We live on a farm. There is one residential house with a hub inside. This has two Ethernet cables running underground to an office building and a portacabin in separate locations, which then connects to little hubs which extend the WiFi into those buildings.
We now want more WiFi to reach another area even further away. This is so we can run CCTV cameras. If it’s not possible we will have to get SIM card cameras and pay monthly.
But, before we do, what else can we do? I don’t think we should really be running anymore Ethernet cables off the existing hub elsewhere as, could it overload it? It just seems a lot for one residential hub.
Could we get openreach to do something?
Any ideas PLEASE throw them my way!
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If it’s just for CCTV, then look at using POE (power over ethernet) which will allow you to run just a single cable to each camera as it will do data and power. You will probably need a switch or router that provides POE, assuming your current one doesn’t (extremely unlikely if it’s a residential one, particularly from BT). Just check the distance you need to cover for compatibility.
I like Ubiquiti’s stuff, and they have specific setups for POE switches, cameras, and recorders for CCTV and are pretty well regarded. You can continue to use your BT hub, just plug it in to the Ubiquiti setup, no issues with capacity or anything else. If you can’t run a cable, they also have long range wireless bridges that might work for you, although you will need power at both ends (not needing power is why POE is so compelling if you can make it work).
Get wifi antennas. My buddy was beaming internet to his parents place 5km away with 300mbps speed. As long as there is straight shot sight line you can beam fast wifi across your property easily.
A former customer of ours had directional antennae. They were flaky and tended to get hit by lightning.
We get almost no lightning in the UK compared to the US - it’s very rarely a serious consideration for things like ptp antennas.
How much further away are we talking? Running a line shouldn’t be an issue, but if it’s more than 300ft you should be looking at running fiber instead.
Running additional Ethernet cables will not overload anything. If you do not want to that , line of sight point to point WiFi works good. Especially in a rural areas without interference from other devices. We have good experience with Mikrotik. Reach out to them with specifics and they will recommend the appropriate devices
WDS
Without looking at any equipment/kits first I’d suggest your viewership of videos from Cross Talk Solutions. I’ve included a few…
- Wireless design for a log cabin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkMQ3ynHcW8
- Grecian port wireless design - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr6ehNyqddI
- Lakehouse installation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bDxMgvG1I
- 6 mile rural point to point link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esw8435oPN0
- 35 km point to point link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQgvMdkTf4
Some aspects that would come to mind:
- Yes it’s a farm which I’d expect to be mostly flat but what’s the gradient/slope?
- With respect to the above any obstacles around the buildings or along the line of sight?
- If they are you may have to seek the tallest building/tower in your area that beams/bounces the network around… so does costs of equipment required for such distances & fees for placing your equipment on their property…
Point-to-multipoint wifi is one option to achieve this, but without knowing more about the infrastructure, it’s impossible to advise if it’s suitable. You will need power at each “node” - so barns and outbuildings are great candidates for this (as are any private lampposts etc).
The cameras still need power so you are running cable anyway POE is a great technology since it powers the camera AND gets the data with just one cord. Battery stuff works but it’s always cheaply built and overpriced.
In large commercial systems the router is just a router. Internally you have a large Gigabit switch often running fiber. So a TP-Link TL-SG 24 port all gigabit and POE is $220 USD on Amazon. A smaller 8 port switch with 4 POE ports is $66 USD. Ubiquiti makes much nicer IT-grade switches for a bit more money. These should be the backbone of your system.
Fiber is nice because it is immune to lightning and electrical issues going forward between switches and you can go to 10 Gigabits.
Ubiquiti’s Airfi stuff can use antennas to literally do gigabit WiFi over several miles. In Western states it’s common for wireless ISPs to use these for wireless backhaul networks. But no matter what cables are much more stable no matter how good this gets.
The most reliable way to transit data (assuming you don’t put a digger through it) would be fibre optic cable. I believe you can direct bury fibre optic cable with a piece of farm equipment, so might be something you can rent or borrow from a fellow farmer. Ethernet is not a great option because of distances and grounding.
Another option would be use a point-to-point wireless system. I believe UniFi sell these. They’re not too expensive, but wouldn’t ship anywhere near as much data as fibre.
Assuming you mean networking/Internet, then the job is done. Some switches on either end and you should be sorted. But if you actually mean WiFi, then using a wireless system would be best. Something like UniFi or TP-Link Omada would be good options.
I’m in the States so I am not sure if these folks ship internationally or if there is a UK equivalent, but their equipment is for rural/farm setups.
If this won’t work, what you will need is a WiFi AP thats high power, long range and is rated for outdoor use.
As for overloading your hub with ethernet, as long as you have a good 1Gbps switch you should be fine.
Point to point WiFi is low cost and works great as long as you have line of sight.
That. Weybred Lakes in Cornwall do that for their lodges. And a place we went to early in the year in Lake District. Its remote but can just see a farm house in the distance and they have point to point in the garden area of the lodge.
Ubiquity has some very useful devices that allow this to be managed easily. Otherwise I’d say run a duct for fibre
fiber is the long term best solution and not that expensive asside from the digging part. you need power there anyway too so i would put in the fibe along the electric lines is possible.
Point to point WiFi is low cost and works great as long as you have line of sight.
Exactly. And if you don’t have line of sight, you can raises masts and put them up higher. Tight beam patterns will go long distances.
Then on the same mast you can install a ‘wide’ powered emitter- basically a narrow beam formed that only covers the open area. You’ll still have ‘dead’ spots out there, but it’ll be a lot less.
Sticking with 2.4ghz will help a lot too- more bendy than 5.4ghz. Specialized gear can go lower but now you’re looking at insane prices.
So long as you have juice at each location you can have coverage, albeit with increased lag/hops, but it’s totally doable.
It depends on what you mean by hub. I assume you mean some kind of ISP provided device? If so you’re probably fine up to the number of ports it has. If you’re out of ports you can buy a network switch, connect that to the ‘hub’, then connect more to the switch. Your biggest limitation will be internet speed but, depending on where you send that security camera footage, that may not be an issue at all.
TL;DR: Run the cable to the new place and install your camera. You’ll be fine.
Two options that come to mind are:
- outdoor wireless mesh, or
- wireless bridging.
In either case, these will need power.
Check out some Ubiquiti wireless gear. I would start there and see if anything will fit your needs.