Every September we get the same call from farms and rural properties around Norfolk County. The house has decent internet, the shop or barn does not, and whatever was limping along over Wi-Fi has stopped coping now that there are cameras and a computer out there.
There is a right way to do this, and most of it comes down to picking the correct cable before anyone starts digging. Here is how we decide.
Wi-Fi across the yard is a stopgap
A point-to-point wireless link or an outdoor access point can get a signal to an outbuilding, and for a couple of cameras it is often fine. We covered that approach in our post on Wi-Fi and cameras for barns, shops and outbuildings.
Where it falls down is predictable. Trees leaf out, a wagon gets parked in the path, wet snow takes a few dB off the link, and the shop drops offline on the worst day of the year. If that building has cameras you actually need footage from, a till, a computer, or a second access point, run cable.
The 100 metre rule decides most of this
Copper Ethernet is good for 100 m end to end, and that 100 m includes the patch cords at both ends.
Measure the real route, not the straight line on the satellite photo. Cable goes down a wall, along the joists, out through conduit, around the driveway instead of under it, up the far wall and into a rack. A 60 m yard becomes a 95 m run more often than people expect.
Under roughly 80 m of actual cable path, outdoor-rated Cat6 in conduit is the straightforward answer. Anywhere over that, or anywhere the number is uncomfortably close, we quote fibre rather than hoping.
When fibre is the right call
Distance is the obvious reason. Single-mode fibre runs up to 10 km on the SFP modules Ubiquiti sells, so the far corner of a hundred-acre property is not a problem. Multi-mode handles 550 m at 1 Gbps and 300 m at 10 Gbps, which covers nearly every farmyard we see.
The less obvious reason is electrical. If the outbuilding has its own panel, its own service or its own ground rod, a copper run between the two buildings ties those grounds together. Any difference in ground potential, and any nearby strike, now has a path straight through your switch. Fibre carries no current at all, so the two buildings stay electrically separate. On a property with a detached shop on its own service we default to fibre for that reason alone, even at 40 m.
Fibre also ages well. The same strand doing 1 Gbps today does 10 Gbps with a module swap, and nobody re-trenches in five years.
Getting it in the ground
Direct burial cable exists and it works. We still pull everything through conduit, because conduit is what lets you replace a damaged cable without a backhoe, and rodents are patient.
Two things people skip and then regret.
Book a locate first. Ontario One Call is free, it is required by law before you dig, and homeowners need to submit the request at least five business days ahead. Hydro, gas and the local utilities are all notified from that one request.
Leave slack at both ends and a pull string in the conduit. It costs nothing on installation day and saves a full day later.
Late September into October is the window in our part of Southern Ontario. Once the frost is in, trenching goes from a morning's work to a project, and the price follows.
Surge protection on any copper that leaves the building
If the run does end up copper, every outdoor segment gets an Ethernet surge protector at both ends, bonded to a proper ground. Ubiquiti's ETH-SP-G2 costs very little next to what it protects, and it is the difference between swapping a small inline device and replacing the switch, the gateway and the camera it was feeding. There is more detail in our post on surge protection for network gear.
It is also why we land outbuilding runs on their own switch out there rather than daisy-chaining through the main one. Contain the damage.
What this costs
Cat6 drops start at $195 installed and Cat6A from $245. Technician labour is $135/hr locally, $150/hr on the Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville side.
Trenching, conduit and fibre runs vary far too much with soil, distance and what is already buried to publish a single number, so those are measured and quoted in writing before anyone starts. Outside our Norfolk home zone there is a visit minimum, $395 for 31 to 60 minutes out and $595 beyond that, and the day's work counts toward it.
For a typical farm shop 90 m from the house, with a switch, an access point and a few cameras at the far end, the cable itself is the cheap part. The trench is not.
What we recommend
Measure the real cable path before anything else. Under 80 m with no separate electrical service, use outdoor Cat6 in conduit and surge protect both ends. Over that, or with a separate panel out there, use fibre and stop thinking about it.
Either way, put a small switch in the outbuilding instead of running an individual cable back for every device, and size the PoE budget for what gets added later rather than what goes in on day one. Our guide to PoE budgets has the arithmetic.
If you want the configuration side, the SFP ports and VLANs once the cable is in, Josh walks through that kind of setup on his own site.
We do this work across Norfolk, Oxford, Brant and Haldimand counties. Send the property details and rough distances through our contact page and we will tell you which of the two it should be, usually without needing a site visit first.
Sources
- SFP Modules and DAC Cables, Ubiquiti Help Center
- Public Utility Locates for Homeowners, Ontario One Call
- Ethernet Surge Protector, Ubiquiti Store
- Ethernet over twisted pair, Wikipedia
Cabling, networks, cameras, access control, smart homes, hosting and software for homes and small business across Southwestern Ontario. Twenty-plus years in the trade, and we still answer the phone.