Recommend a good ethernet repeater.

**Cobra X** · June 9th, 2004, 08:06 AM

We were going to run fiber optic out to one of our other building here at the plant, but the board of directors just announced that we're going to be moving to be consolidating offices within the next year, so we'll be moving to a new, bigger building on the property.

Now they understandably don't want to throw away several grand on wiring up fiber optic that's gonna be useless within the next year as our central office with the server will be in a different location. But at the same time, this other building has to be tied back into the current office for the time being.

I need to cover a gap of about 700 feet, so does anyone have any recommendations on a ethernet repeater that gets decent speed for this task?

**confus-ed** · June 9th, 2004, 08:54 AM

Why 100m is generally your lot (educational wotpp !)

So 700 ft is maybe just doable with one (in the middle of two 100m lengths), how much have we got ?

**ilovetheusers** · June 14th, 2004, 02:56 PM

Best thing to do is to call your cable vendor and see what they have to offer. I would not try to run copper over that distance with multiple repeaters. You are asking for issues.

Wireless is an option. We used a cisco aironet wireless bridge that use antena on the rooftop and can transmit very far at one site and it's worked well for quite a while but it was not cheap from what I remember but beat paying for copper or fiber.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/....html#products

Any way you look at it you have to spend $$ on this. Is the gap you need to span all indoors or outside??

**WebHead** · June 14th, 2004, 04:20 PM

Maybe I don't know enough about this, but would it be possible to have a pair of Cisco PIX routers connecting the two LANs together (VPN Tunnel) to accomplish what you need?

**ilovetheusers** · June 14th, 2004, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by WebHead

Maybe I don't know enough about this, but would it be possible to have a pair of Cisco PIX routers connecting the two LANs together (VPN Tunnel) to accomplish what you need?

He could if he had a circuit to the internet on each side and one of the sides had a VPN concentrator and the other the PIX. We have used this unit with limited success: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/...031/index.html

A DSL line in either building would work but it would be slow compared to ethernet or wireless. Thinking further, if you got static IP on the DSL you could use pix on either side and just use an access list to lock them down to only each others IP.

Still, PIX units aren't the cheapest and would be close to an aironet unit and after DSL costs for a year, more expensive.

**WebHead** · June 14th, 2004, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by ilovetheusers

He could if he had a circuit to the internet on each side and one of the sides had a VPN concentrator and the other the PIX. DSL line on either side would work but it would be slow compared to ethernet or wireless. Thinking further, if you got static IP on the DSL you could use pix on either side and just use an access list to lock them down to only each others IP.

Still, pix units aren't the cheapest and would be close to an aironet unit and after DSL costs for a year, more expensive.

I just got a quote recently from my local vendor for a decent PIX router for around $700. I'll have to post the model# tomorrow though.

**ilovetheusers** · June 14th, 2004, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by WebHead

I just got a quote recently from my local vendor for a decent PIX router for around $700. I'll have to post the model# tomorrow though.

We got one I posted above (I think that was it) for about $400 but it might have been a refurb.

I think the aironet units are about $1000. but I really can't remember.

**confus-ed** · June 16th, 2004, 08:01 AM

I think asking about 'how much traffic' is now springing in my mind, considering others responses & how much network 'jiggling' is feasable .. I managed to do something very similar with some class g wireless stuff the other day ! All they really wanted was to transfer a few bits & pieces when I actually pinned them down to what they 'needed' - they just had to make a few adjustments on who moved temporarily & it saved them nearly £3k as they can use all the wireless stuff later to save on other cabling costs - but none of this data needed to be 'secure'

Btw you can find folks who lease microwave stuff on 6 month terms, maybe that's perfect for this ?, as we really are 'pushing it' with copper ..