Wow, so many useful inputs, thanks!
I had no idea about off-the-shelf fibre, I thought expensive special equipment was needed (normally stolen from fibre installers).
Indeed you can buy everything from stores. Even if you just bought a fiber without ends, I paid about R250 call out fee and then R25 per splice when I wanted them to do a bunch of splices for me.
Yeah it isn't cheap but I think once off if you splice a bunch of fibers like I did, it isn't outrageous.
- I'll need to accommodate messy extra boxes and power supplies on both sides
- The route won't be shared with any other cable
- Replacing ethernet after +/-3 years isn't too offputting, but I will look at narrow bore conduit maybe 16mm
- I can cut down on clutter by using an AP with PoE (single cable)
So if you run your networking stuff in a conduit you won't need to replace it at all, hence my recommending it.
PVC pipe is super easy to work with. You can buy some cheap conduit and PVC glue and then the glue basically melts the two parts together.
Easy as falling out of a tree.
I'm sort of confused why you need a bunch of APs and stuff?
If you are running cable?
Or are you saying that there is an air gap where you need to connect Wifi wise? (sounds like it)
would I need more than cat 5e ethernet? (this is domestic use, only a couple of people but using netflix)
What you put across the network is irrelevant, it is more about the speed you want to achieve.
For Cat5e you'll be limited to gigabit ethernet, which I suspect is sufficient for you. (I mean do you even have 2.5/5/10GbE equipment?)
D4N_CPT opened a new world by introducing me to "access point". Now I'm thinking, would a good AP be a 13dBi outdoor CPE thingy to blast a wifi signal indoors and outdoors across the car park? (all this without giving everybody cancer). I'm really asking what AP has a good range and no safety issues
You can't get cancer from 5GHz electromagnetic radiation. Visible light, also electromagnetic radiation, in the THz range specifically, doesn't give you cancer.
Neither has enough energy to knock electrons off of atoms. Ultraviolet 800THz+ is where the photons have enough energy to start being dangerous. CRT TVs give off low amounts of x-rays btw, and didn't see all these hippies worrying about that. Honestly people have no idea how the world works who come up with this fear mongering BS.
The only "issue" is if you have an unlicensed device and the signal is too strong it can disturb other things like cellphone networks and so on.
But those aren't really easy to buy anymore (haven't been for years).
For wifi these things are pretty strictly regulated in other countries, so we get the benefit of that here, Wifi has only gotten weaker every generation (to reduce their influence on telecoms networks and each other).
But you get antennas that are directional and those are probably more desirable because they suffer less from attenuation (signal getting weaker)
5GHz is readily absorbed by water, so rain can have a massive impact on your signal quality (it is why microwaves heat food, the water absorbs the 2.4-5GHz energy and gets hot from vibration. your microwave is like 1.4kW, your wifi router is 200mW LOL)
Another option is optical, you do actually get optical transmitters, but they need line of sight to each other, but they are usually faster, but from what I understand far more expensive because they are less common
