Connect new server rack to old office network

[Jay]

I have been built new building to house my new server rack etc.

Currently I have the rack setup in an office in the main office building, this building is where all the local users are and where all my cabling goes to. I can leave just the Cisco switch in there but that is all.

The new building is about 100Meters from the current office building.

How will i be able to have the server rack setup in one building but still give full speed access to all users in the old office building? I can run only 1 or 2 cables max and I will not have space to have any system in the old office. I am right in thinking that If I send only 1 cable across then it will be limited to 100mbs and this will be shared amongst all users in that building?

is Fiber my best bet here?

[Moby-Dick]

1000 Base-t will reach that range - so you could do it over copper , but fibre would be preferential.

[Jay]

would potential difference between the to buildings not be a problem over copper cat5/6?

[peterb]

Shouldn't be - signal levels are referenced to ground, and there should be common earth bonding between he buildings. However, as Moby Dick says, fibre woud be better and give higher throughput, provoded you have the correct equipment at each end. For the time being thoug, you could use a simple fibre transceiver at each end and connect that to your existing routers/swiches etc.

Presumably the ducting between the two buildings is in place?

[Jay]

no its not but we have our own building company so putting it in would be no problem.

could you give me a link to these fiber transceivers?

are they th same as media converters?

So if i get some media converters,on each end 1 in to the 2950 switch 1 into the smoothwall. Run 2 fiber lines over there (one backup) via some large conduit with a wire runner (i can then pull more if for some reason i need to) and bingo I have bridged the network with a fiber link.

[badass]

The Fibre transcievers are called GBIC's
You have 2 types, short haul and long haul aswell as 2 types of fibre, single mode and multimode.
You can get away with using multimode fibre and short haul GBIC's they will show as 1000 base-sx
If the cisco switch you are using is modern, the GBIC ports should be SFP GBIC ports so you will need to use SFP (Small Form Pluggable) GBICs
The SFP GBICS have an LC connector on the end and for the panels, you are probably best to go for ST termination (its a boyonet type termination, like the BNC connectors for the old coax 10base2 ethernet)
This means you will need 2 SFP 1000base-sx GBICs, 2 switches with SFP ports in them, 2 ST-LC fibre patch leads and a contractor to put in a length of multimode fibre and terminate it with ST panels in your racks/wall cabinets at each office.

The GBICS are around £150 each, Cisco switches are anything from £500 upwards (the ones we use are £2500 for 24 ports)
The patch leads will be around a tenner each and the laying of the fibre will cost an effing fortune!
While there are people there laying fibre, its probably worth getting them to lay 2 different cables for sort of redundancy. We have, in the past had some landscapers smash our ducting and they only broke one of the cables so we rewired the cabinets to use the other but I would expect that more often than not if the ducting gets smashed, everything in it will be broken aswell

EDIT: If you are using your own building company, it may be worth laying 2 different dicting runs and lay 1 fibre down each diucting run That way if comms goes down you can run outside and shout at whoever's dug it up and shout at them lots so they dont wreck the other one.

[Jay]

do you think its worth trying to convince them to keep me in the current building?

I have found these

http://www.ciao.co.uk/StarTech_com_M...erter__5439913
or
http://www.tradecomputer.co.uk/produ...cts_id=1015174
and
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/rev...spx?EDC=111696