At 14:32 -0400 9/12/09, Chance Reecher wrote: >I wouldn't be worried about lightning or underground currents, as Cat5 >is decently insulated, but wireless would be much easier, and I >guarantee that N would reach, provided it doesn't have to go through too >many walls to get there.
Ten base T with cat 5 wire is rated for 100 meters. 80 yards is getting there but probably within the limit after you include going up the walls and such. Forget about 100 base T. Underground currents produced by lightning ARE a concern though. 10 base T signals are differential and are pretty good against noise but they are coupled into and out of modems - er, driver circuitry - via tiny 20 MHz transformers that are actually fit into 0.300 inch DIP packages four at a time. The insulation of the windings inside the transformers is not up to huge changes in ground potential that can occur over a few meters of earth. Here in the front range of the Colorado mountains we get lightning that produces 1000 volt pulses between the earth ground of the power company at one end of the house and the ground rod at the other end where the microwave antenna points to Cheyenne Mountain. Those Ethernet transformers have been lost several times. And. . . running a separate ground wire the length of the house doesn't work because the inductance of the wire makes it look like a resistor at a few MHz.. I am actively looking for an affordable optical fiber replacement for CAT-5. I recently saw an article on using 1 mm diameter plastic fiber for that but it isn't on the market yet. Glass fiber and drivers for it are just too expensive probably because they are built for kilometers. As for using 802.11x wireless. Look for "pringles can" antenna on Google. A few years ago such things were developed as directional antennas and they worked. It was a matter of mounting an RF connector to the side of the can and getting the right length of wire sticking up inside the can. -- --> A fair tax is one that you pay but I don't <-- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
