Half mile wire run ... ?

[Specop 007]

I wouldnt touch fiber if you havent worked with it or if you dont have someone who has the equipment. Its real easy to say "Oh go fiber its cool!"....And then you get a kink, or a cut, or a bad splice or or or....

Do you have a $5,000 test set to figure out the problems? Do you know how to use it? Can you splice fiber?

Go for a solution you can maintain or that someone you can easily get a hold of can maintain. Generally fiber is not it.

If it were me I'd do wireless. A good wireless setup for your situation would be ideal. In fact I'm on a wireless connection as I type this. I'm downloading a few books and the kiddo is watching Netflix.

Good wireless can be Dollar Store "Its the same thing!" to wired for 99% of the people out there. It also minimizes your failure points. You have 3 locations, your end, the intermediate tower and the far end. Compare that to 2,500 feet worht of cable or fiber that could suffer a failure at any point along the run.

ETA:

As far as a "tower" since its a hill and you are essentially doing a point to point you dont need a "Tower" you simply need a structure 3 or 4 feet off the ground to get LOS between the 2 lower lying areas. Tall towers are to extend your distance many many miles, not really needed in your case it sounds like unless you have trees to deal with.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

You need a mirror and two laser transceivers.

 

[Lifted]

Wireless. Beam to the hill and beam down. Rinse and repeat. 1/2 mile is nothing for it.

I'd think he'd be looking at $4k minimum (and up up up) for decent wireless kit if he wants speeds in the 50mb - 100mb range. At that price range I'd run fiber.

 

[skyking]

Op, do take a look at how the phone lines run. you may get really lucky with a short dry pair.
~5$ per month and no construction costs:thumbsup:

 

[paperwastage]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/amped-wireless-2012-lineup/

The High-Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Router (R1000G) will cover 10,000 square feet in gigabit internet, costing $140.

The Dual-Band Wireless-N Smart Repeater (SR2000G) will push your wireless connection a further 10,000 square feet and will also retail for $180.

 

[alkemyst]

I'd think he'd be looking at $4k minimum (and up up up) for decent wireless kit if he wants speeds in the 50mb - 100mb range. At that price range I'd run fiber.

1/2 mile of fiber will be well beyond that price.

Hell just between two buildings locally here was quoted at $50k...I think it was about 100 yards.

 

[NXIL]

Hi Lifted--Ha! We are spending his money. It's fun.

I do not think in a rural area he will be getting 50 to 100 Mbps speeds.....

Specop makes some great points, and, like I was trying to say earlier: so it's installed and works. You need to maintain all that too....troubleshoot....etc......when it goes down. And it will. Could be worse than helping someone keep their Windows 95 machine up and running.

The "laser" (cue Dr. Evil!), the kind that sharks wear, sounds interesting....but cost? And how reliable? Have never seen that in use.....

Edit: alkymyst: 50K, wow.....

skyking's idea great too.....

 

[alkemyst]

Something as simple as a Cisco Aironet 350 is capable of 11Mbps (Wireless B speeds) at 25 miles with the right antenna. A 1/2 mile should produce a decent amount of speed even with a single repeater (since they have to beam up the hill and then down). You may be able to even mitigate that loss, without seeing the install I can't tell.

I'd source used/refurb gear. No need for smartnets for such a small, non-mission critical install and simply rely on the Cisco warranty.

 

[drebo]

The problem with wireless isn't finding the cheap equipment...it's finding the right way to power the equipment on the hill and dealing with any trees in the way.

That said: http://tyconpower.com/products/Ubiquiti_Mikrotik.htm

It ain't extremely cheap, but one of the 102Ah units, a solar panel, a pole mount, and four Ubiquiti NSM5 units, and you'd be there. Probably get done for about $2500.

 

[Specop 007]

I'd think he'd be looking at $4k minimum (and up up up) for decent wireless kit if he wants speeds in the 50mb - 100mb range. At that price range I'd run fiber.

I think 50-100 meg is a bit ridiculous myself. Sure its a hell of a bragging point but damn you need 10 meg or so for HD video with the right setup. What the hell is he planning on doing out there? I have 3 meg right now and can watch Netflix just fine.

Theres bragging rights and there practical usage. I dont think 50 meg falls within practical at home usage amounts. I mean if you can get it awesome but lets be realistic here. A solid 10 meg connection is going to do everything you want to do.

 

[bobdole369]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/amped-wireless-2012-lineup/

The High-Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Router (R1000G) will cover 10,000 square feet in gigabit internet, costing $140.

The Dual-Band Wireless-N Smart Repeater (SR2000G) will push your wireless connection a further 10,000 square feet and will also retail for $180.

The big issue here isn't that equipment doesn't exist. I made a solid link using simple directional antennas and consumer grade gear work over 4000 feet before. It was completely flat land though. This link is much harder: There is a hill in the way - and from the sound of it, not a small one.

At minimum you are looking at a mast of sorts on either end, holding a directional antenna - heading up the hill. And erecting a mast visible from both locations in the middle. And providing power to that mast in the middle.

Hey heres another novel idea - If you own all the intermediate land - perhaps you could just string your own coax on fenceposts. MOCA won't make it that far but I wonder if you could find some way to make it work.

 

[Jimmah]

Powering it isn't terribly hard if you don't mind making your own solar panel with A- grade cells off Ebay, 12v 7ah SLA battery and a cheap charge controller. An old wrt54gs with directional antennas pulls 200-300ma at 6.5-18v, with a cheap homemade panel putting out 50w-ish, it could power the wrt54gs for almost a full day and recharge in about 4 hours.

Hell you could run POE to a modified wrt54gs and it might work, it'd only be a 12v drop for a .4a draw, more than enough left for the router.

 

[Modelworks]

Hell you could run POE to a modified wrt54gs and it might work, it'd only be a 12v drop for a .4a draw, more than enough left for the router.

Most routers are 3.3V internally and the regulators will work down to about 5VDC provided you have the current. The reason for the 12V adapters is they use switching converters to convert the high volts low amps down to low volts high amps. You can, and I and others have done it, open up a router and bypass the dc-dc converter and supply them 3.3VDC directly.