I am setting up a very simple network in a farm area. I am baffled by what equipment will be required for the setup. I do not want to use wireless - everything hard wired by CAT 5e cables. A DSL Line enters a rental house and the renters utilize one computer at the house. DEVICE 1A - COMPUTER 200 feet from the rental house is a barn that will be extensively wired with internet devices requiring separate IP addresses. Device 2A - IP ENABLED SURVEILLANCE CAMERA Device 2B - ETHERNET BASED SECURITY SYSTEM Device 2C - WIRED ETHERNET WEATHER STATION Device 2D - ETHERNET POWER SWITCH TO ALLOW HARD REBOOT Device 2E - Internet access for another COMPUTER Device 2F - SPARE, NOT ASSIGNED Other than running six CAT 5e cables from the barn to a router located inside the rental house, I have no idea how to set up this network. I will not have access to the barn for most of the year and devices 2A through 2D will be remotely monitored from overseas - so the setup must be absolutely reliable and able to reset itself in case of power failure.

You pull one cable from the house to the barn and put a switch in the barn. You then pull cables from each device to the switch in the barn. Mind you, if it were me, I'd pull a bunch of cables from the house to the barn. If you're already pulling one, more won't make much of a difference right!?!? And trust me, you want to ensure you have enough just in case.... I would dig a trench from the house to the barn. Get some plastic pipe....minimum 1 inch but two inch would be better....and use that as conduit from the house to the barn. Alternatively, if you have the $$$, you could use fibre optic cable from house to barn. But, I'd say copper is more cost effective and if you pull several, then you'll have enough to ensure you can do the job, and allow for any future expansion. Monitoring the separate devices is going to be a little tricky. If each device uses a different port number, you can setup port forwarding for each to connect to the device's LAN IP. Device 2D - ETHERNET POWER SWITCH TO ALLOW HARD REBOOT Of what? You don't specify so this is a little "grey". If you're talking about a computer, or computers, then you could get a remote KVM which has an ethernet connection. You connect to it via an IP address and once connected, it's like being at the console of the computer. You can reboot, enter the BIOS etc. However, if you wish to be able to power up a remote PC then you'll need one with a WOL interface (wake on LAN).

Thanks for the useful comments. The CAT 5e wire run from the house to the barn will be 200 to 250 feet each. Five devices plus a spare line equals 1500 feet. I can buy 2000 feet of underground burial shielded CAT 5e cable for $250. After your comments I'm thinking about just going with brute force and running six CAT 5e lines from a patch panel in the the barn to a router in the house. That way a switch /port forwarding / et al will not be required - the router attached to the DSL modem at the house will dynamically assign IP addresses. Yes I will trench a line and put the CAT 5e bundle inside plastic pipe. Am I correct in assuming the shielding on the CAT 5e lines will eliminate crosstalk ? The ethernet power switch is a safety measure and allows me to switch power off / on to the devices 2A through 2C so in case I start having problems with the IP camera, weather station, ect I can cycle the power and hard reboot the device from overseas. As mentioned, I will not have physical access to any of the devices inside the barn for months at a time - everything will be controlled via ethernet. Any comments or potential drawbacks ?

Yes I will trench a line and put the CAT 5e bundle inside plastic pipe. Am I correct in assuming the shielding on the CAT 5e lines will eliminate crosstalk ? Yes, that's the point of shielding after all! :) Going with outdoor grade wire is a good idea also. It has a much thicker/tougher casing and it's greased inside as well. That's a bit of a pain when you go to punch it but if you wipe it with a bit of paper towel it becomes managable. The ethernet power switch is a safety measure and allows me to switch power off / on to the devices 2A through 2C so in case I start having problems with the IP camera, weather station, ect I can cycle the power and hard reboot the device from overseas. If you get a managed switch that's capable of PoE (power over ethernet) then you could reset power remotely simply by disabling a port, then reenabling it. This of course depends on the devices themselves being PoE capable of course. That way a switch /port forwarding / et al will not be required - the router attached to the DSL modem at the house will dynamically assign IP addresses. I think you misunderstood me so I'll try to explain. To access any device in the LAN behind the firewall (router) will require a port forward on the firewall itself. Not knowing what devices use what port I'll tell you how I set things up here at home so I can access my PC's from work. In order to RDP into my XP box I have a port forward setup on my firewall. When I fire up RDC on my XP Pro PC at work and type in the IP of my router (external IP) at home, it connects. I have a rule setup in the firewall that says "Any traffic looking for port 3389 (that's the RDP port #) goes to IP # (IP address of my XP PC - 192.168.1.xxx)" If I'm connecting to my UNIX box using ssh, the same thing applies. A port forward on the firewall saying "ssh traffic on port # goes to IP # .....) You'll have to do the same. It's possible you could RDP into one XP machine and access all devices from that. This would centralize management and make your life a lot easier. If however that's not the case, then you'll be busy setting up forwards for the different devices so you can reach them.