Network security in garage

stephenw10

Mmm, I think you have a higher class of burglar in Vancouver than we do in London if that's a real threat.

But a useful experiment in locking stuff down.

Steve

xman111

haha, i didn't know if it was a threat, we live in a pretty good neighborhood as well. Just didn't want to do anything stupid by leaving unsecured network ports out and about :)

tim.mcmanus

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

ya i don't want to make it more complicated that it needs to be.

Since you are around, can i ask you a somewhat related question? do you have an opinion on running fibre? is it dangerous to run copper underground outside to the garage and is it worth the extra expense to run 1 fibre line? I can do 3 cat6's for about $75, while fibre, i need media converters, SFP's, and expensive cable, probably closer to $250.

Have been reading about lightning strikes and frying equipment. That being said, i live in Vancouver, and haven't seen lightning in years :)

Copper is always going to be cheaper and easier to work with. The only advantage glass has over copper is link length. You can go much further with fibre than copper.

If you are going to run fibre, do two runs. Use one for the connection and keep the other one dark in the (unlikely) event you need it. It's cheaper to do it at the same time than in the future. And in the event you have issues with the first fibre run, you can swap over to the second easily to verify/validate issues.

If it only costs you $250 to get the gear for an exterior fibre run, definitely do two. $250 is a steal, it usually starts at $1K for outdoor fibre.

xman111

what about risk of lightning strike? thanks for the reply Tim.

tim.mcmanus

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

what about risk of lightning strike? thanks for the reply Tim.

IMHO the probability is low that you'll attract a strike.

Also, there are varying degrees to lightning strikes. If it's not a direct hit, somethings may survive. But if your telco gets hit by a direct lightning strike, that has a higher probability of frying everything. Not even your retail surge protectors can protect against a direct lightning strike.

The worst thing about a lightning strike is static electricity. It electrifies the air and everything around it to certain degrees. So you could theoretically have a tree outside your window get hit, and the static electricity can be strong enough to damage (not destroy) electronics.

So I rarely if ever take lightning into consideration when designing a home network. I have a client with a detached garage, similar probably to your situation. He's on top of a mountain in PA that is prone to lightning storms. Never had an issue, and we ran 250' of copper to his garage from the main house.

I don't worry about lightning.

JKnott

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

Have been reading about lightning strikes and frying equipment. That being said, i live in Vancouver, and haven't seen lightning in years :)

Well, there has been a lot of installed copper for decades before fibre was available. If you're worried you can get surge arresters for Ethernet. How far is the run? Is the garage electrical system fed from the house? Also, there is no electrical connection between Ethernet cables and interfaces, PoE excepted. However, there is supposed to be isolation between the PoE part of the equipment and the rest. The signal passes through a transformer, which can withstand a significant voltage. The original 10baseT Ethernet (StarLAN) was designed to work over cables shared with telephones. An analog phone line can have typically 90V 20 Hz AC on it when ringing. The NICs were designed to tolerate being mis-connected to a phone line. So, what's the risk in an area where lightning is rare?

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Mmm, I think you have a higher class of burglar in Vancouver than we do in London if that's a real threat.

Only high class burglars can afford to live in Vancouver.

xman111

thanks for the advice guys.. you know on the internet you read and think too much. Most stuff I read people are saying that you should never run copper between buildings. It is only about a 30 foot run, buried about 12 inches underground in pvc conduit. I am not too worried about it, just wanted to check with the pros :) The garage is powered by a run from the house and can't remember the last time we had lightning.

Vancouver is crazy, our brand new 1/2 duplex is worth over $1 mil. :)

JKnott

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

The garage is powered by a run from the house

That means there will be a heavy ground wire between the house and garage, which will limit any voltage differential between them. As I mentioned, there's no electrical connection over Ethernet cables.

xman111

still deciding about POE, either run from the house or POE switch in the garage.. thanks for your help, appreciate it..

tim.mcmanus

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

still deciding about POE, either run from the house or POE switch in the garage.. thanks for your help, appreciate it..

Get power as close to the device as possible. Run it from the garage. Get a POE injector if you don’t want to buy a POE switch.

Also, to those internet folks who tell you not to run copper between buildings, how do you get power? Copper is unavoidable

johnpoz

@xman111 said in Network security in garage:

Most stuff I read people are saying that you should never run copper between buildings.

This is old school info that won't die.. Do you have elect in the garage now? If so how do you think it got there - freaking copper ;)

stephenw10

@jknott said in Network security in garage:

Only high class burglars can afford to live in Vancouver.

Ha. It probably does mean you have a higher class of bored teenager which is a far more legitimate threat!

Steve