WiFi boosting

[gregbradley]

Cat 5 ethernet cable from my office to the observatory at home is about 50 metres and it works well.

At Bigga I have a big roll of it and roll t out and connect to inside. That is probably close to 50 metres also, maybe 40. Works well.

So its a simple test really, get 60 metres of Cat 5 cable (blue) and the tool to put connectors on it, make your own cable and roll it out and use remote desktop and see if it works.

For some reason I have to ask my laptop to connect to the observatory laptop twice. The first time fails and the 2nd time always connects.

It of course requires an electronic focuser on the scope. In your case if you still have to manually move your dome you'll have to go out to your observatory anyway so not as much benefit if that is the case.

For me it saves a lot of mossie bites! Or late night changes of targets.

Greg.

[OICURMT]

The only word you need... "Cantenna"

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Mike, physically cabling all the way.

But remember the first rule of networking…if you have to lay one cable, always lay two!

Also, while Cat6 should be totally fine over that distance, consider running fibre…

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Thanks again for all the feedback, all very useful. I will probably start with using the WiFi and a wifi booster at the observatory, for simple remote access and control, the signal at the observatory is already quite strong (consistently 2 to 3 bars), just from the control room and house, with all data just saved locally and transferred manually, via memory stick, when I'm ready to retrieve it. Down the track I will consider a hard wired connection.

The commercial WiFi infrastructure, located on our 100acre property, is currently being upgraded and our provider notified us today that they are moving us from our 30/15 service to an unlimited 100/50 speed internet connection service, hope it proves consistent and reliable, but that's pretty cool

Mike