Network Help

Matt_Hirst · 29 Jun 2010 at 19:39

Have been asked for some help with providing network connectivity over a farm and outbuildings, haven't got a clue so thought I would ask here.

There is a main farmhouse, 3 floors, loads of rooms, in here is an office with various printers and NAS. There is a BT ADSL connection coming into the house and it is currently connected to a BT router but they are having problems connecting to the wireless network throughout the house.

There are also 3 seperate buildings / houses that will require access to the main house network and also the adsl line. Distance wise one set of houses are approximately 100 to 150 yards away, the other buildings are across a courtyard so say 30 to 50 yards away.

So first things first how to resolve the network issue in the main house, would one of these help:

Netgear DGN3500

In your guys opinion would you say this would be capable of providing coverage for the main house, or at least the bulk of it?

The next idea is to have a cable off the back of this to a router / switch in a utility room. What would you guys reccomend for in here?

Off of the router in the utility room would be a line to each of the other 3 buildings which would connect into a netgear DGN3500 at each location. The Netgear DGN3500 would provide the coverage for each seperate house / building. Or could a differnt wireless access point be used in each of these locations?

Does this sound feasable? Or if not why not?

What would you guys reccomend in terms of cabling between the buildings?

How easy is it to configure all these things to talk to one another?

What is the best wireless router / switch with gigabit.

Hope someone can help.

regards,

Matt

atomiser · 29 Jun 2010 at 20:38

is this actually for business use, or just making the 'home' network a bit more shiny?

if its for business my first question (before suggesting either digging trenches and laying some nice fibre down, or checking for line of sight possibilities) would be - what's the budget?

if it's for home (and, to some extent, maybe even for business) i would probably suggest taking a look at the home plug stuff. i installed it for our chief exec in his home which consisted of a mahoosive property including outbuildings. worked like a charm.

Matt_Hirst · 30 Jun 2010 at 06:45

Well I suppose it will be a home network, but it needs to provide adequate coverage for all the buildings.

I have mentioned the home plug network before, but i am ot sure if all the buildings and cottages are on the same electricity lines, also in the main areas a wireless connection would be probably the best option as they like the idea of being able to move around with the laptops they have. Yes I appreciate it is no major hinderance unplugging a home plug network and replugging it in else where but... I sppose the wireless option is preferred.

Budget wise, would rather get it right first time rather than have to install one thing to realise it only provides 75% of what they want. Maybe supply two options, cheapest and also one that you would reccomend?

regards,

Matt

Matt_Hirst · 30 Jun 2010 at 19:46

Right they have been out and bought a couple of the Belkin Homeplug HD gigabit homeplugs, the response being "Don’t really work across the house. We have one big fuse box in the house but a lot of separate wrings. Does not seem to work across wrings."

So anyone got any suggestions?

regards,

Matt

Akempster · 30 Jun 2010 at 20:44

the powerlines work within a range of up to 200m of mains cabling if that is of any help

Ryan111 · 30 Jun 2010 at 22:51

If it were me, I would have one central router and run cat6/6a (for future proofing) to each building that needed internet access. Then in each building have a wireless access point for wireless devices and a switch for wired. You should be able to set up a few wireless access points and if you set up enough you would easily cover the entire area and be able to set up some kind of roaming. Using a Gigabit router + switches would also allow fast transfers between buildings and no slow downs when streaminf/downloading.

3dcandy · 1 Jul 2010 at 10:48

I'm guessing the old farmhouse thick walls are causing the wireless problems, so +1 for thw above advice. However, I could imagine that would be pretty costly, but if that's what they want you'll have to explain...

Matt_Hirst · 1 Jul 2010 at 12:27

Ryan111 said:
If it were me, I would have one central router and run cat6/6a (for future proofing) to each building that needed internet access. Then in each building have a wireless access point for wireless devices and a switch for wired. You should be able to set up a few wireless access points and if you set up enough you would easily cover the entire area and be able to set up some kind of roaming. Using a Gigabit router + switches would also allow fast transfers between buildings and no slow downs when streaminf/downloading.

Can you do me some reccomendations as to the kit required, what access points you'd reccomend, wireless router, switch, etc, etc.

Is there a maximum distance for cat 6?

regards,

Matt

Ryan111 · 1 Jul 2010 at 13:56

I would grab a DG834GT and put it in Bridge/modem only mode to handle the internet then have one of these as the main router; http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-136-NG&groupid=46&catid=1596&subcat= with Tomato frimware.

For Gigabit switches (if needed) I'd recommend the HP Procurve series, model dependant on how many ports you want.

For Wireless AP's I dont really know what I'd recommend. You can use routers flashed with firmware to act as access points normally (this is sometimes cheaper!) I did this with a D-Link DIR-615 and DD-WRT firmware. These routers could be used, and can be picked up cheaply (I sold mine for under £30)

Or, you could have a WNR3500L at each location, using it as an AP and a gigabit switch... (should be able to do this with custom firmware.)

Matt_Hirst · 2 Jul 2010 at 10:25

Thanx for response, but more questions.

This does look like the right way to do it. If we want to set up a Gigabit wired network with connection to Orange ADSL then:

1. What wireless router / ADSL modem would you suggest for the main building? The main house is large so needs long range.

2. What switch and wireless access point would you suggest for each of the additional buildings? Can these be made into a roaming net? How?

3. In the main building we need to be able to “bridge” (I use the term loosely) to a separate physical network. How can this be achieved and what equipment would you recommend?

4. If we go for a gigabit N wireless will this work with a standard laptop with integrated wireless of will I need an adaptor?

5. Will cat6 go into a standard router????
regards,

Matt

Matt_Hirst · 9 Jul 2010 at 14:28

Anyone help on the last questions?

regards,

Matt

FoxEye · 9 Jul 2010 at 15:19

Matt_Hirst said:
3. In the main building we need to be able to “bridge” (I use the term loosely) to a separate physical network. How can this be achieved and what equipment would you recommend?

4. If we go for a gigabit N wireless will this work with a standard laptop with integrated wireless of will I need an adaptor?

5. Will cat6 go into a standard router????
regards,

Matt

3. Connecting two different subnets together is normally done by a router.

4. Wireless N is not gigabit speeds. 150 or 300mb/s max theoretical (depends on model). If the laptop has wirelss a/g/b card (slower), it will simply run at the slower speed, but should connect to your wireless n router/access point just fine.

5. same wiring, so yes. difference is better quality cable.

all of this info is available on wiki/google