Internet Connection to offsite building
Internet Connection to offsite building
If you can have fiber all the way to the barn, yeah, fiber is an option ... you can use a couple fiber - ethernet media converters, they can be as cheap as 20-30$ each. Alternatively, there's ethernet to VDSL2 converters, they convert ethernet and "push" it across a cable up to a kilometer or so - can be as simple as a single pair phone cable or a cheap ethernet cable. An ethernet spool is 305 meters, so you could get a full spool and use it with such converters. Here's an example of such converter kit : https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-110V...002CLKFTG/ same kit but other brand, and cheaper : https://www.amazon.com/Tupavco-Ethernet-...01BOD8C9W/ At a length of 300 meters, you'd probably get 40-60 mbps or more, with such kit. There's also ethernet over coax : https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet...08PDMP79D/ Coaxial cable can be cheaper, like 250$ for 300 meters or so, maybe even less (but it has to be 50 ohm)
I would steer clear of cables completely, as interference poses a serious threat and lightning could fry everything. Fiber offers quicker speeds with lower latency. Best practice would be to install trunking and run the fiber directly, though direct burial can be challenging if you ever need to replace it due to issues.
Yeah, but the cost of fiber remains high. I'm not sure how Linus managed to get a 2600ft spool for under $1000, especially with the weight and shipping expenses. On FS.com, you'd need around $280 or more for a single-mode fiber, which isn't perfect for such short distances (single mode isn't ideal at 300 meters). Checking FiberCabledDirect gives you a minimum of $180 for 1000ft of OM2 single mode, but that's not great for short runs. The jacket isn't suitable for outdoor use either, though the outdoor version is around $500. Transceivers are affordable on FS.com—about $7 for 1Gbps capable units that work up to 550 meters.
Ethernet is limited to distances of up to 100 meters or about 328 feet. Your options are using fiber or maintaining a clear line of sight for a direct connection. Installing fiber would require digging trenches between the structures, placing a conduit in the trench, and then pulling the fiber into position. You might find it easier to purchase a pre-terminated cable, similar to what Linus did, though it can be trickier to extract. Alternatively, you could bury an armored fiber line directly, but this would restrict your ability to modify the setup later.
Technically, it's 100 meters between two devices / nodes. A network switch expands with another 100 meters. It would be completely possible to have 300 meters of ethernet cable and a power cable (if you don't use power over ethernet or passive poe) and 3 network switches used along the cable just to re-amplify the signal. home-- 100m - switch - 100m - switch -100m ---barn There's also switches with poe power input. so you could inject power at home into the ethernet cable and power all 3 switches using power over ethernet. The switches themselves would consume maybe 2-5w which is nothing, even with losses along the 100+ meters of cable, you still have enough power to run the switches. For example : 10$ 24v 12w passive POE injector : https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Passive-I...07KJB712X/ Use one to power the first two switches from the house, and one to power the third from the barn side 60$ gigabit switch with Poe In and Poe out : https://mikrotik.com/product/RB260GSP#fn...ifications 40$ gigabit switch with only poe in, no poe-out : https://mikrotik.com/product/RB260GS (because technically the third switch doesn't need to send power further) : The switches accept 11..30v in (passive poe or dc in), consumes 5w (much less in reality with just in-out cables) ... with 10w power consumption, you're gonna have around 22.5v-23v after 100 meters, which is still way within the acceptable limit and the switch would output this over another 100 meters. Could be all three switches be powered from one end, depends on avg. power consumption of switches with just two cables in them, repeating the signal. Alternatively, you can just do 100mbps ethernet and use the 2 unused pairs for "fake" poe - just use one pair for +12...48v and the other pair for ground and have a 12..48v -> 5...12v converter to power the switch ... this scheme is super common for powering surveillance cameras. But the ethernet cable in my first post would be basically used differently by those ethernet to vdsl2 converters - the converters use only one or two pairs to transmit data as if the ethernet cable is a phone line, like as if your fixed phone would have been connected to the phone company equipment a few hundred meters away to give you a DSL/VDSL internet subscription. So it's perfectly fine to have a 305 meter cable (a full spool), without any cuts, the converter can do even more than 1000 meters but obviously at lower bitrates. from the ethernet to vdsl2 converter documentation (you select the profile manually using those dip switches) anyway ... about suitability of ethernet and risk of lightning... around 10-15 years ago, had FTP cat5e cable across two campus buildings, between the 2nd floor of both buildings, around 105 meters total length. Still did 1 gbps without packet losses even though length was over 100 meters. I Used a steel wire (around AWG16 in thickness) and some zip ties (one every couple meters or so to make rings and put the cable through the zip tie rings then tensioned the steel cable just enough so that it could still contract or stretch with temperature (shrink during winter, sag during summer) FTP cable has an extra metal shielding/insulation foil around all pairs and I made sure to ground that foil only on one side of the cable (so no risk of voltage potential differences and if some electricity hits the cable, chances are high it hits the foil and goes down to ground ... or hits the grounded steel wire.
I would install a direct-burial fiber system and employ either a switch with SFPs or media converters at each connection point.