[SOLVED] Trench network cable 600’ to barn

butchersong

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May 30, 2013
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I’d like to extend my network from the house to a barn. The barn is too far for cat6 and even though I have line of sight, I’m not sure directional WiFi would be reliable enough in bad weather. If I rent a trencher is there a best and cheapest fiber solution or another option for a hard line?
 
Fiber the problem is getting the ends on the fiber. It is very hard to cut and not crack it and it must be cut perfectly parallel to the tiny fiber. This makes is hard for a do it yourself install. What you can do is run conduit and buy a premade (likely custom length ) patch cord. You can then extremely carefully pull the cable through the conduit. These patch cable as not designed to be pulled so you can not put any force on them.

Other wise you buy 6 strand armored cable and direct bury it. You will have to find someone to terminate the fiber for you.
 
If you're going to pull your own cable, you can pull as well some "thick" cable and run 48VDC on it, with the idea of placing mid-way a switch to use as a repeater. Knowing the current requirement for the switch, you can see what cable gauge you need so that the router (and a buck converter in front of it) gets 12VDC.