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Thread: Internet advice

  1. #16
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    Nov 2006
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    I have a nearly 300’ underground run of direct burial Cat6 cable in conduit from the gigabit cable modem in my house to my shop. Works well.
    John - I stand corrected. Cat 5e and Cat 6 break the 100 meter(300 feet) restriction.
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  2. #17
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    Apr 2018
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    Download the Starlink app for your phone (hopefully you have a smart phone). With it you can see what trees will be a problem. Start there because running a cable isn't going to matter if your signal gets blocked. You may have to go up on the roof where the antenna will be mounted. It's roughly a 45 degree cone from where the antenna will be mounted. The cable supplied isn't a cat 5 cable, it's their own specific cable. You can buy an adapter that has an ethernet connector on it but it took months for me to get mine.

    How far is your shop from your house? Can you just use the WiFi signal? You'll loose speed the further the WiFi has to travel. I get anywhere between 180Mb/s down to 70Mb/s download and about 10 to 20 upload with Starlink. I have one tree that's slightly blocking the antenna so when it moves to that position in the summer I loose internet for about 15 minutes. You also need to be handy as there's no phone number to call, just email support.

  3. #18
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    Aug 2021
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    Redmond, OR
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    When the phone company finally upgraded my service from 6Mbps to 12 Mbps I received a new modem with a 1Gb interface. This caused all sorts of errors between the new modem and my firewall because I installed a Cat 5 cable (Cat 5e hadn't been speced yet when I ran the cable) about 20 years ago. I had to remove the cat 5 cable and put in one capable of higher speeds. I went with the following direct burial cat 8 cable. I went with a cable with molded on RJ 45 connector ends so I wouldn't have to terminate the ends in jacks myself and loose some of its speed mojo. The cable isn't buried but run along the outside of my house. The direct burial jacket should hold up well even with sun exposure.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I paid $60 for 100' and a 200' cable is only $80. This seemed like a very fair price to me for a well built cable that should last the next 20 years.
    Last edited by Michael Schuch; 07-18-2022 at 6:39 PM.

  4. #19
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    Mar 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Engelhardt View Post
    John - I stand corrected. Cat 5e and Cat 6 break the 100 meter(300 feet) restriction.
    While you "can" run longer than 100 meters/328 ft and often get away with it, that's outside of the Ethernet specification.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #20
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    While you "can" run longer than 100 meters/328 ft and often get away with it, that's outside of the Ethernet specification.
    I thought so...
    John, I retract my retraction!

    The Ethernet frame sizes have a minimum of 64 bytes to 1518 bytes.
    The 100 meter restriction is based on those frame sizes.
    100 meters is the longest run of cable that allows the Ethernet collision detection to function.
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  6. #21
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    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    One of the reasons that some folks get away with pushing the distance a little is just how good the cable we use today is for rejecting interference, etc. But it will always be a best practice to stay within the specifications for sure.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  7. #22
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    Feb 2003
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    Doylestown, PA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm McLeod View Post
    I considered suggesting fiber, but as you allude to, terminations exceed the average IT-civilian's DIY capability. I land a lot of Ethernet cables, and for fiber I call the pros.
    I did a little research into fiber for someone who might need a data connection greater than 100 meters away. This is what I learned. A couple alternatives were directional wifi antennas designed for exterior use as long as they had line of sight between the devices year round (no leaves). The second possibility was multimode fiber. Media converters - ethernet -> fiber -> ethernet can be found fairly inexpensively if they're in conditioned spaces, operating temps from around freezing to 100*+. Media converters that function in lower and higher temps are available but they're quite a bit more $. As far as fiber optic termination the best advice for most of us would be buy the cable already terminated. Given that multimode fiber works out to around 3600 feet (gigabit speed), order it long enough. Single mode works for miles. There are different connectors so make sure the connectors on the cable match the connectors on the hardware. The people I was researching this for didn't go ahead with their project AFAIK so I don't know how it would have turned out.
    Last edited by Curt Harms; 07-19-2022 at 9:44 AM.

  8. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Curt Harms View Post
    I did a little research into fiber ….
    We run hundreds of miles of single-mode, mostly overhead, but some underground, and it lands in a fiber patch panel at our respective facilities. I rely on the big brain guys to hang & terminate this; when they talk polishing, I fall asleep.

    From the patch panel to a Stratix switch, we use pre-terminated fiber to the respective transceivers.

    We originally tried 2 flavors of Ethernet radios (Cambium & Tropos, IIRC - and they DO require line-of-sight), but as our facilities count and integration has progressed, inter-facility communication has evolved a requirement to be bulletproof. Fiber makes it so. Expensive. But bulletproof. …So far.

    If automation at a well pad loses comms to automation at a tank battery, all of the wells are shut in as a safety. And that drives up the pump price of gas. Bulletproof is good.

    *****
    ETA - Stratix 5700 switches are good for -40C to 60C, so great for desert environment. Or unconditioned shop. Just FYI.
    Last edited by Malcolm McLeod; 07-19-2022 at 10:19 AM.

  9. #24
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    Feb 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    As to the email...it's never a good idea to use ISP provided email addresses. They generally are not portable (hence, your concern) and that's not a good thing as technology and...offers/opportunities...come along. Gmail, Outlook dot com, iCloud, etc, are a lot more flexible over time as they don't care what network is being used to access them from a contractual standpoint.

    Pre-terminated fiber and transceivers are offered on Amazon and other places. It's been awhile since I actually looked at the cost. Again, if anyone is contemplating that, it's important to get the correct format of fiber and consistent connector types for a "system" end to end.
    I'll echo Jim on the email. There are several reliable free email providers not tied to any ISP. I went one step further and got Ooma VoIP phone service. SWMBO doesn't want to hear about cell phone only plus we'd like 911 service to work. It seems like regional 911 service here works with Ooma. $7.95/month and will plug into any home router.

    Speaking of email. We had Verizon email addresses. Verizon bought AOL a while back (since sold it) and transitioned Verizon email to AOL but kept the @verizon.net address. SWMBO had trouble with her Verizon email address, she couldn't log in. We called AOL tech support, even paid $5.95/mo. for 'enhanced support'. They had us try what we already tried then wanted to remote into 'her PC'. She only had Linux installed and they only support Windows. I hooked an old laptop up that had Windows installed. They installed their remote software, tried a few things and pronounced it unfixable. Okay fine, we got her a 3rd party email address, Thunderbird had saved all the email and addresses she cared about. I got an email from AOL support, saying he/she had received a support request for SWMBOs account -- 10 MONTHS after we gave up on AOL. I thanked the nice person and said we had it fixed.
    Last edited by Curt Harms; 07-19-2022 at 9:47 AM.

  10. #25
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    Feb 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm McLeod View Post
    We run hundreds of miles of single-mode, mostly overhead, but some underground, and it lands in a fiber patch panel at our respective facilities. I rely on the big brain guys to hang & terminate this; when they talk polishing, I fall asleep.
    When I was down the internet/fiber rabbit hole I watched a number of youtube videos on the subject. As with most things in cyberworld some seemed pretty good - often produced by major players - and some were pretty 'homemade'.

  11. #26
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    Feb 2018
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    N CA
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    I received the kit from Starlink. Surprisingly as a last ditch effort to avoid the underground wire I’ve discussed previously I took one more shot at the house roof and found a location right where the old direct tv dish was located. I removed the dish and put the Starlink long wall mount on that frame. I now have to trim out the cable once we decide where the SL modem will go. Installation and start-up on this could not have been easier and I offer that as the dimmest of the dim in the data world. It is like a new world. I show the speed test with the AT&T system and the new Starlink.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  12. #27
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    Jan 2010
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    Tampa Bay, FL
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    Still not jaw dropping speeds, but boy what an improvement over what AT&T was providing. I'd love to here how the Starlink performs long-term (any weather interruptions like with my DirecTV, speed, etc...)

    Great that you got a workable solution. Nice job.
    - After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
    - It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.

  13. #28
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    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone View Post
    … I'd love to here how the Starlink performs long-term (any weather interruptions like with my DirecTV, speed, etc...)
    I read of one unexpected problem - when mounted low to the ground cats liked to get comfy on the heated dishes in cold weather. Could that affect the performance? 😁

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    I read of one unexpected problem - when mounted low to the ground cats liked to get comfy on the heated dishes in cold weather. Could that affect the performance? 
    So are you saying it's not totally PURRRfected yet John?

  15. #30
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    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ronald Blue View Post
    So are you saying it's not totally PURRRfected yet John?
    The cats apparently like relaxing in them so much I expect some entrepreneur to sell dummy heated starlink dishes to cat lovers.

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