Wifi - Extender Guru's

matab14

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Hey guys, long story short I live in the middle of nowhere. We finally had an ISP run some High Speed Fiber cables down a road on one side of my property. They mounted a box on a garage that borders said road. My house sits on an adjacent road to the south. They would not run the cabling down that road so it leaves me with a bit of a problem. What's the best way to get internet to my house from the garage?

It is approximately 1000ft from Point A (Garage) to Point B (House). I've googled a little but not had one great clear answer. It's not direct line of site either, there is a chunk of trees between both properties but currently we operate off of mobile hotspots as there are no other options. I've contemplated just running a cat5 cable through the trees lol, but I understand that signal loss occurs around 328ft. It's an advertised 1000mbps connection so I'm wondering even with a little signal loss will that still be plenty.....Any help / ideas would be appreciated!
 
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rotor_powerd

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How many trees blocking line of sight? Some of the Ubiquiti airMax stuff will go through trees at that short of a distance no problem. You can even buy them already paired on Amazon so there is zero configuration for you to do.

Otherwise you’re stuck running fiber from garage to house (as you noted, copper will not be a suitable solution for a 1,000’ run).
 

CobraBob

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I read your post and took a quick look at the slew of Ubiquiti airMax stuff. That's some impressive hardware. Running fiber underground for 1000' (the length of more than 3 football fields) would be a big task, but doable, right? Would running fiber cable be the preferred choice over Ubiquiti airMax? I'm just curious. In part because we're a half block away from overhead fiber cable, and because we have underground utilities here in our neighborhood they won't connect us. Ticks me off because I've been patiently waiting for fiber and for the past 6 months they've been stringing fiber cable through Cheshire, but only overhead. No underground undoubtedly due to the higher cost of laying it. To me, fiber cable is such an solid choice. But I'm not that techie with this stuff.
 

rotor_powerd

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I read your post and took a quick look at the slew of Ubiquiti airMax stuff. That's some impressive hardware. Running fiber underground for 1000' (the length of more than 3 football fields) would be a big task, but doable, right? Would running fiber cable be the preferred choice over Ubiquiti airMax? I'm just curious. In part because we're a half block away from overhead fiber cable, and because we have underground utilities here in our neighborhood they won't connect us. Ticks me off because I've been patiently waiting for fiber and for the past 6 months they've been stringing fiber cable through Cheshire, but only overhead. No underground undoubtedly due to the higher cost of laying it.
I can’t believe that any provider would be running overhead fiber in 2022. That’s one shortsighted way to save money I guess.
 

L8APEX

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cat5e-cat6 max run is <350ft, I keep it well under 300ft inside building due to EM interference and for sake of the PoE switch's power supply as I'm often running PoE for ip cameras.
Fiber is honestly the best long term answer. 1,000ft is nothing as there is quite a bit on the consumer (albeit more "pro"sumer) market rated for gigabit up to 2km or just over 1.24 miles (bleeding edge of the tech is 64 miles for signal/noise without a repeater)

You just would need a pair of gigabit or 2.5gb fiber to ethernet (sometimes called media) adaptors (a 2.5g is bit of future proofing over just gigabit/ 1gb), one at where it enters the garage next to where they have the gateway or modem setup, and another back in your house where the fiber ultimately comes in, it can be plugged into either a router/wifi or a switch and a wireless access point (depending on if the device in the garage is a modem or gateway (which is both a modem and router) but you can still run a gateway in pass thru mode (makes it act like just a modem) and hook up a nice router behind it at the house then the corresponding cable. You just have to be a bit picky with some of them as some will work out of the box, and others require configuration.
With the fiber cable(s) (some standards are single strands some are pairs) the tricky part is actually going terminating the ends, but they are easy to burry just using a spade and they won't carry an electric charge (lightning isn't going to follow it back into the house and fry your stuff.) Best of all you'll not lose any speed or increase the latency vs going over radio. I'll be a bit more physical work especially getting it buttied in the treeline but likely cheaper, more resilient to weather or RF interference.
The termination tools are not the cheapest but if you can find someone who does this work and wants to make a bit on the side to terminate a few cables it's worth it.
 

matab14

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cat5e-cat6 max run is <350ft, I keep it well under 300ft inside building due to EM interference and for sake of the PoE switch's power supply as I'm often running PoE for ip cameras.
Fiber is honestly the best long term answer. 1,000ft is nothing as there is quite a bit on the consumer (albeit more "pro"sumer) market rated for gigabit up to 2km or just over 1.24 miles (bleeding edge of the tech is 64 miles for signal/noise without a repeater)

You just would need a pair of gigabit or 2.5gb fiber to ethernet (sometimes called media) adaptors (a 2.5g is bit of future proofing over just gigabit/ 1gb), one at where it enters the garage next to where they have the gateway or modem setup, and another back in your house where the fiber ultimately comes in, it can be plugged into either a router/wifi or a switch and a wireless access point (depending on if the device in the garage is a modem or gateway (which is both a modem and router) but you can still run a gateway in pass thru mode (makes it act like just a modem) and hook up a nice router behind it at the house then the corresponding cable. You just have to be a bit picky with some of them as some will work out of the box, and others require configuration.
With the fiber cable(s) (some standards are single strands some are pairs) the tricky part is actually going terminating the ends, but they are easy to burry just using a spade and they won't carry an electric charge (lightning isn't going to follow it back into the house and fry your stuff.) Best of all you'll not lose any speed or increase the latency vs going over radio. I'll be a bit more physical work especially getting it buttied in the treeline but likely cheaper, more resilient to weather or RF interference.
The termination tools are not the cheapest but if you can find someone who does this work and wants to make a bit on the side to terminate a few cables it's worth it.

So as far as running said lines. Could they be above ground? I say this because there is a about 40 ft - 50 ft drop in the woods between house and garage. Both are at the same elevation so if I did string something through the woods I am wondering if it just rang along some trees then elevated in the air 8 ft or so is there harm in that? Or would a guy NEED to trench and burry all of that?

Speaking to the wireless point and / or line of site. Like I said it's about 500ft of woods but in the fall with the elevation change there you can see through that somewhat. I'm not looking for the full 1000mbps either. I'd be tickled to achieve 3-400. I think that would support everything we'd use it for sure.
 

BigPoppa

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I've run fiber in open outdoor wire trays. But, I can't say how well the cable will hold up to long term pole mounting.

Rent a trencher, you only need to go 2 inches or so deep. Make sure to buy burial rated fiber. Install a couple fiber underground posts. Hire a terminator or buy a kit and see if YouTube has a DIY. It's simpler than you would believe.
 

rotor_powerd

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So as far as running said lines. Could they be above ground? I say this because there is a about 40 ft - 50 ft drop in the woods between house and garage. Both are at the same elevation so if I did string something through the woods I am wondering if it just rang along some trees then elevated in the air 8 ft or so is there harm in that? Or would a guy NEED to trench and burry all of that?

Speaking to the wireless point and / or line of site. Like I said it's about 500ft of woods but in the fall with the elevation change there you can see through that somewhat. I'm not looking for the full 1000mbps either. I'd be tickled to achieve 3-400. I think that would support everything we'd use it for sure.
Splicing and terminating fiber isn’t the hardest thing in the world but you do need some know-how. I’d recommend burying it for reliability and longevity.
 

L8APEX

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The bigest trick is making sure the splices are clean, and flush. With the right tools it's easier than RJ45 on ethernet.
Definitely bury the cable (most have insulation that is sensitive to UV light, and bending out in the open will result in failure resulting in you doing it all again soon when it fails.) But if done right, it'll last many years, decades even. Then as your isp increases speed or adds features you'll be able to use the same fiber and just upgrade the hardware on the ends to keep up.
You'll not only be able to tell 300-400mb vs 1000mb but the lower ping you'll have with a wired connection you'll especially notice. Response will be much faster wired vs radio.
 

SweetSVT99

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I have about 100 Ubiquiti devices deployed for various things. This one is a bridge between a house and a barn, then the barn feeding three other houses and a solar array for family members who live around the farm. The longest one is about two miles away if I remember right. I mostly use Nanostations for my bridges, but sometimes I use other devices depending on the needs. Usually Nanostations are super cheap, but Ubiquiti has been having really bad supply chain issues and now people are charging a premium for them.

1670512181880.png
 

SweetSVT99

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So as far as running said lines. Could they be above ground? I say this because there is a about 40 ft - 50 ft drop in the woods between house and garage. Both are at the same elevation so if I did string something through the woods I am wondering if it just rang along some trees then elevated in the air 8 ft or so is there harm in that? Or would a guy NEED to trench and burry all of that?

Speaking to the wireless point and / or line of site. Like I said it's about 500ft of woods but in the fall with the elevation change there you can see through that somewhat. I'm not looking for the full 1000mbps either. I'd be tickled to achieve 3-400. I think that would support everything we'd use it for sure.

I missed this post before my last reply. A wireless bridge is definitely going to be a challenge here. You could MAYBE get by with one if you go with a 900Mhz radio, but even then it's unlikely it'll be reliable. You're definitely going to need to run some cable, and fiber is going to be your only option since you'll be way beyond what ethernet is capable of. I also agree with the other replies, if you want this to be a long term reliable connection, your best bet is to bury it.
 

CobraBob

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I can’t believe that any provider would be running overhead fiber in 2022. That’s one shortsighted way to save money I guess.
Most of my town is overhead wires. Cox is the dominant cable provider here, so for Frontier to compete they had to run their own cable. There was a big Frontier marketing push here, and a lot of Cox customers switched to Frontier. Except, unfortunately, the newer neighborhoods that have underground service.
 

wizbangdoodle

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Yeah, bury it. If you run it through trees, they keep growing and you'll end up with issues. Is there anything already in the ground that would keep you from trenching? If not, dig a shallow trench and throw it in there.
 

DaleM

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Most of my town is overhead wires. Cox is the dominant cable provider here, so for Frontier to compete they had to run their own cable. There was a big Frontier marketing push here, and a lot of Cox customers switched to Frontier. Except, unfortunately, the newer neighborhoods that have underground service.
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I swear by the Eero 6e Pro extenders.

Our limiting factor are old comms cards and device up and down capabilities.

Using CAT8 for future gen upgrades.

Screenshot_20230222-090150.png
 

DSG2003Mach1

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damn, thats flying!

They ran fiber (boxes in the ground say MCI/Verizon) down the main drag between a bunch of subdivisions including mine and finished that probably close to one year ago...no work at all since, drives me crazy. ATT just finished fiber in my cousin's neighbor hood and he is getting gigabit for around $20 less than Im paying for 400megabit.
 

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