Ok this is a very broad question. I live in a 21 story building that is currently being wired for digital cable. With this I will (finally) be able to get digital cable and internet. But I was thinking rather than have each person signup and pay for access, couldn't we set up the whole building? Don't worry, I am not talking about ripping off TWC by having everyone share a connection I mean legitamately set up a connection into a server in the basement, or would a dish on the roof be better?. Then people could access the server via the building's cable, similiar to my and most or your's, network at work, but with a cable modem I assume. I know it would take some serious bandwith to support potentially up to 300 apartments, but keep in mind the cost would also be spread out over 300 apartments.

Sorry if I am babbling, my network experience is limited to a few small LANs, nothing like this. I realize I am way outa my league here and we would probably hire an IT firm to implement this. I just want to be able to speak intelligently on the topic. Thanks for any help!

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A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran

how is this not taking money away from the cable company? there is no way they are going to put a fat pipe in the basement on a server and share the connection that way, then they would have to support the server. its far easyer to put a large switch in the building (or block) and run the coax to each appartment.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

I don't know about where you live but where I live thats illegal, and is seriously going to get you in trouble with the cable company, because you're not going to be able to keep it a secret from them, you'll be burning up cable modems on a regular basis, unless you're going for the higher level equipment to start with which is a heck of a lot more expensive than you think. Your thoughts are also dependant on a 300 number that would mean that every tenant would have to participate, you'd be lucky to get a fourth of them to participate in the program, more likely a fifth or even less, you'd be much better off to just get the service for yourself and enjoy the heck out of it, there'd be a lot less equipment costs, hassles, and downtime.

no no no, you guys don't get what I am saying, sorry I didn't explain it well. I am NOT trying to hide it from the cable company or anybody. Whoever would be sending in the pipe would know it was for the entire building.

How does my company set up a network for 10,000 employees, all connected to the internet? Are they ripping someone of? Of course not, they must have a contract with someone. They own all the hardware inside, but they must be connected to a backbone somewhere, and that's what I'm talking about.

edit: Also, many new buildings where I live are built already wired for the internet. They have data ports in the wall and all you need to do is plug in via your NIC. Its not illegal, the building pays for the service. My building doesn't have that, but what I'm asking is could we set it up, and connect via a pc NIC to cable modem to wall cable, which is then connected to a network with broadband internet access.

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A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by endless_n00b on 06/12/02 10:52 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

the cable company is not going to set something like that up. to do it you would have to set up some sort of wan connection (from the phone company) get a big @$$ router, bunch of switches, run cat 5 to every room in the appartment in lengths no longer than 100 meters. if some appartments are too far you will have to put an idf in the higher floors and run fiber to the mdf. your already talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. even then you would have no cable tv. isp's like your cable company are not in the business of serving a back bone connection to any one. the kind of connection your work has is leased from the phone company, they pay a monthly fee.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

why would the phone company have to get involved?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

OK now we are getting somewhere. I actually suspected it wouldn't be the cable company that would set it up, but I wasn't sure who would.

>>get a big @$$ router, bunch of switches<<
yup I figured that,

>>run cat 5 to every room in the appartment<<

Ok this part is one of my main questions, we are already laying down digital cable lines to every apartment, can this serve as network cable? This is the part that costs a fortune and we've already paid for it. $350k to be exact, although most of that was actually for new wallpaper and carpeting, the digital cable is kind of a bonus. So trust me, 10 grand in switches is no biggie.

But its all moot if the cable we are laying down can't serve as the connection, and that's my main question.



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A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran

I may not understand completely, or I may...., but it seems to me: That if your area supports cable internet, (RoadRunner etc.) and you have each apartment in your building wired for cable, then the only thing that would need to be done is for whoever wants internet access to be issued/rented a cable modem/ip by the cable company and you're on-line. Don't know if the cable co would have to install heavy duty repeaters or signal boosters or something in the buiding...
How about simply asking the cable company, a manager or higher-up of course, about the prospect of each of the tenants being able to have cable internet access if they choose to. Doesn't seem a problem to me. But then I don't work for the cable co either :-)
m

But wait, after rereading you original message, I see that you want all apartments to have internet access. Period.

Well, the cable company knows what they can and will do depending on how much cash you throw at them, so my original advice, ask the cable company, still applies.
Let us know what the outcome is.
m

you have to connect to a backbone somewhere, you cant just get a bunch of fiber and plug in in at the street corner. they have to plug it in to their switch at the co. you could pay for the fiber yourself but you still need to pay for the wan connection, yearly or monthly.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

is the cable company wiring the entire building already? if so then every one has access right there, they just have to pay the cable company. you cant use their cable to run your own lan, they will not allow it. if you were going to pursue the internet part yourself you will have to get at least a ds3 connection to the building. a t3 isnt going to serve 300 people running ftp servers and leaving file sharing programs on. that is expensive.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

oh, I was under the impression that he wanted the cable company to be his ISP (which I thought they could do).

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

REALITY CHECK HERE: Obviously you really don't understand how the networking actually works, each computer will only be allowed a certain amount of access time to the network to accomplish its goals, you'll be better off going with a dial up system you'll get twice the download capability than you'll end up with with 300 networked computers, seeking server rights. There is a big difference between true networking and just splitting up a cable connection.

i dont know of any cable company that serves buisness class wan connections.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

Yeah, thats what I was unsure of, although I don't know why they don't

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

jihiggs
>>you have to connect to a backbone somewhere, you cant just get a bunch of fiber and plug in in at the street corner. they have to plug it in to their switch at the co. you could pay for the fiber yourself but you still need to pay for the wan connection, yearly or monthly.<<
I know that, that's one thing I'm asking. Who would provide that service? Phone company you said before right?

>>you cant use their cable to run your own lan, they will not allow it.<<
They don't own it we do, we are paying for everything.

4ryan6
>>than you'll end up with with 300 networked computers, seeking server rights<<
Couldn't you have clusters rather than all 300 on 1 server? They just all need to connect to a backbone that needs to be big enough to handle us all. Being that I live in NYC with about 2 million other internet users, I would think there's a pretty damn big backbone somewhere we could pay a monthly/yearly fee to connect to. There has to be a way, other buildings and obviously companies have it.


But I am hoping someone can answer this one nagging question that is the key to all this. Can a digital cable wire serve as network cable?


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A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran

by digital cable wire, you mean 75 ohm coax?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

answer to your nagging question, no.
digital cable uses coax, no one makes network equipment to run on coax any more. coax was used in a network topology called "bus" or "ring" it sucked a lot. the way they run the cable is not the same. even if you could find some equipment that would use the wires, you could not use the same wire to run a network and cable tv.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

well there you have it, won't work

Thanks for all your replies, though.

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A newbie is only a newbie for as long as you allow him to be.
-Anonymous Veteran