Extending WI-Fi to another building

[tom baker]

Have an application to extend wi-fi to another building at a relatives house, I have heard good comments about a Ubiquity building to building bridge. The two buildings are 300 ft apart, line of sight.
Are the outside antennas connected with cat 6 cable and how are they powered? POE?
How is the configuration software?

 

[tthh]

Direct bury Cat5 is out of the question? It will be a whole lot less trouble over the years.

 

[tom baker]

It may be right at the distance limit of 100 meters. Might be easier to get SM db fiber ands couple of media converters

 

[tthh]

If the direct bury path is relatively easy, I'd do that. I'd expect the Cat5 to be fine, it doesn't just stop working after 100m. Some direct bury multi-mode fiber would be fine too and some cheap Ethernet switches and SFPs. If you want to go one step more, just bury some hdpe conduit - that will be work to bury that a direct bury Cat5, but you can pull whatever you want.

 

[SceneryDriver]

I would do this with a buried fiber run, if possible. +1 on the buried HDPE conduit suggestion; I don't like direct-bury especially for COMs. Avoid long runs of CAT6 cable; you'll need lightning arrestors on each end and you carry a risk of ground loops causing damage to your switches if the cable is shielded. You're also right at the limit of copper Ethernet allowable length; marginal lengths may have issues over time as the conduit fills with water (and it will no matter what you do). Fiber solves all of these problems, and is likely cheaper than copper these days. Pull in spare fibers - you'll need them at some point.

If you have to go wireless, Ubiquity is a solid choice. Their equipment is commissioned and administered via an application called Unifi Controller. You can purchase dedicated hardware (CloudKey2) to run Controller, or you can run it from any PC. You'll need access point(s) at the remote end for WiFi things to connect to, and likely a switch to provide PoE. If you stick with Ubiquity equipment in the whole network, you'll be able admin everything from "one pane of glass."

Their AirFiber line is a solid choice. Note that Ubiquity gear is not for the networking novice; you'll tear your hair out if you've never set up their equipment, and they have NO live tech support available (only online resources and forum posts). For reference, I have two Ubiquity U6-LR access points, a USG router, and a 24-port PoE switch installed in my house, and it's a solid network.


SceneryDriver

 

[Amps]

I did a similar installation a few years ago. I used multi-mode fiber that I ordered cut to length with the LC connectors attached and two spare pairs. It comes pre-made with a pull loop too. Fiber Source. Need a few media convertors as well. You need a 1-1/2" PVC or larger to safely pull the fiber with connectors.
Also did a wireless building to building. Aiming the devices, making sure there are no trees, poles, etc. in the line of sight between. POE injector powered them. It worked at 300+ feet, no issues.

 

[ptonsparky]

I had wireless put on bldg to bldg. POE on both ends. Works fine for the laptop and small PLC I have out there.

 

[treytries]

Not sure if I'm too late. But I've used Ubiquiti radios before, specifically the 60ghz ones. The 60 ghz radios have been extremely reliable, no matter the weather (setup in Chicago so its seen rain/snow/sleet whatever). Essentially no downtime. I would probably recommend their 5ghz products if you've never used these radios before however. Reason is because the 60ghz has a very narrow beamwidth and you need to be very precise when pointing these at each other to make the link. There's not a lot of freedom. 5ghz should be much easier to get up and running and should be just as reliable, if not more.

Power is via POE injector, just make sure you get the right one because they have different ones with different voltages.

Software/setup I wouldn't say is 100% beginner friendly. If you have basic knowledge of TCIP & networks you should be fine (how to setup network name and IP addresses mainly). But it's definitely not plug and play.

5Ghz link should get you a reliable 300M, 60ghz link can get you anywhere from 500-900M depending on how good of a link you can setup.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dsg319]

Have an application to extend wi-fi to another building at a relatives house, I have heard good comments about a Ubiquity building to building bridge. The two buildings are 300 ft apart, line of sight.
Are the outside antennas connected with cat 6 cable and how are they powered? POE?
How is the configuration software?

Most have a wall wart POE injector.

 

[GoldDigger]

Not sure if I'm too late. But I've used Ubiquiti radios before, specifically the 60ghz ones. The 60 ghz radios have been extremely reliable, no matter the weather (setup in Chicago so its seen rain/snow/sleet whatever). Essentially no downtime. I would probably recommend their 5ghz products if you've never used these radios before however. Reason is because the 60ghz has a very narrow beamwidth and you need to be very precise when pointing these at each other to make the link. There's not a lot of freedom. 5ghz should be much easier to get up and running and should be just as reliable, if not more.

Power is via POE injector, just make sure you get the right one because they have different ones with different voltages.

Software/setup I wouldn't say is 100% beginner friendly. If you have basic knowledge of TCIP & networks you should be fine (how to setup network name and IP addresses mainly). But it's definitely not plug and play.

5Ghz link should get you a reliable 300M, 60ghz link can get you anywhere from 500-900M depending on how good of a link you can setup.

Hope this helps.

60GHz allows a very directional antenna in a much smaller space than 5GHz, in addition to any propagation differences.

 

[Mr. Serious]

It's been a few years ... well actually it's been 16 years since I did it, but I used to build point-to-point bridges all the time with Ubiquiti gear, and it was pretty easy. Of course, anything gets easy when you do it all the time, but the software was friendly (as someone else already said) and the antennas were powered by POE. We used outdoor-rated CAT5 cable. Nowadays you'd use CAT6.