high speed internet help

[Ben.V.293]

I live on a farm in new jersey and i'm trying to get high speed internet but i'm not quite sure how to do it. DSL isn't provided in my area and i can't use cable because my house is a quarter mile away from the road and the cable was never run to our house. I've done alot of research and i've been told that satelite internet isn't worth getting because its so expensive and doesn't work well. I thought about running a coax cable to my house for cable but found out that i'd need amplifiers and all kinds of junk thats over my head. The people i've talked said that a point to point wireless 802.11g router was the way to go. So the router and antenna would be in a box at the end of my driveway where the cable wire is and it would send the internet to my house. The guy at best buy told me that the netgear super g router with a long distance antenna would have no problem going 1500 feet. The only problem is that theres no transformer untill my house so theres no way to power the router with 120 ac where the box would need to be. Both my parents do alot of work from home and we're willing to do just about anything to get high speed internet. Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks
Ben Van Selous

[Alexander McGee]

I'm pretty sure you should check with the cable company before you decide your house is too far from the road. My dad is a general contractor and we build houses all the time. I can think of at least 4 occasions where we called the cable company to have wires buried to the house. They have to do it if you want their service, and one time it had to go over 2 miles!

As far as amplification goes, you would leave that to the cable company too.

Your idea of using wifi is a good one, however you will need more than just a high powered access point and large antennas. That 1500 feet you mentioned is in a circle, not one direction. You would need a repeater to re-send out the signal towards the edge of the "bubble" of wifi access.

Hope this helps!

[MikeDubreuil]

I think your best bet is to run the cable to your house. Deal with ampliflication issues later on. In fact, I would consider it the cable company's problem if there was any amplification problem.

Running electricity 1500 feet is no more fun than running the coax. I believe the wireless would be more expensive after you run the electricity there, and the waterproof box, and buy the wireless gear. You will also increase the latency of your internet connection by using wireless. There's also the problem of security, wireless isn't as secure as a land line.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil

Running electricity 1500 feet is no more fun than running the coax.

Tesla coil anyone?

[Max Lobovsky]

If you want to make a bit of a project out of this, you could power the wifi router/cable modem with solar power. A quick search turns up this page with a bit of help: http://www.solar4power.com/solar-pow...ing.html#loads. I would also definitley recommend using a directional wifi antenna, not just a "high power" antenna. 1500 feet may be in the official specs for that antenna, but with wifi, unless you are in a desert without any obstructions, expect like 1/2 the maximum rated range.

[Wetzel]

magnasmific has it right. Call the cable company and get the cable extended out to your house. If they won't it will be worth it to pay for it yourself in the hassle you'll save in trying to get wireless set up out there.

Satallite may be an option. It works ok, except in thunderstorms, and isn't all that expensive anymore.


Wetzel

[Marc P.]

The cable company should have no problem at all getting a cable into your house. If it's only a quarter of a mile, RG6 coaxial cable should do alright (although RG11 would be much better). If they won't provide the cable, you should be able to get 1000' spools for ~$125-150. RG11 does great over very long runs. I used to run the TV station at my high school, and we would broadcast many events live, from all around the school. The longest distance from one side of the school to the other was easily 1200' worth of cable, and we'd get pretty strong signals coming off the RG11 runs, although any more than that may need a signal amplifier. There's some good info on cables here. Of course, check with your cable company first, to make sure they offer service in your area, and have them check the quality of the signal to make sure that particular tier can support broadband. If the signal is good at that point, you should be essentially home free into getting broadband to your house.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Ben,
The experience here in Chicago and surrounding areas is that if the cable company provides Internet, you can just sign up for that service without signing onto cable TV. As with any utility, the provider runs the wire to allow you to pay him for the use. Call the local cable TV provider and talk to a salesman. They will fill you in on all the details. Expect to sign up for at least a year of service as part of the package. Cable modem is about the only choice you have at this point unless there is a wi-fi provider that covers your area. Rural coverage is not a priority.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Ben,
The experience here in Chicago and surrounding areas is that if the cable company provides Internet, you can just sign up for that service without signing onto cable TV.

Al, where we are in Northern Virginia, it is $10 LESS a month to get basic cable and internet rather then just internet.

Local milage will vary.

Wetzel

[evulish]

If you do decide to go the wireless route, I'd go with 802.11b since it'll be much cheaper, assuming you're not going to get much more than 3mbit from your ISP, it'd be over-kill to use a 54mbit wireless connection. Like someone said, use a directional antenna to get good reception.. there are actually instructions to build them online out of things like old satellite dishes or PVC pipes. Using ebay and some parts-scrounging, you could probably pull this off for $30-$40.

[Ben.V.293]

thanks all for the help, I really appreciate it. I'll talk to my cable company and see what they say.

Thanks,
Ben Van Selous

[Tom Schindler]

Originally Posted by evulish

If you do decide to go the wireless route, I'd go with 802.11b since it'll be much cheaper, assuming you're not going to get much more than 3mbit from your ISP, it'd be over-kill to use a 54mbit wireless connection. Like someone said, use a directional antenna to get good reception.. there are actually instructions to build them online out of things like old satellite dishes or PVC pipes. Using ebay and some parts-scrounging, you could probably pull this off for $30-$40.

I'm fairly certain that if you use a wireless G router you will be able to pick up the singal further away than if you were using a B router. Therefore it would not be 'overkill' to use the 54mbit wireless, since he would have less need for another repeater halfway up this driveway.

Tom

[Elgin Clock]

Plus, to add to the b vs g wireless route, let's say you bought a laptop and wanted to connect to a wireless network at say the championship event.

G would let you connect, while B would not. (Been there, tried that )
G is the next generation wireless standard after B and is a lot more useful.

edit: If you do ending up hooking up to the Cable line, run a speed test and let me know what your results are.. Mine is 2595.4 Kbps and I am in the middle of a city area right now.

I'm just curious as to if it is reletively the same in a rural area with a 1500' individual cable line.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Bandwidth_me....html?tag=tool
Bandwith test ^

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Mine is 2595.4 Kbps and I am in the middle of a city area right now.

I'm just curious as to if it is reletively the same in a rural area with a 1500' individual cable line.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Bandwidth_me....html?tag=tool
Bandwith test ^

11623.9 Kbps - You

I win Elgin.

Wetzel

[evulish]

Originally Posted by Tom Schindler

I'm fairly certain that if you use a wireless G router you will be able to pick up the singal further away than if you were using a B router. Therefore it would not be 'overkill' to use the 54mbit wireless, since he would have less need for another repeater halfway up this driveway.

Tom

Actually, 802.11g has about a 10% shorter range than 802.11b. Also, any type of 802.11g device should work with any 802.11b device and vice-versa.. the 802.11g spec was designed to be backwards-compatible. I know this from experience since I have an 802.11b router, an 802.11g AP, 802.11g card, and an 802.11b adapter. They have all worked just fine together (the problem is between 802.11b/g and 802.11a). Also, if you're going to be using directional antennas, you're not going to get very good reception if you're moving around with a laptop.