[Shop-talk] shop internet

[Peter Murray]

John-

How much bandwidth do you want in your shop?

I have used network-over-powerline adapters for quite a while now, and have
had good success with them. I have an outbuilding/home office about 200'
from my house, and those adapters provided a very serviceable connection
between the outbuilding and the house (about 25Mbit). As others have
pointed out, you'll have best luck with them with them both operating on
the same hot leg of your 240V split-phase power. It can be hit or miss, but
a pair of "2000Mbit" units isn't terribly expensive. I wouldn't be
surprised in the least if you find they work just fine for you. I would
connect one of them to an available LAN ethernet ports (likely on your
router) and the other (in the shop) in a convenient outlet. You can get
versions that have built in PoE (for an access point, perhaps), or you can
adapt another router/AP to simply provide wifi in the shop. There are also
network-over-power/AP combo units as well. Don't forget that the
network-over-powerline units don't operate in pairs - you can place several
wherever you need them, and they'll act like additional ethernet ports. I
like the TP-Link gear, and units with a pass-through power port and a
couple of ports are wicked handy.

In my situation, I do have clear line of sight and have "upgraded" from the
network-over-power units to a Ubiquiti mesh link, which yields about
150-200Mbit of actual throughput. If you are truly only 300' from one
building to the other, I think you'll not have any trouble linking the two
locations using 5GHz wireless. The trees will attenuate, but you can focus
the power available to increase your link budget and "burn through" the
vegetation. I'd look at a pair of Ubiquiti LiteBeam Gen2 units (pretty
cheap on Amazon
<https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-LBE-5AC-GEN2-US-LiteBeam-Wireless-Bridge/dp/B06Y2JH7PV?th=1>)
- they'll get you somewhere around 250-300Mbit of throughput with 80MHz
channel usage. Narrower channel usage will yield better reliability if that
balance needs to be struck. They have about a 12 degree beamwidth, so
they're pretty forgiving with your aim, but the available power is focused
where you want it.

When I installed 60A/240V service in my tiny outbuilding, I had the service
run in plastic conduit - but - for reasons that escape me right now -
didn't run any fiber. I regret that, and intend to order a pre-made
6-strand OS3 fiber cable and pull it through this summer. I'll light it up
at 1Gbit (for the moment). With LC connectors on each end of the fiber, the
ethernet switches and mini-GBIC units needed to turn it into conventional
copper ethernet are cheap, and I don't worry about my ham radio RF or
lightning strikes acting on a big copper ethernet line like an antenna.
LANShack is who I'm looking at for the fiber, by the way.

If you're not averse to running a copper cable, 330' is your ethernet
maximum (100m). If you go that route, I'd go with Cat6, and I'd put it in
flexible conduit, guessing that you don't already have conduit in place.
You don't really even need to worry about putting it below the frost line -
goodness knows that Cox (our local coax cable company) and Verizon FiOS
don't. That said, I would suggest calling your local utility marking outfit
before you dig.

Happy to talk further!

-Peter (independent IT guy, radio amateur)

On Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 6:02 PM john niolon <jniolon at att.net> wrote:

> I'm trying to get some 'reliable' internet service to my unattached shop
> building... just a shade too far for cable access  (just under 300 feet of
> cable) and too many obstacles for wireless
> \even with an extender... looking at powerline units...  two boxes...modem
> plugs into one and it plugs into 120 v plug...other box plugs into any
> other plug on same
> breaker box and the laptop plugs into it with cat-5-cable..
>
> anyone have any experienced with this type service ??
>
> example:
>
>
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/275159414599?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110018%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.COMPLISTINGS%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D238115%26meid%3D9d4234b8cade433b81c8265e84d81de8%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D10%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D265638365047%26itm%3D275159414599%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DItemStripV101HighAdFeeWithCompV3Ranker%26brand%3DNETGEAR&_trksid=p2047675.c101196.m2219&amdata=cksum%3A2751594145999d4234b8cade433b81c8265e84d81de8%7Cenc%3AAQAGAAABAMwaiCkD4Jz%252FAA1ytZhxVAzuCsqdmLW9ojO6k7lKEs76vKeVo8baO64duoLIjpcgMP90FFiVgMKbdjh7IgvEI%252BQJgW4gEnxkDA5yYEh7wlEj%252FSuKUyH0RJbKQh7dzMgt%252BJRsfe1bI7Jq%252BzI1fyQLcD4HuL%252FMQUHFh10KutrC3t3VJZoR0sVMt6IDKUo7JSyE07Tq52Ka8iPzC9czJ30Nj43ezZTHfxDa3MVT0chETDN2ahqtYKn1MU6wPLlb5sYl6h8pA6VP72FCgmJMYEVr0A8gmzhmomEh75XqFQfAefFiX4hPo%252BiZmySE8%252Bh4nUWX3cDN7k4ixdEcXiYyvMaWhsA%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2047675&epid=1186426581
>
> thanks
> john
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