Wiring a Neighborhood? 264
mklencke writes "I'm part of a project that is developing a small neighborhood of about 30 houses in the Netherlands with technology, durability and ecological features in mind. We are looking at centralizing the Internet, TV, phone and radio access. Options we have come across are a central satellite dish, a central subscriber line, etc. Preferably, fiber optics will be used. However, it is very difficult to have a good overview of possibilities, and fiber optics technology is apparently very expensive to implement. Have any Slashdot readers been engaged in a similar project? Do you have hints or resources on how to go about wiring our neighborhood?"
Decentralized (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Decentralized (Score:5, Informative)
Lessons: Volition v sensitive to dirt, dust and ants and needed a bit more maintenance than originally expected (switches in airconditioned MDF perfectly ok though). Fiber optic network cards for PCs were disappointing and caused problems with some machines. Gigabit fiber optic cards are still not readily available--though transceivers are. If I was doing it again I'd forget fiber to the desk and put in a transceiver (needed for laptops anyway) and run Cat5 to every room from the Light Interface Unit. Transceivers are costly and fairly susceptible to getting zapped by voltage anomalies (lots of lightning and power outages).
BTW each volition switch connects to a different data center, each with its own ISP and broadband link, and they're cross connected with load balancing hardware (Raritan Linkproof) to maximize uptime.
In the Netherlands (where I used to live) I think you must by now be able to get a good DSL solution (it was all ISDN when I left). Do a search on DSL and multi-occupancy and you'll find some suppliers. I would TENDER FOR A SOLUTION and include maintenance of any central equipment and get a good service level agreement. You don't want to have a de facto IT dept for 30 homes.
Search on CEDIA. You may find companies that can offer a solution or help you develop a statement of requirements. Veel geluk!
Network Cabling Box (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Network Cabling Box (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:5, Informative)
As it is, some rooms have ALREADY maxed out all the ports (I've got a 16 port hub chained off of one of my ports, other areas I've got to run long patch cables to get to the other side of the room, etc.) I do have a central box, but it could have been located in a better spot (it's currently located at the demarc point, I should have set up a secondary distribution box on the second floor and ran everything from there.) I used two 24-port patch panels, which ended up being just enough for the layout that I used.
Another problem that cropped up was running wires for a sound system, intercom, internal phones, etc. I ran 3 cat-5 wires to every room (some rooms had more) using 2 of them for each port (theoretically I can use splitters to expand to 4 ports), and using one of the 8-conductor wires for phone service (theoretically 4 lines.) Even so, there's now a lot more stuff I'd like to run, but without punching through the drywall, I'm a bit constrained as to what I can do. Not putting in fiber was a big mistake
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2)
Seems like the nerd's dream come true.
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2)
I've heard stories about people hiring out a company during a remodeling (circumventing their contractor) to do the work and their contractor coming in and ripping it all out before sheetrocking?
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2)
Also, it won't injure anyone if it's installed incorrectly (aside from people without autocrossover switches injuring themselves when they realize that everything in the house is *CROSSOVER* cable*), unlike 120V mains power. Basically I don't see any problem
* The morons that built the house ran just 1
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:3, Interesting)
You can't just split digital satellite. It requires multiswitches, which are a lot more expensive than your run-of-the-mill coax splitter.
If you already knew this, just ignore my post and let it be to help the newbies. (I've seen too many times where someone puts a regular RF aplitter on their DSS line ans wonders why it won't work...)
BTW...anyone know where I can get a large (16 or more port) multiswitch? I want to wire the whole house in a way that is 2 tuner TiVo-ready.
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2)
But they could have used the coax that was already in the walls, right. Drilling through the floor sounds like a laziness thing to me.
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2)
Key things to watch for are not slowing down the sheetrockers (don't leave it in their way).
Keep it a foot or so from AC if running parallel.
MAKE SURE THE CONTRACTOR IS OK WITH IT.
Terminate it LATER (ends - leave it raw).
Me? I'd run a pair of CAT5 to opposite corners of each room. CAT5 is fine for phone (4 lines) or 2 ethernets, or 1 RS-232 or...
My bedroom has one coax and one phone. Of course, they're
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:3, Informative)
Some areas have strict codes against plastic conduit and/or PVC, it'll help lessen any EMI, plus it's very difficult to bend PVC. You should also substitute one 2" conduit with 2 or 3 smaller ones so you can seperate noisey conductors (speaker wire) from EMI sensitive conductors (Cat5), and reduce the cost of tools. A hand operated 3/4" EMT bender is much cheaper than a hydraulic 2" bender.
#include "futurama_joke.h";
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:2, Interesting)
The network comes together to a patch panel on a small rack in a central room. From the patch panel, they connect to a 24 port switch that a friend got cheap at a going-out-of-business auction.
Works like a dream, except the occasional miswired jack that we're still finding.
String (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:String (Score:2)
No, seriously, it's inside of most cat5 cable.
Re:Network Cabling Box (Score:3, Informative)
Is this going to be 30 single family detached homes or is this going to be 30 housing units in one building? Do you need a 100% fool proof network with room to grow? Or can a virus infestation that crashes your switches and routers be tolerated? What services are you going to provide? I would asume at the minmum VoIP and Data. You may also want to provide VOD and PPV TV as well as regular
CAT 6 (Score:3, Informative)
CAT 5 - 10Mhz Ethernet
CAT 5e - 100Mhz Ethernet
CAT 6 - Gigabit Ethernet
And don't scoff at the idea of gigabit inside the dwellings, either. I saw a 5 port gigabit switch for (i think) about 89.95 (US) the other day.
If you run gigabit-capable (CAT 6 or Multi-mode Fiber) from dwellings to central switch, then the resident can put
Canopy (Score:5, Informative)
Motorola Canopy (wireless) can fit the bill for the Internet part. Very fast set up. High speed. Relatively cheap. Good coverage.
Don't dig. You'll probably hit a gas line anyway.
Re:Canopy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Canopy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Canopy (Score:3, Funny)
The Netherlands is pretty flat except for those buildings and homes that stick up and block line of sight transmissions. I'm sure that a neighborhood won't have those pesky buildings, trees and similar things that could potential block line of sight to people's homes.
Re:Canopy (Score:3, Insightful)
less wires = more ecologically friendly (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't a direct answer to the question since I don't know how to best wire a neighbourhood, however if it has to be an ecological solution then less wires are good, so wireless internet access might be the way to go (depending upon how much weight ecological gets in comparison to the others). Of course you will want to wrap some good security around that.
Otherwise if you need wires then double up on the power lines for internet access instead of laying new wires.
Just a couple of quick thoughts off the top of my head.
Re:less wires = more ecologically friendly (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:less wires = more ecologically friendly (Score:3, Interesting)
Electromagnetic waves cause headaches, bad energy fields, weird auras and let my cat run around wildly
Cat5! (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure about it but try applying to some Voice-over-IP pliot project thing. When you pick up your phone it routes that call through your network, to some pbx, then out to the real world. You would have to plug in each phone, but these days, most need to be in an outlet anyway.
Also try WiFiMAX. It is this new standard that is fast and covers a large area.
my $000.00003 cents
Re:Cat5! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Cat5! (Score:2)
Don't lock options (Score:5, Interesting)
Your project sounds very interesting!
... and try to maintain access to wire runs (Score:2, Interesting)
As a start, I would run to each residence:
1- phone quad cable (plain ole phone system)
1- CAT 5 or 6 (data, local network, internet)
1- Coax (RG-59) for cable TV
If budget allows or if the wiring can't be later accessed for service, I would run 2 of each for redundancy.
I don't think the current wireless neighbourhood
fiber (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.alloptic.com/
Experience Speaking Here (Score:3, Informative)
As far as telephone and radio - I am sure your local companies could prove helpful.
Ronja? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ronja? (Score:4, Insightful)
I gather mobilemesh is not an ideal solution [personaltelco.net], but it is good enough for neighbourhood sized networks, until the state of the art advances, producing a better successor.
learn or don't do it (Score:5, Insightful)
from the tone of your 'ask slashdot' this isn't the case.
Re:learn or don't do it (Score:2)
Re:learn or don't do it (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, I don't know that I would accept a job like this, I feel I could do it, but there's a lot of people that could do it better.
Here's some advice: (Score:2, Interesting)
A better idea would be to run all your internet connections over the local power lines. That way, you not only save a tremendous amount
Not hard for internet... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not hard for internet... (Score:2)
fiber makes sense sometimes, for covering long distances.like getting the internet to that neighbourhood so it can be distributed to the people through dsl, wifi or whatever.
however, if they get to choose from day 1 why settle for dsl, as they don't have to live with the copper that was set into the ground years and years ago? they could use some other network tech, maybe even just regular consumer ethernet pa
Use cable, not fiber (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking personally and not for my employer.
Re:Use cable, not fiber (Score:3, Interesting)
It's really good. Down time has been about 4 1/2 hours over two years.
There is Internet, 'phone and Cable TV ( Which I don't take ).
Commercially, from the point of view of the Telco, it's been a flop, but for us users it's just great. The Telco thought they would get far more TV users than have actually signed up.
What are you asking? (Score:3, Interesting)
In other words, you're going to have to start some kind of local utility company to handle all that. It won't be cheap, or easy. And, it won't be profitable, with only 30 subscribers.
In other words, don't build ANYTHING. Let everyone buy their services from the big, mean national companies that can afford it.
Re:What are you asking? (Score:3, Interesting)
Surprised no one has mentioned it, but have you talked to the people at Seatle Wireless [seattlewireless.net]? They might have some usefull info for you if you plan to go the wifi route.
Options (Score:3, Insightful)
Cable/sat/broadcast for TV, on air radio, current phone lines...
If this is a new construction, partner with the phone and cable companies. They can do it cheaper, better, longer than a one off by you.
If all you're doing is building in internet access (and possibly some of those other services (on top of), wireless or powerline delivery would seem to be your best options, Unless you personally want to support the hassles of underground fiber cables for xx years.
Run fiber (Score:3, Interesting)
Use VoIP across the fiber for telco.
Not sure about TV, but I'm sure someone out there has something to multiplex video and data.
Run everything to a central closet in each house and use it to do runs to every location in the house. Run CAT6+ everywhere using it for telco and PC. At least dual jack plates. Consider multiple plates in each room, especially living room. Use very high grade cabling in the home to avoid having to replace it.
You can use Asterisk for VoIP. Use something like a Catalyst 4000 for the fiber. Put each house on it's own VLAN and the telco to each house on another.
Re:Run fiber (Score:2)
I don't know how this works in the Netherlands, but it's a bitch in the US. I'd ask a contractor who lays fibre before I even thought about it.
Re:Run fiber (Score:2)
Not sure about TV, but I'm sure someone out there has something to multiplex video and data.
I'd say so, considering that cable TV and cable Internet (and in some cases even phone) can all come down the same line.
Re:Run fiber (Score:5, Informative)
I've been wondering why there isn't a good "do it yourself community fiber network" howto, at least as far as I know. I've been experimenting with fiber as a hobby for the last few months just for fun. Its amazing what you can find on ebay.
A few observations:
Single mode is vastly superior to multimode in terms of both range (20-100 km vs 2km) and theoretical maximum throughput (terabits per second versus gigabits per second).
On the other hand, single mode is harder to work with, and the end point equipment is more expensive. A new 100mbps fiber-to-copper ethernet converter is about $150 for MM and about $250 for SM. Gigabit gear is more expensive, but not terribly prohibitive.
The fiber itself is cheap (one article I read indicated that the wholesale cost of SM fiber is about $15 a km). All the cladding and armor they put on it makes it expensive (A dollar or two per foot for direct-bury cable with a dozen or so fiber strands).
It takes 2 fibers to make a connection, usually. This is called duplex.
It is possible to run multiple connections on different wavelengths. This is called wavelength division multiplexing. DWDM systems sometimes have over a hundred separate channels.
I don't know much about durability.
Ethernet over fiber may be good for small networks, but it requires active electronics (and reliable power) at each junction. Depending on application, this may not be a problem.
Take a look at fiberdyne [fiberdyne.com]'s webpage if you're curious about approximate equipment costs. They seem to sell almost everything related to fiber. Here's another page [telebyteusa.com] with a decent fiber tutorial.
-jim
Keep your neighborhood futuristic (Score:5, Insightful)
Rather than deciding on what technology is the best for your cost situation at this time, instead realize that the costs of these technologies is rapidly changing all the time as new technologies come out.
Instead of giving advice on what technology to use now, I'd advise that you make sure you put flexible use conduits all over the neighborhood so that when you inevitably decide that whatever you're using is no longer fast enough, you can change it all. It would be pretty difficult to get everyone to agree on change if it meant digging up the whole block.
BigFiber.net [bigfiber.net]
Re:Keep your neighborhood futuristic (Score:3, Insightful)
More importantly houses are going to last a lot longer than any current "best" solution.
I say run conduit/pipes along with the water pipes, and in similar layout. But of course provide easier access to the intersections than "dig it up." Then you can pull whatever meets your
wireless (Score:4, Interesting)
www.locustworld.com (Score:2, Interesting)
one small piece of advice... (Score:4, Insightful)
Therefore if you end up putting wires in the ground try to future-proof it. Run at least 2 4-pair runs (cat5e or cat6). You can use one of them right away for very quick networking and the other one for phone
Then, add 4 or so strands of cheap multi-mode fiber. You don't need it today, so don't bother terminating the ends. They may come in handy down the road for cable tv/internet use.
finally a run of standard cable tv coax for cable tv needs today
How about old technilogy? (Score:3, Funny)
You could use old BNC network adapters but I figure you could better performance out of 802.11g devices. Also the cable should be pretty cheap. Especially if you get it in bulk.
do it yourself DSL (Score:5, Informative)
here's an article about them [nwfusion.com]
and this is the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative [rric.net]
i know there's also software that can do DSL with nothing but an old soundcard and two copper wires. i don't know where it is, or if it's still maintained though.
cheers, and good luck.
think bigger (Score:4, Insightful)
just GBE it. (Score:2, Interesting)
an example form Sweden (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand
[Dutch story]
In het noord-Zweedse plaatsje Umeå hebben een paar bewoners van de gemeenschap Måttgränd zelf het initiatief genomen tot de aanleg van een hoogwaardige 100Mb aansluiting. Eerst hebben de initiatiefnemers een deal gesloten met een kabelbedrijf en met een ISP en hebben hen ervan overtuigd een prijs te berekenen gebaseerd op 95-100 % aansluiters. De initiatiefnemers zijn vervolgens van deur tot deur gegaan en hebben de wijkbewoners ervan overtuigd dat ze mee moeten doen. Inderdaad hebben 60 van de 62 huizen ja gezegd, meer dan 95% van de inwoners dus, "because they saw it was 'The Future' standing on their doorstep". In 1999 is men begonnen met de aanleg. Sommige stukken hebben de bewoners eigenhandig gegraven.
Scope the Work! (Score:2, Informative)
5 words: (Score:2)
Anything else, is probably not going to scale for the future.
Re:5 words: (Score:3, Funny)
ONE fiber2cat5-transceiver-thingy,
routers and cat5 IN the neighbourhood.
My guess is it's cheaper (and we're dutch
who invented the iron wire?
the dutch. two men were fightng over 5 cents.
Fiber Isn't What It Used To Be (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd suggest running two or three sets of Cat 6 cable to each building. That should be more than enough for the forseeable future, and only a small price premium over Cat 5. After all, most of the cost will be labor.
But run the cable in a buried, oversized PVC raceway. Then, if you need to run fibre, or anything else in the future it will be easy to do.
physical infrastructure (Score:3, Insightful)
Wiring a neighborhood - wifi (Score:2)
I've just bought a house 10 houses down from a family member who has a Cable internet connection, and wifi in the house.
Obviously, I'm out of range at 10 houses down. Does anyone know of a cheap and easy way to extend that range down a bit so that I can share the same internet connection?
Due to a curve in the street and some trees, I don't have "Line of sight". The distance is less than 100 meters.
Thanks for any advice..
Two words: conduit, pull-strings (Score:4, Insightful)
I would recommend against wireless: while it may seem attractive, you will not be able to deliver the quality of TV service that people expect over most wireless systems. Wireless is still pretty expensive (for commercial-grade kit) and it's not very mature.
Re:Two words: conduit, pull-strings (Score:2)
one possible solution to the physical layer prob. (Score:5, Informative)
You can ditch the fiber but keep the optics. Free Space Optics (FSO) has been around for a long time. Despite being somewhat obscure, it is a very mature technology with a lot of things going for it. It provides fiber level bandwidth without the cost of digging up the ground to lay down fiber. Rapid deployment and high mobility can save not only money but time as well. You didn't mention how far apart the residences are in the neighborhood, but unless you're rural and very spread out, FSO may perform satisfactorily with allowance for bad weather. Bad weather being fog and scintillation.
Fog is a problem if you're near the coast or a large body of water that can produce a lot of mist. A heavy mist can really hammer the signal by several dBs over long distances on the order of a mile/kilometer. Currently it is the largest obstacle faced by permament/semi-permanent FSO implementations. Atmospheric scintillation is the phenomenon that makes stars twinkle at night. It is caused by variations in atmospheric temperature that change the index of refraction an optical signal encounters as it zooms to its destination. This problem, however, is more or less solved by making the signal take parallel paths to the reciever.
you may be interested in the following companies among others.
tellaire [tellaire.com]
terabeam [terabeam.com]
fsona [fsona.com]
airfiber [airfiber.com]
lightpointe [lightpointe.com]
industry news and references:
http://www.freespaceoptics.org/
http://www.wca
Re:one possible solution to the physical layer pro (Score:3, Informative)
Bottom line... at an excess of $35K USD for a pair, we decided to dig and run fiber at a cost of about $12K.
Don't Forget (Score:2, Informative)
Don't dig, build in redundency, options (Score:3, Informative)
Google IT: "low power" "spread spectrum" "Line of sight" microwave
Line-of-Sight (LOS) Wireless, WiFi, 802.11x,
http://www.commweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?ar
http://www.ieee80
NOTE: Avoid using omni directional antennas, consider per-session (call, email, download,
EUROPE RACES AHEAD OF USA IN TECHNOLOGY!
This is a romantic return of technology to ITS place in our future.
http://www.zeppelinfan.de/html-seiten/de
http://www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRheft/FRH
Aerial platforms provide an ideal way of delivering broadband communications services. They can be considered as a hybrid technology, combining the best of terrestrial and satellite delivery. High altitude platforms - either solar powered airships or planes, typically flying at 17-22km. no delay, no bad weather,
I hope this helps - OldHawk777
Best Option (Score:3, Funny)
One word for you, son: plastics (Score:4, Interesting)
To each home run two or three unpopulated tubes to a central wiring area (I prefer a 1st floor closet or under a stairwell, anywhere that dinky 16" space between exterior studs). This would be in addition to a separate run for power (keep away from telephone/twisted pair).
Have the houses go to a central wiring pot in the street/block, and from there a more central wiring pot and so on. When you are ready to begin offering service, push a CAT 6e cable down the tube to intitially get everyone on, say, standard 10/100 network. If VoIP isn't happening, a second CAT-5/6 will provide your phone. Later one, you can replace the switch to upgrade everyone to gigabit on the same cable. There's talk of even faster twisted pair connections so I think it's clearly the way to go. But, fast forward a few years, and suddenly everything is fiber? Well, push one of those down too.
Here's the best part...competition. If some ISP comes along as wants to offer service, lease them a tube. You get income from leasing them tubes that would otherwise be unoccupied. The ISP gets instant customers who would otherwise not pay the cost of installtion themselves or not be economically viable if the streets had to be trenched. It another ISP comes along and wants to offer service, they can too, which ultimately is what is best for the homeowner.
Where I live, we have a choice of cable TV and phone provides...which is extremely rare in most settings. As a result, we have much lower prices and better features since the two companies know they can't just shaft their customers endelessly or they will just jump ship to the other guy.
- JoeShmoe
.
Contact (Score:2, Informative)
pro's/cons (Score:5, Informative)
But, here's what I would suggest:
Each house should have multiple pairs of dry copper running to the SAME CO. You can probably use this as your physical medium for all 30+ homes, using VDSL or "HDSL T1/E1 Modems" (ADC Makes these).
I'd find cheap VDSL ethernet Bridge/modem (which is what they are anyways) setting up one in each residence, then you can find rack mount vdsl "concentrators" or chassis which mux all of these together and give you a few ethernet ports for uplink purposes. Either that or you can use use another vdsl modem on the telephone CO side and connect them all to a standard switch (a cheap cisco 3548-XL, or a bunch of cheap 16port switches uplinked to eachother).
tut systems makes these (which ived used in the setup i've descibed) http://www.videotele.com/index.cfm Note that there's actually a bunch of competition in this VDSL (last mile) market and prices are always fluctuating. I've found single tut vdsl modems (good for hundreds of feet, 1.5mbits over a pair of copper) go for 20 bucks a peice.
I would advise against 2.4ghz wireless as it sucks. Just trust me on this. Anyone who's recommending setting up a Metro LAN on this is talking out of their ass and doesn't realize how shitty this would be (i've seen it, CDMA collisions out the ass, 200pps limit for the whole friggin network, all of your traffic cleartext, one user with the right equipment can shut it down, lmr200 or 400 cable is expensive, 2.4 sucks thanks.)
Keep to the KISS rule, use cheap CAT5/6 or pre-existing infrastucture if at all possible.
Future digs (Score:4, Insightful)
Here in the states, before you dig anything, generally you can call a central number, and they will contact *all* the utilities to mark any underground lines.
Water, cable, power, phone. Basically, anything buried on your property.
One way or another, you'd have to be hooked into whatever similar system exists in NL. Some guy, 10 years from now, 2 owners from now, will want to install a pond, or other such excavation, and cut right through your cable.
Link the irrigation switches (Score:4, Interesting)
By tying the rain override together you can easily apply the weather forecast to the rain override and avoid unnecessary watering.
Most semi-smart irrigations use a real time rain detector which is better than nothing - but the best that can be done is actuall forecasted weather.
There may be other benefits - such as seriously secure home burglary systems (not the dial up kind that can be so easily cut off from outside the building)
AIK
I need glasses (Score:2)
Diego Rey
IF you aren't a technology company... (Score:3, Insightful)
Neighborhood Nets (Score:3, Interesting)
After a lot of thinking, meeting, and planning, we decided that while we had the resources to install some sort of community network (we were looking at getting our own DSLAM and doing our our DSL installation), we didn't have a large enough subscriber base to enable us to keep such a network maintained.
Instead, we were agressive with the local cable franchise holder and are now starting to get broadband installed in our community. While having our own cable plant may have saved us a few dollars, we don't have the headaches of keeping a system up and running.
The one thing that we don't get with this approach is a private subnet for our community; something that many of us would like to have for all sorts of reasons. I've managed to get myself politically active on this issue and the next time our local cable franchise is up for renegotiation, private neighborhood subnets will be proposed and discussed.
Re:Neighborhood Nets (Score:3, Interesting)
When people say things like that I always get the distinct impression that they admire the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
Before you start raving about how every disabled person is guaranteed an income, consider how 'good' it is that 1/8 of the total working population is now 'disabled', leaving the rest to pay the bill.
Before you start about our freedoms, consider the fact that a right wing
Think twice about doing this.... (Score:4, Interesting)
As it turns out, the cost is not that much less than cable internet or DSL. Not counting labor, maintenance, and technical support, the cost for a wireless setup would be about $25/month per household. That sounds pretty good, but since then, DSL has arrived on the scene at $35 a month, and cable internet has both dropped in price and service improved, because of the competition. It seems like a homebrew network would still be cheaper, but it's only $10 a month cheaper. It also involves bringing all the homeowners together and getting them to agree on the plan, and doesn't count maintenanace costs. What happens if I move? Who will they call? How much will it cost? They're still enthusiastic about the idea, but I'm not sure it's so good.
Lightning, Maintenence, etc (Score:3, Interesting)
You will want a way to get easy access to the cable. You will need to replace cable from time to time for what ever reason and you need some way to get in there. What you will need to do is run some kind of conduit (2 or 3 inch PVC pipe should work)...and you will need junctions to access broken connections and perform upgrades/maintenence (about one every 100 feet should work). These junctions should be big enough that you can get a hand through or stick a vaccum/blower into...the conduit will fill with water even if it is capped...
You will also need to decide what kind of cable to use...if you use Cat-5, prepare for major maintenence costs...lightning and shorts DO happen and although it will happen with anything that is in the ground, it will happen even more with copper...if you lay copper, there's some real expense here...you also have to design your conduit so that there are no sharp turns (I think about 20 degrees is the max angle that you are supposed to go with fibre)...this means that you will have to really think about your layout...lay string where you plan to dig and decide where switches will be located for each home...you will have to miss gas, water, sewer, and underground power lines when you design the network. The things to keep in mind are that string is cheap and you want a good way of maintaining the physical network or all of the money spent goes to waste.
The other concern with laying physical cable on someone's property is that while everyone might be friends now, it takes one bad neighbor to skrew your network. If someone moves into your neighbor's house and says you can't run cable on his property, then you have to redesign that portion of the network...
Now, if I've scared you away from the idea of laying physical cable, you have one more option...wireless (802.11a is probably a good technology to look into...not as many consumer electronics are using 802.11a frequencies), but you have to realize that there are limitations and repeaters are not cheap. Each house would probably need a repeater...With wireless, you also have to make sure that you follow your local laws regarding the particular technology you plan to use. Meaning that if you get a neighbor that complains that your network is interfering with their radio/TV reception, they could shut down the network. The other problem with wireless is that you get terible latency on the edges of your network...
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:2, Offtopic)
And I just assume everyone loves The Netherlands. Well, at least the softdrugs policy
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:2, Funny)
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:4, Insightful)
- A Canadian
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:4, Informative)
No it isnt, cause Holland is not a country. Holland is a province (well 2 provinces, north and south holland), the country is the Netherlands.
Eg, Philips do _not_ have their headquarters in Holland (it's in Eindhoven, province of Limburg), the Dutch TT is _not_ in Holland (it's in Drenthe), Utrecht is _not_ in Holland, etc..
Holland => a province
the Netherlands => the country
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:2)
Eindhoven, province of Limburg
Oops, Eindhoven is in north-Brabant.
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:2)
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, I'd agree that Holland is a great country. It was a lot prettier than I imagined, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that it "would be the envy of all Americans". The weather kind of sucks most of the year for starters.
There are lots of nice countries in the Americas, and there are lots of nice countries in Europe. Each one has something different to offer.
Interestingly, I found France to
Re:If you're not Dutch you're not much (Score:2)
Re:Call the phone company (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Call the phone company (Score:2)
If I were doing this, I wouldn't want to be the phone/cable/internet company.
Re:Call the phone company (Score:2)
Re:Call the phone company (Score:3, Insightful)
It appears they have a good community of people who all get along with each other. In such a case, it could be run on a private, local basis.
Until some assholes move in, and demand the world.
You've never been in an HOA with a couple of asshole control freaks? Not pleasant. No mater what you do, they will be pissed off at something.
Re:Communism doesn't work (Score:2)
Re:All over power lines + alternative energy (?) (Score:2)
I have no idea why my house has fiberglass in it with all these great "natural" materials available.