Remote Location Connection Question!

[wasabe]

Hello everyone! I hope someone out there will be able to offer some advice on this matter. I work for a medium size company and our primary location is spread out over an entire mountain. We have a remote location that needs to have a point of sale system connected to our corporate network. My boss wants me to put DSL to the location, however it is approximately 10,000 feet from our main building. We do have open phone lines run to the remote site, however there is no line of sight for wireless.

The only thing we have in our collection of parts is ZyXEL P841C and P841-25 modems that run VDSL. Since that is only good out to 4,500 feet, we looked into running fiber to a closer location but the closest we can get is about 6,000 feet. I contacted ZyXEL and they do not have a point to point ADSL system similar to the 841 series. So, the lady I spoke to recommended that I go with the P793H which running G.SHDSL is good out to about 18,000. A pair of those will run about $800.

It is a plausible solution and I am happy to go with that, but as in any corporate environment, the budget is always a concern and I was just thinking that if I could find another, more cost effective solution, that it would be good for the company. We are only going to have the one drop at the remote site and I'm not sure that its worth the expense.

I'm open to any suggestions or input on this situation! Thank you for your help!

[Twigman]

Can you get direct line of sight by going via someone else's roof?
Wireless is a possibility in that case. Or even just passive repeater on the top of the obstruction might work...
DSL is only £20/month though. If it's just for one thing I would go for that as it's not exactly expensive...

[wasabe]

It is actually a ski resort, so the only thing between the locations are hills We could reach the location with 3 hops wirelessly, however our department head has been reluctant to have our corporate network broadcast like that. I just asked and I was told that he is coming around slowly but surely, lol. So that may end up being a possibility. I don't handle the wireless parts much, do you think that could be done for less than US$800?

The DSL actually won't cost us anything, we would have both the central side and the end modem within our corporate network, it was just a way to use the existing phone lines to get network out to the location.

[lost eden]

If you're worried about 'broadcasting' your company's network over those distances, you could just as easily set up some free space optics between the same number of hops instead. That way it would be pretty much impossible to hack.

[wasabe]

That is a really good idea as far as security is concerned! However, due to the high winds in some of the storms we get and the thick snowfalls, I don't believe that we would end up getting as reliable a connection out of that as we would from hardwiring everything. The repeater would have to just be on a tower and we get very high winds some days. They say that FSO has only limited impact from snow, but I would still be concerned about snow days where visibility is significantly impacted over that great a distance. Cost is certainly going to play a factor as well and it sounds like the P793H's are going to be our way to go so that we can just use the existing lines. Thank you guys for your input! I appreciate it!!!

[lost eden]

Ah, of course, didn't think about the weather... Cheap FSO certainly is affected by bad weather. Scratch that.

[Jay]

low frequency Micriowave is a little better though. I wonder if that would work?

[pauldarkside]

however there is no line of sight for wireless

However, due to the high winds in some of the storms we get and the thick snowfalls, I don't believe that we would end up getting as reliable a connection out of that as we would from hardwiring everything. The repeater would have to just be on a tower and we get very high winds some days. They say that FSO has only limited impact from snow, but I would still be concerned about snow days where visibility is significantly impacted over that great a distance. Cost is certainly going to play a factor as well and it sounds like the P793H's are going to be our way to go so that we can just use the existing lines.

low frequency Micriowave is a little better though. I wonder if that would work?

Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be an option; without line of sight that tower would be involved but weather conditions could be costly. I would have suggested the same thing otherwise.

Looks like the 3 hops wasabe mentioned earlier would be a viable option though. MAC restrictions, very strong password and a secure VPN? You could have several layers of security on the connection before a hack got to the encrytped data.

[Lourdes]

Have you looked into ethernet repeaters and extenders (for copper or fibre)?

[Jay]

You don't need line of site for low frequency microwave.

[Twigman]

If you can use the phone line for free go for that Cheap and simple.

[pauldarkside]

You don't need line of site for low frequency microwave.

Nope, you're right - just did a quick google to check

[awm]

I worked at a place about a mile and a half out from the center of the organization and we used a product called gigabeam which I believe is some sort of microwave. It worked fairly well (great bandwidth), but went down during particularly strong rain (and I would presume snow too). I'd be skeptical of any wireless system working fine though mountain weather.

[Jay]

I worked at a place about a mile and a half out from the center of the organization and we used a product called gigabeam which I believe is some sort of microwave. It worked fairly well (great bandwidth), but went down during particularly strong rain (and I would presume snow too). I'd be skeptical of any wireless system working fine though mountain weather.

This is a good point, wind, rain, heavy snow and even a bird sitting on the transmitter could cause it to drop signal.