HOW LONG CAN THEY BE?

[W4BD]

Well I am wanting to move my USB printer a little futher away from my puter and radios and was wondering how long can you run USB cables.

I am also wanting to move my 14 year old Daughter and her friends out of my Shack and am planing on using CAT 5 cable to tie her puter back to the DSL MODEM. I have a 50 oot cable and I am not sure it's long enough. I was wondering can it be longer than 50 foot and if so how much longer?

73's

[WD8OQX]

The maximum length (maximum certifiable length) for CAT 5 patch or crossover cables is 328 feet (100 meters).

Beyond that, you run the risk of signal loss and other complications.


Q1: USB: - How long of a cable can I use to connect my device?
A1: In practice, the USB specification limits the length of a cable between full speed devices to 5 meters (a little under 16 feet 5 inches). For a low speed device the limit is 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches).


http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/6518/google0dw.gif

[W4BD]

WD8OQX

Well did I read this right on the length of USB cabeles "A1: In practice, the USB specification limits the length of a cable between full speed devices to 5 meters (a little under 16 feet 5 inches). For a low speed device the limit is 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches)". My logic says that a full speed would have the shorter cable and the lower speed would have the longer cable. Either way I don't use my printer that much and it has a buffer in it. so I could live with 15 or so feet.

The Cat 5 cables would wind up about 65 feet I guess. I haven't been under the house yet but my Daughter went under and strung the cable and said it was too short. I don't see how a 50 foot cable can be too short but until I go under and see how many crooks and turns she did I will have to go by what she said.

73's

[WD8OQX]

Even though it is less secure, you can use wireless if need be. There are even wireless print servers that let you hook your printer into your network, wirelessly.

check it out...

As for the USB lengths, I agree with your logic, but I think this compares USB 2 to USB 1.1 - not sure on this as I just quoted what I found.

Never used LONG USB because of the way it works. My thinking is that it would mess up real quick, especially on the voltage unless you used external power for the device. Even then it wasn't designed or intended for such. (think serial & parallel cables) - this was intended to be for device hookup right at the computer as the old serial & parallel were with about the same type of degradation. IF I remember right, the parallel was the longest & not much more than the longest USB. Which when you stop to think about it is a pretty long stretch between computer & device.

Check out these links:

usb info (http://www.connectworld.net/usb.html)
usb info (http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=804)
USB - where I got the quote (http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5)

[AC0H]

Quote[/b] ]As for the USB lengths, I agree with your logic, but I think this compares USB 2 to USB 1.1 - not sure on this as I just quoted what I found.

Yes, the difference is between USB 1.1 "low speed devices" and USB 2.0 "high speed devices".

In practice I've found that for lengths over about 50' your better off going with CAT6 as opposed to CAT5 network cable. Despite what the official specs say, 100m/328ft with CAT5 is ridiculous if you want to maintain good network performance. If we have any run over about 150ft we use fiber.

[kf6rdn]

I wouldn't worry about anything near the length you are describing. We have a few GigE runs that are near 400 feet.

I would try to make it a single cable run, and not use a female/female coupler.

I would actually trust cabled at that distance before WiFi, unless you were using directional antennas.

[KD6NIG]

Also, with CAT5, you can use a "repeater" if need be, if the legnth is longer than that.

Any network router can be used for this function, really. I've seen people use them for this purpose. You just need power, a place to put it, and one cable goes in, one cable goes out.

USB is a different animal. One thing you could look at is a print server also, that takes the USB and converts it to Cat 5, or even a wireless connection. The advantages of this is that the computer the printer is hooked to now doesn't even have to be on anymore for the printer to function. It is now a network device.

The disadvantages of it is that many printers don't behave well with them. Plus, if you go wireless, you have to make sure your network is secure. Sometimes staying wired is better.

The longest run I have is 160' or so. No problems. I've seen people go well over 400', though they occasionally have dropouts. That was more of an issue of them using 100' cables with couplers at each end. Inserting a network switch as a repeater in the middle of that line cured the problem. I would reccomend a solid wire though if you're going over 100', no couplings. You'll lose stregnth there, just like with coax.

[AB8RU]

You can use a Network Printer and a repeater if you need to run it over the above post mentioned, however if you do find that the run is going to be say a building or 2 down It would be much better to send info thru your Network weather WLAN or Intranet to someone there to recive the documents and print it there, losses do occour and running risks of dropped packets and it would proably look like this as example

The Quick brown fox jumped over 4 lazy dogs

was intended sent message may look like

The Q bronx over 4 dogs

I would not know if this is actually a dropped packet looks in reality but an idea of what may happen when a message gets messed up or plain " qwertyuiop "

but I hope I got a point accross.

[KD6NIG]

Quote[/b] (AB8RU @ April 18 2007,08:41)]You can use a Network Printer and a repeater if you need to run it over the above post mentioned, however if you do find that the run is going to be say a building or 2 down It would be much better to send info thru your Network weather WLAN or Intranet to someone there to recive the documents and print it there, losses do occour and running risks of dropped packets and it would proably look like this as example

The Quick brown fox jumped over 4 lazy dogs

was intended sent message may look like

The Q bronx over 4 dogs

I would not know if this is actually a dropped packet looks in reality but an idea of what may happen when a message gets messed up or plain " qwertyuiop "

but I hope I got a point accross.
Usually a dropped packet results in an "eh?" from the other side, which means it has to be resent, which means you lose throughput.

Usually.

[AC0H]

Quote[/b] (KD6NIG @ April 18 2007,10:47)]Quote[/b] (AB8RU @ April 18 2007,08:41)]You can use a Network Printer and a repeater if you need to run it over the above post mentioned, however if you do find that the run is going to be say a building or 2 down It would be much better to send info thru your Network weather WLAN or Intranet to someone there to recive the documents and print it there, losses do occour and running risks of dropped packets and it would proably look like this as example

The Quick brown fox jumped over 4 lazy dogs

was intended sent message may look like

The Q bronx over 4 dogs

I would not know if this is actually a dropped packet looks in reality but an idea of what may happen when a message gets messed up or plain " qwertyuiop "

but I hope I got a point accross.
Usually a dropped packet results in an "eh?" from the other side, which means it has to be resent, which means you lose throughput.

Usually.
Yep.

[wb7dmx]

I would suggest adding a router to your set-up and network everything, and it don't need to be wireless.
a cheap print server will connect the printer to the network anywhere you can run the cat5 cable. and as many conputers as you want, up to 255.

[ka5piu]

Hello.

For USB a powered hub will help with the range issues.
For ethernet, cable quality has lot to do with it.
The other issue is one of bends.
Some people try to follow every little nook and crannie when simply stringing it between 2 points is usually best.
So what if it hangs down a foot under the house?
Really long wire ties made into a large loop can support the cable and will make a direct run far easier.
This is also true of coax cable.
I would prefer a run of coax that is 2 feet off the ground and held suspended by a dozen wire ties than anything else.

[kf6rdn]

Quote[/b] (KD6NIG @ April 18 2007,07:47)]Quote[/b] (AB8RU @ April 18 2007,08:41)]You can use a Network Printer and a repeater if you need to run it over the above post mentioned, however if you do find that the run is going to be say a building or 2 down It would be much better to send info thru your Network weather WLAN or Intranet to someone there to recive the documents and print it there, losses do occour and running risks of dropped packets and it would proably look like this as example

The Quick brown fox jumped over 4 lazy dogs

was intended sent message may look like

The Q bronx over 4 dogs

I would not know if this is actually a dropped packet looks in reality but an idea of what may happen when a message gets messed up or plain " qwertyuiop "

but I hope I got a point accross.
Usually a dropped packet results in an "eh?" from the other side, which means it has to be resent, which means you lose throughput.

Usually.
Typically yes. TCP uses a connection protocol, and uses ack/nak, and all printing protocols I know of are TCP. HP jetdirect, CIFS shares (Windows), LPd Unix) and knockoffs.
You might however get a garble in the form of a dropped connection, in which the printer essentially times out and says, "guess that's all he's sending, I'll just print what I've gotten". Depends on the printer. Hp should give you a 40 or 50 error I think.

I suppose this is actually TMI...
heh

[n6rno]

For ethernet, I would recommend against running CAT5 or CAT6.
I use wireless 802.11G with WPA (not WEP which is not secure anymore)

Use a wireless router (Not Linksys WRT54xx as they will interfere with your shack unless you use a few ferrites. Use the one from netgear... I have heard they are RFI friendly ... the Netgear WPN824 is about $130 with the cards for computer being about $60) ... Of course this is a more expensive solution.

Setup for these are easy these days. There is a webpage that is hosted on the router. Just follow the simple instructions that ship with the router. Keep the CAT5 between your DSL modem and wireless router to a minimum length possible.


If you insist on CAT5/6 then put ferrites on both ends of the run to avoid RFI into your shack.