Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing and the information age (fwd)

[Willie Schreurs (Willie]

> Paul B. Chen  pbchen [at] mindspring.com
> Wed, 16 Apr, 1997

> For those who have looked into networking issues, some questions.
> 
> 1) Can anyone recommend a good cross-platform, peer-to-peer networking 
> solution?  I don't know if we're ready to go the server route; at this 
> point in time, there's not a heavy PC/networking guru type to keep such a

> device up and running and in tune.  Plus, there's a couple of Macs, mine 
> being one of them.
         . . . 
> Rich and others: does anyone have a specific recommendation regarding 
> "cable specifically designed for underground use?"  Also, as of a couple 
> of years ago, it was my understanding that though fiber was inexpensive, 
> the labor required to install it wasn't.  What is others' understanding 
> about that at this point in time? 
> 
> 3) For whatever the cable folks recommend, what is the maximum run 
> distance before repeaters are required?  And since I've never done any of

> this myself, would anybody like to recommend a particular manufacturer's 
> equipment, or they all pretty much the same?
> 
> 4) Besides ISDN or T1 coming in / going out, is there anything else that 
> can be considered?
> 
> East Lake Commons - a cohousing/ecovillage of 67 units in two communities

> on 17 acres of urban land just minutes from downtown Atlanta.  We've just

> completed two planning sessions on Common House and residences!

        I've forwarded this message to our hardware guru, who's not currently
subscribed - he may subscribe & reply or reply through me.  I was speaking
with him earlier this evening before I read this message and he mentioned a
type of cable for underground use, but it's not Cat 5.  We *have* run Cat 5
cable through our conduit and are not too concerned for the following
reasons: i) we're not running 100 MBit/s anyway, so who cares if the cable
performance drops off a bit - we won't even see it; ii) our internet
connection is ISDN, so that's the bottleneck there; iii) optical's coming
along and getting cheaper and we'll probably be upgrading to it in a few
years anyway [one GOOD reason for conduit, BTW, upgrades like this will be
very easy].  Of course, we're also in Colorado, where moisture might be a
little less of an issue ;-)

    /\                        Willie Schreurs                        /\
   //\\ <Willie [at] Greyrock.org>(H) <WSchreurs [at] vines.colostate.edu>(W) 
//\\
  ///\\\            Greyrock Commons, Fort Collins, CO             ///\\\