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Comment by michaelt | Hacker News Reader

If your garage is going to house cars or tools and it's questionable whether you need to run a network cable to it anyway, go for wired cable so you don't need a $500 fiber splicer. 300' is the maximum you can do, but the spec has some wiggle room.

If your garage is actually going to be a home office, you're a networking enthusiast and you feel running fiber would be a fun learning experience, and you've got a buddy who can lend you a fiber splicer (or giant holes you can fit a pre-terminated cable through) - then go ahead and run fiber if you like.

I barely use the network link I ran to my garage, and I literally have a CNC machine in there. Turns out sneakernet works fine when you've got to go set up the workpiece anyway, and I ain't buying a car that needs a wifi connection. A gold-plated setup would have been a waste of money.

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You don't need a fiber splicer for this. You can order a pre-terminated fiber cable online.

On fs.com you can order fiber in custom lengths. An armored pre-terminated 350ft OS2 duplex cable costs $128: https://www.fs.com/products/20720.html Non-armored would be as cheap as $40: https://www.fs.com/products/50147.html?attribute=58053&id=17...

If you don't have a conduit, you can buy direct-burial cable. Two strands at 350 feet would be $590: https://www.lanshack.com/2-Strand-CustomLine-Corning-ALTOS-O... 6 strands at 350 feet would be $687: https://www.lanshack.com/6-Strand-CustomLine-Corning-ALTOS-O...

If you have some extra length, just coil it somewhere in the wall and don't bother splicing or re-terminating it. You can also use keystone jacks or couplers at both ends too so you have flexibility later without re-running it through the conduit.

I strongly recommend against this unless you have bonded earth connections between the buildings. During a storm the ground potential between the locations is likely to exceed the 1500V rating of the magnetics in your switches, and your equipment will be destroyed. Fiber is the only safe option at this distance.

In my country lightning strikes are rare, the equipment on each end of the link costs substantially less than a fiber splicing machine, and we get bonded earth connections as a matter of course.

I agree it's worth keeping an eye on your earthing, of course - if you get a noticeable difference in ground potential and you plan to plug in an EV charger outside in the rain, you might need some extra grounding. Unless your garage, your EV and yourself are all on an insulated concrete slab.

Voltage differentials in the earth that exceed 1500V will occur even without a lightning strike, and the greatest danger is when the ground is dry. Even something as simple as a strong wind blowing on a tree can charge things up significantly...

How interesting! How do old-fashioned wired telephones and cable TV deal with this problem?

The cable TV shield is grounded where it enters the house. The POTS lines aren't grounded (they're differential, like 1000base-T), but the telephone company installs some sort of protection device in the exterior box that allows sparks to jump across to the local ground if the voltage differential gets too high.

It’s so frustrating the amount of over generalization, anecdata that’s actually dangerous, and/or outright misinformation in this thread. Thank you for being one of the folks with spot on accurate info!

The garage will have a home office and TV area, so I need some kind of network connection. I was planning to use a wireless bridge, but it seems like it might be worth adding a run of fiber.

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