The lumber company I work for recently switched to a computer based solution for their accounting / retail processes. Because of this, their Receiving Department requires a computer and wireless network in a seperate warehouse about 350 feet away from the main storefront (386 feet from my server room and the main switch it connects to).

A third party network provider suggested running a fiber optic link to the recieving warehouse, which is out of our budget (and a waste) for our estimated bandwidth requirements are less than 50 Mbps. Currently, we have two cat5 waterproof cables making the run with a hub in a protected enclosure 100 feet down the line. This works for the most part, but once the rainy season comes, the segment fails because a conduit that some of the cat5 runs through floods (company does not plan on fixing this) so the weatherproof cat5 isn't working for us.

Aside from a pricey optical connection (out of budget), my solution is to run a coaxial / thinnet the entire distance. Again, bandwidth is not a problem and should be able to accomodate 1 PC and 4-5 802.11b PDAs. Another solution would be to expand the store's wireless network to include the lumber yard between the two. Although a bit more pricey than the coaxial solution, it would be more useful in the long run due to the possibility of expanding our use of 802.11b PDA's and the possible addition of adding wired and wireless IP cameras to the yard (about 300-700 feet away from main network switches) The hardware I was looking at for wireless were DD-WRT compatable routers running WDS with WPA2 and RADIUS authentication.

...Or I could do both. If you were me, which would you pick? All comments are welcome!

TIA

http://www.netgear.com/Products/APs...

Can you even buy thin net nics any more? Coax was limited to 10mbps so I don't see your logic when you want 50mb.

You are over the limit for ethernet which is 328ft in distance between points. Another reason running coax will not work.

You may think fiber is a waste but under the circumstances you describe it is a perfect fit. You can put in a gig link between and you have room for expansion which you know once they start using it they will addon to it.

Even wireless between would/could be a spotty solution depending on line of site and rain which is a great dampener.

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

Thanks for the responses.

The 50Mbps was a typo. The max expected is 5Mbps, maybe 10. I know I mentioned the cameras, but they would be strictly wifi on their own network on a different channel.

The PC uses a GUI to interact with a SCO server. Most of the data is spreadsheet data, from what I've seen it transfers in plain text. The PDA's use telnet clients.

Coaxial easily surpasses the 100m / 328ft limit imposed by twisted pair. If I remember, thinnet can go up to 600m. Can anyone confirm this?

Signal loss for wireless worries me, hence I'm stuck between the two, wondering if I should do both. I think some really high gain antennas would do the trick; Both buildings are warehouses so they are metal. Th antennas would have to be mounted outside, so there would be a clear line of sight.

Have you considered Powerline HomePlugs 85Mbps is fast enough and compare to WiFi Prices ??

http://www.homeplugs.co.uk/acatalog...

http://www.homeplug.org/home

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/po...

maximum segment length of 185 meters (607 feet).

Can you still find a bnc hub? bnc nic? bnc drivers?

If you can't run waterproof cables that don't short out in water why do you think coax will work better? Cat5 had insulation around each wire and the wires are encased. Thin net only has two insulators, the outside and the one between the copper core and the mesh outside.

Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

You can get higain antennas for Linksys (and other brands) routers, WAPS etc...I don;t know where to get this stuff, or what these higain antennas are called, but a little ISP I used to work for had one on the back balcony aimed at an office building about a block away so we could supply a wireless inet connect so some clients office...

Worked pretty good...I had to trouble shoot it once...we had a Linksys WAP and the clients office had a Linksys router...

I guess the total distance was 800 maybe 1000 ft...

Some google work might get you results...

Good luck