Lan cable over 200Meters

[Zeronz]

So iv been asked by a racing club if I can setup a network from one club room to the race tower, 175 Meters away

now I know they say 100Meters is a limit before things start to happen, 

Iv used YouTube and google to look up information on how far you can go on cat5e or cat6, and there doesn't seem to be any information at all, 

 

from what I have seen is the speed will be slower. that's not a big deal as it will not be loads of data been shifted, 

 

what they want is Lap times from the Tower ELS system to send data to the club room, to show on a computer for everyone to watch 

 

any other ideas that could work they are open to (but do not want to spend loads of money)

I was thinking about buying a cat5e reel, and just trying 200m with rj45's and seeing if it worked 

[Skiiwee29]

Best thing is to try and put repeaters in there to regenerate the signal. Usually a simple 25$ dummy switch will be just fine. Probably with that length, you will want to have 2 of them in there. 

[Applefreak]

9 minutes ago, Zeronz said:

So iv been asked by a racing club if I can setup a network from one club room to the race tower, 175 Meters away

now I know they say 100Meters is a limit before things start to happen, 

Iv used YouTube and google to look up information on how far you can go on cat5e or cat6, and there doesn't seem to be any information at all, 

 

from what I have seen is the speed will be slower. that's not a big deal as it will not be loads of data been shifted, 

 

what they want is Lap times from the Tower ELS system to send data to the club room, to show on a computer for everyone to watch 

 

any other ideas that could work they are open to (but do not want to spend loads of money)

I was thinking about buying a cat5e reel, and just trying 200m with rj45's and seeing if it worked 

You need to use optical cables for that job. 100 Metres give or take on Cat 6 or 7 are fine but beyond is hit or miss.Optical cables are not that expensive when compared to premium copper wiring. If getting SFP optical switches or adapter cards is out of the question, you need to have ethernet switches every 90 metres or so. Keep in mind they need to be insulated from the weather and need a power source as well. 

 

EDIT: You can try with cheap 100 mbit switches but I would recommend 1 Gbit switches and if possible with PoE capable ports as they tend to have better signal strength.

[Kilrah]

I would expect it to work just fine, especially if you manually set the NIC to run at 100Mbps or even 10 given the amount of data seems to be tiny anyway.

[porina]

Sounds like this isn't exactly high data. Could they (re)use a mobile phone data connection for this task?

 

Another possibility is a point to point directional wifi connection maybe. To my limited understanding, this is kinda within the rules since the standards limit power, but they didn't specify directionality so with suitable antennas on both ends, you could achieve better range than a regular AP. Assumes you have line of sight between the two for best effect.

[Zeronz]

6 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

You need to use optical cables for that job. 100 Metres give or take on Cat 6 or 7 are fine but beyond is hit or miss.Optical cables are not that expensive when compared to premium copper wiring. If getting SFP optical switches or adapter cards is out of the question, you need to have ethernet switches every 90 metres or so. Keep in mind they need to be insulated from the weather and need a power source as well. 

 

EDIT: You can try with cheap 100 mbit switches but I would recommend 1 Gbit switches and if possible with PoE capable ports as they tend to have better signal strength.

I have 2 PoE devises  that were used for satdishes (power the dish) would that help having one each end?
Its what the club used to use, but the satdishes were broken by some not nice people

[Zeronz]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Sounds like this isn't exactly high data. Could they (re)use a mobile phone data connection for this task?

 

Another possibility is a point to point directional wifi connection maybe. To my limited understanding, this is kinda within the rules since the standards limit power, but they didn't specify directionality so with suitable antennas on both ends, you could achieve better range than a regular AP. Assumes you have line of sight between the two for best effect.

I was thinking about mobile phone data to send data over , but the ELS system requires a network to display onto another computer, 
IE, the software is run on one computer, and other computers have to connect to the first computer to get the data required to show the information

[Applefreak]

Just now, Zeronz said:

I have 2 PoE devises  that were used for satdishes (power the dish) would that help having one each end?
Its what the club used to use, but the satdishes were broken by some not nice people

I'd give it a try with a direct link but lower the network speed to 100 mbit/s and use CAT6e cable for that job. Buy the cable in bulk and crimp your own connectors to save some money.

[Applefreak]

1 minute ago, Zeronz said:

I was thinking about mobile phone data to send data over , but the ELS system requires a network to display onto another computer, 
IE, the software is run on one computer, and other computers have to connect to the first computer to get the data required to show the information

That's much more expensive to set up in order to work properly. You could use directional wifi antennas. Linus did a test over a fairly large distance, can't remember but it was more than 200 meters for sure. Those are not cheap either bad weather could cause the connection to break or latency to go up. 

[Zagna]

Something like an ethernet extender?

With this you'd need only CAT3.

[NZLaurence]

Either run fiber (Single Mode!) using direct bury cable which will be armored and won't need a conduit. 250m with 4 fibers, both ends terminated as LC connectors, will run about $600 as a one off purchase.

 

Or use wireless P2P gear. A reasonable set will cost you about $200-300.

 

The fiber will be much better in the long run but will need you to have gear that will take SFP modules. Wireless might be easier and if you have minimal bandwidth requirements then its a valid option.

[THEGURUOFNOTHING]

I run Engenius long range wifi and they are rated to do a few miles. I run 300 meters with mine and it's very adequate. Couple hundred bucks and you will have it without pulling wire

[Darren]

Since you're in NZ as well, I would consider a wireless solution with some Ubiquiti kit such as the NanoBeams running at 5.4Ghz with power right down, you'll easily get hundreds of megabits over it. If you're considering this, then get in touch with gowifi.co.nz and they'll come up with a solution for you and refer to you to a local contractor if you're not too keen on installing kit yourself.

 

If you have concerns about vandalism of radios external to the building, consider installing nanostations behind glass walls/windows or something.

 

I would really shy away from a 200M ethernet run, but something we've done before is run a switch at the 100M mark like a cheap Mikrotik. We've run these in places without power by sending POE up from one end with power.