5 minutes ago, Tomthehitman said:

would it not be easier for him to buy his own internet?

His house doesn’t have a telephone ( and therefore internet) connection 

[Kilrah]

Would need either fiber or wireless.

[brwainer]

500m is too far for ethernet - the most I’ve seen work at all is about 180m, and that barely worked.

is there “line of sight” between the two houses? (For long distance wireless, you don’t just need a single straight line to be clear, but an oval shaped area called the fresnel zone: https://www.proxim.com/products/knowledge-center/calculations/calculations-fresnel-clearance-zone )

 

If you have clear line of sight, you can get PtP wireless gear for $100-$200 - I recommend looking at Ubiquiti Airmax equipment.

[Tomthehitman]

4 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

His house doesn’t have a telephone ( and therefore internet) connection 

Where do you live? Most internet providers here (UK) will put a line into the property if they don't already have one for whatever reason. 

[Drama Lama]

3 minutes ago, brwainer said:

is there “line of sight” between the two houses? (

Yes I can see his roof 

antennas can be installed with direct line of sight 

[Drama Lama]

6 minutes ago, Tomthehitman said:

Where do you live? Most internet providers here (UK) will put a line into the property if they don't already have one for whatever reason. 

I guess the cost would be horrendously high

[Drama Lama]

I think I might try a wireless connection 

 

thanks @Tomthehitman , @Moonzy , @Kilrah and @brwainer

[Drama Lama]

Just one last question 

Are there any good and cheap antenna you recommend?

Edited July 26, 2020 by Drama Lama

[brwainer]

23 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

Just one last question 

Are there any good and cheap antenna you recommend?

As I stated before, look at Ubiquiti Airmax - they have a bunch of different models to choose.

[Drama Lama]

22 minutes ago, brwainer said:

As I stated before, look at Ubiquiti Airmax - they have a bunch of different models to choose.

Well I just measured that the distance between the roofs is 100m

[Blue4130]

47 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

Well I just measured that the distance between the roofs is 100m

Haha that's way different than 500m.

[brwainer]

2 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

Well I just measured that the distance between the roofs is 100m

In that case I would actually go with the Mikrotik Wireless Wire - it uses 60GHz, so the max distance is 200m, but it will give you full gigabit speeds between the two houses. https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire  The 2-device kit sells for about $165 in the US, if you let me know what country you are in I can help find an authorized reseller with local pricing and shipping.

[Falcon1986]

@Drama Lama

 

As stated previously, you need a point-to-point wireless link for this to work without running long lengths of ethernet cable. These are special devices that have directional antennae, not your conventional omni-directional.

 

Who did the math regarding the distance between houses? 500m is a whole lot further than 100m!

 

For PtP to work properly, you'll need good line-of-sight. Trees, utility poles or other buildings in the way will interfere with the wireless signal. Equally as important is that you can point station and AP components towards each other despite differences in elevation.

 

When choosing a PtP system, you'll need to decide on what frequency the radios will communicate on. 2.4GHz works well over longer distances and is less likely to get interference from a few trees and precipitation. However, it has it's speed limits. 5GHz needs more clear LoS, has higher speeds but can be interfered by precipitation. There are higher frequencies like 60GHz, but you have to keep in mind 2 main things: 1.) Higher frequencies can potentially offer higher bandwidth but are significantly prone to interference from obstruction and precipitation, and 2.) Some of these frequencies are protected in some countries so you'll need to get a license/permission to use them.

 

Ubiquiti's NanoBeam or even NanoStation are ideal for such setups because they have good outdoor durability, they have built-in software that helps make the alignment as perfect as possible, and they're relatively easy to set up if you follow the guides. If you're sharing a 50Mbps connection, then you should be fine with a 2.4GHz or 5GHz PtP link. Keep in mind that you should always allow for loss of maximum throughput over long distances and intermittent interference from neighbourhood WiFi. Also, there are some legacy equipment (especially those using 2.4GHz) that you'll only be able to find on places like eBay, as they're no longer supported.

 

I encourage you to visit the Ubiquiti Community Forums for better guidance if you have specific questions about their gear.

 

As a side note, I came across this TP-Link CPE which can be used for a PtP setup. I have no experience with it so can't vouch for it, but a pair is about US$100, gives you about 300Mbps of bandwidth with 2x2 MIMO and should be relatively easy to set up (one in AP mode, the other in client mode).

[Drama Lama]

Thanks a lot  @Falcon1986 

 

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

Who did the math regarding the distance between houses? 500m is a whole lot further than 100m!

 

4 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Haha that's way different than 500m.

Houses in between and that is a roughly estimated distance if I can’t run the cable through neighbor‘s garden 

 

 

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

There are higher frequencies like 60GHz, but you have to keep in mind 2 main things: 1.) Higher frequencies can potentially offer higher bandwidth but are significantly prone to interference from obstruction and precipitation, and 2.) Some of these frequencies are protected in some countries so you'll need to get a license/permission to use them.

I’ll have to figure out the legal stuff but 2.4 will probably do fine for my speeds 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Drama Lama