Fiber optic, how to? All fiber optic folks please chime in...

[KubotainNH]

Your first posting was confusing. I don't see how your internet access via a Telco's fiber comes into play for what you are wanting to do. As mentioned, 100 meters is the max for CAT 5 and above twisted pair running a max of a gig connection. You can also split the pairs and get 2 - 2 pair connections that will max at 100mb's each which is generally plenty fast and usually way above most people's broadband connection. This is what makes me laugh about people claiming they have a gig connection on their PC, only so much fits out that internet pipe.

If you are running normal (inexpensive) UTP cable then you want to make sure the cabling does not run parallel with anything that will bring noise to the line like a 110v line. You also want to make sure the pair twists go right up to the connector. Those twists cancel out the noise from the other conductors so need to be there. If your area has lightning storms then I suggest you abandon this setup. You will end up with fried electronics, it's happened to me twice. I will be using my current cat 5 underground cable as a pull string to pull in fiber when it warms up. I already bought the copper/fiber transceivers.

On the link below near the bottom of the site is a picture of the pinout. All that is needed for 100mb is 1,2,3 & 6, all 8 wires for gig.
Serial Communication

You can daisy chain routers but have to make sure the subnet range is not the same and best to have the wifi signals on different channels. This would mean different wifi name for each unit. There are units that are basically extenders for lack of a better word, they can get tedious to configure. One other tidbit, on a noisy connection you can sometimes get better throughput if you drop the max speed down like force 10mb on a connection.

The analog line is easiest fixed by adding something like a Vonage box.

 

[MossRoad]

Your 300' (theoretical) limit on CAT5 cable is not cumulative.... If your router has four CAT5 ports, you can run four 300'(or less, of course) CAT5 cables from each one. Hope that makes sense.

 

[MossRoad]

CAT5 wiring...
RJ45 Colors : RJ45 Color Guide Diagram - straight through and crossover T-568A and T-568B TIA / EIA

 

[MossRoad]

Just remember that its fairly important to keep the individual pairs twisted as best you can right up to the connector.

 

[kcflhrc]

Forget about the fiber, that is only for the delivery of the circuit. All of your connections will be ethernet. Keep in mind also for Gigabit speeds you need Gigabit NIC Cards in your devices.

 

[k0ua]

Running fiber between the house and the barn, has positives and negatives. One negative is higher cost for the media converters on each end to convert back to copper. BUT a big positive is the resistance to lightning. Any piece of copper in the ground is subject to lightning damage. It is easier to protect the power supply's of the media converters on each end. Fiber is inherently immune to picking up electromagnetic spikes from nearby lightning strikes. Of course a lot depends on your location and how susceptible your area is to lightning. Florida is notoriously plagued with lightning problems. Other areas, not so much. Of course there are protectors for CAT5e/CAT6. PolyPhaser/Transtector is some of the best. Isn't cheap though.

 

[Coyote machine]

My electric utility owns everything from my rural road pole to the pole on my property, then everything powerwise drops underground. 200 Amp service to my service entry panel in my basement. Up to that point it's ALL owned and maintained by the utility.
Fiber optic is brought to the pole on the property and then drops to underground and the conversion to the house existing 5 pair copper line, is inside my garage. The existing copper lines along the road, and the pedestals will eventually be abandoned back to the substations after all residential and business runs are completed.

Fiber from the drop to my TELCO supplied Pace fiber router/modem is connected by one broadband Cat5E run from the conversion box in the garage. The existing 5 pair underground from the roadside pedestal is also tied to the conversion box. This keeps all my existing phones on copper wire and any wired local ethernet runs from the new modem can each be up to 300', as you guys have mentioned.
I have one of the 4 local ethernet runs going to the barn underground in it's own 2" plastic conduit It is 167' of underground, and can be up to a total of 280' in this run IF I use the entire length of the cable.

Question: is there any objection to using a splice connector near the end of this run, to allow it to connect to an existing short ethernet cable already connected to one of the local ethernet ports on the modem? I would like to do this because getting any new wires to the modem is tight and somewhat inaccessible.

I also don't know why I would want to use another modem/router at the barn instead of an access point. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to going with either device?

The Cat5E run to the barn is just a straight run, yes? No need for crossover on that 8 wire Cat5E, correct?

TIA, once again.

CM

 

[buickanddeere]

Don't zip tie fiber optic cable tight to anything.

 

[KubotainNH]

I will say again that going fiber to the barn is the best bet. I'm not all that far from you and have lost equipment on a shorter underground run on 2 different occasions. The last one took out 2 Vonage boxes, 2 switches, a router, 2 NIC cards, a laptop, a PS3 and the TV connected to the PS3. Good thing I run a bunch of stuff on wireless.

Back to the copper side, as long as the twists are the same and wired per the links sent then you can add a RJ45 coupler anywhere you want. You can add a female punch down jack instead, that looks cleaner and can clip into a wall mount box. No need for a crossover if gig (it auto flips) and most pieces of equipment these days have a port that can be flipped by hitting a switch, auto flip or have a port that is specifically for that use. Access point and router is fine, I don't know much about them for residential use, only the corporate world.
CE TECH Category 5e Jack - White-5025-WH - The Home Depot
CE TECH 2-Port Cat 5e and Cat 6 Surface Mounting Box-5322-WH - The Home Depot

If you change your mind on the copper, this is what I have for fiber to copper transceivers in the first link. I got 2 for a good price and 100mb is plenty fast for me. Other brands sell gig capable ones like in the 2nd link. I have a Unicom one sitting on my desk at work. You do need to make sure the converter matches the fiber bought (SM or MM plus connector type).
Transition Networks Lancast Twister 2131 Fibre Transceiver Adapter 2131 15 01 | eBay
Unicom Velocity Gigabit Ethernet Converter GEP 5300TF C s14 3 69D | eBay

Fiber is not that expensive anymore, here's an example: 100M LC LC Duplex 50 125 Multimode Fiber Optic Patch Cable Cord Jumper Orange | eBay

 

[k0ua]

What we are saying Coyote, is yes the copper will work fine, but it is susceptible to electromagnetic pulse. Like lightning for example. It is a nice big fat antenna in the ground like that. It would take a lot to damage the actual wire,(sometimes it actually does) but it will kill the electronics really easy. The glass fiber in the ground will not pickup up lightning pulses nor transmit them to the electronics on the end. It is your choice, and as I pointed out, some areas are much worse than others.