If you are asking if you can connect two systems via a single cable, yes, easily done with a cross-over cable. The crossover will flip the transmit and receive pairs so you do not need the hub/switch or repeater.

Mike S

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

I also know that whit a cross over cable I can do it, but there are 200 meters between the two PC.
Can I do it?
Thanks and sorry again for my bad english!!!

I think the maximum distance for Cat5 is 300 feet without a hub/switch/or repeater. So you probebly cant do that distance. What kinda budget do you have? Have you looked into wireless or infrared networking?

Another option is to use media converters and run a length of fiber. 200 meters is double the "rated" distance for 100Mhz CAT5 ( and yes, it's 100MHZ when you test, see Paul Kirsh for details)  The problem is signal antenuation, in other words the nice squarewave digital signal degrades into something rounded and less then the min voltage. You can get special low capacitance cable which would let you stretch the distance.. some hubs and switches work better then others so you might get some distance there. I vaguely remember seeing special NICs that were for long haul drops like this.. They could transmit at a higher level with the degrading expected and also have special circuits to compensate for the degraded returning signal. I have no idea if they are still around or not.

If it were me, I would try to find the LC cable and try it. Either that or run fiber if you can.

Mike S

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

Hi, I live near BULLDOC house and my PC will be connected to the opposite side of the cable :).
As he said, the distance is 200 meters.
We cant run with fiber and media converters becouse our budget is very poor.

We live i ITALY in a jointly-owned building if you hadnt undestood yet.
If it is necessary, we'll buy an HUB/switcher despite we would like to have a fast ethernet LAN without any HUB/swither.
If we have to buy something, we cant spend more than 250$ (so fiber and media converters are immediately out our plans)
Ok, LC cables? what kind of that? how are this cable called?
thx.

http://www.connectivityproducts.com/bulk/low-capacitance.html

The low capacitance lets you run the signal further before it degrades too much to be usable. This might work for you.

I had another thought.. many of the home network products like Linksys's Homenet use standard phone lines for 1-10Mhps links and have a range of 700 feet.. roughly 200 meters. It might work for you since it would be a straight connection and not shared with the phones. I use it myself to extend out my 10/100 network to some rooms downstairs via the phone lines and it works very well. The Linksys converters( bridges) for each end run about 85.00 US each. They have the telco port and one RJ45 port for your NIC card or whatever.  Think of it as a high tech version of the old long haul modems.

Mike S

PS-- where in Italy? my mother-in-law is from Italy.. born there.. strong willed woman

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

Would we have a 100 Mps (fast ethernet) speed with that Linksys bridges and a common phone line?

uhmmm....

No... the linksys is only rated at 10Mbps...  

Cisco is offering a new item that gives 100Mhz over cat3 but it's pricy :(

Mike S

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

ok, np.
But, what kind of LC cable do you suggest in order to run at 100 Mhz in a 200 meters lenght?
Thx.

You need to talk with the vendor at the link I posted to get the details. I dont have the specs in front of me and I have not had to use it in the last couple of years. I had a big fight with Siemens over their specs and we ended up with UTP instead of the LC or shielded TWP cable.

I doubt you will get 100Mbps at 200 meters.. 10Mbps is not a real problem. IF you try 100... it may work mostly.. in other words if you can live with the error rate it work well enough for what you want.

Again, you CAN get 100Mbps over 200 meters with the new Cisco equipment but it's beyond your budget.

Last resort would to get a cheap switch/hub that you could stick out of sight somewhere in the middle of the run and use normal CAT5 cabling.

Myself, I would borrow the 200 meters of CAT5, stretch it out and hook two workstations up and see if it works. If you tell the cable vendor what you are trying to do and that if it works, you will buy the cable on the spot they may be willing to let you try it first. Maybe if you offer the salesman his choice of beverage first

Mike S

"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

Everyone wants speed...... Without paying the the price! You could try to run on Cat 5. But, even if you get a link at 100MB, you will have errors that will probably reduce the through-put significantly. Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6..... UTP, STP, SCTP are all rated for 100 meters distance...... Low Cap cable will not support speeds greater than even Cat 5. Save your allowance and buy a 100MB hub to put half way.... Or install fiber and and 100BASE-TX fiber transceivers.

Keith

You can pretty much forget about getting reliable 100MB over the length you are hoping to run without a repeater of some kind. I would recommend an inexpensive 5 port switch like the Linksys.  That switch works quite well. But, you will need to supply a power source to it.

I wish you luck

for your budget forget 100 Mb connection.  Get a reel of Thinnet cable this allows you 185m( have you measured the distance accuratly?)  and will give you a reliable connection of 10 Mb. Why do you need 100Mb anyway?
remember T pieces and terminators for your combo Netowrk card.

If in doubt get the Ball Pein Hammer out

Thinnet cable would not be a bad idea for 10MB. However, something else that should be considered, as it sounds like the cable will have to run out doors, is the possibility of water or lightning damage. If any copper cable (Cat 5, 5e, 6, thinnet, low cap) is run out doors without protection on each end - the possibility of lightning damaging the computers on either or both sides is considerable. Another reason to install fiber and media converters.