On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 08:55:08 +0100, Andy Hall wrote:

The popular standard is CAT5e UTP (i.e. unshielded) cable. 300m
will cost you about =A335. Shielded cable (STP) costs about three
times that.

UTP should be fine in a domestic enviroment, I doubt that the extra
expense of STP cable is worth it.

You could also look at CAT6 infrastructure. Cable is approx. twice
the price of CAT5e. You do need to be careful to buy components
that are specified as being suitable, however.

And be a bit more careful about handling the cable, kinks etc if you
want full performance from it.

The cable is relatively cheap in comparison to the disruption to go
back and install more, so it's worth thinking of what you want and
then going back and doubling or tripling it.

Very important. If you think you want/need one cable at a given point
put in two. If you think you need/want two put in four.

It is also worth putting in CT100 coaxial cable. You can either
home run it to your main distribution point or use splitters as part
of a tree structured distribution system if you want to save cable.

CT100 is cheap. Go for the home run as it by far the most flexable
method and avoids the losses and connection problems of splitters.

I used a technique of having transition distribution points.
Basically I put in a large number of cables as bundles to 4 points
in strategic places around the house - typically in fitted
cupboards.

Good idea on a per floor basis, don't forget the roof space.

With cables you are dependent on all the connections being
perfect.

But generally easyily and quickly traced and fixed. If a couple of PCs
just happen to sit in black spots for the RF you can have real fun
moving the access point/PCs about until they all work at the same
time.

Even then, though, the interceptor would need to be sitting outside
your house or pretty close by to be within radio range.

If they are using a poor aerial. Says him with two 802.11b based links
attached to his house one 4.5km long the other about 3km. OK the 4.5km
one uses 24" dishes at each end but has a good 20dB+ margin. The
shorter link uses "long" yagis and has a similar margin. Other links
in the area are longer, some over 10km.

With a decent aerial I reckon that you could be several hundred
metres, line of sight, from an normal access point and still be able
to communicate with it.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail