Just move to Perth :)

If you do decide to go the wireless route, give me a shout.

I'm the chairman of CTWUG - Cape Town Wireless User Group - we dom some crazy shiit with wifi 40km links etc.

Yes yes, know everyone knows I'm a computer geek.

In your case, you are going to have power all the way down the 100m to the shed, at 50m tap some power for a 5 port switch.

For the telephone, you can always try a much thicker core cable to keep the voltage drop to a minimum. In SA we only use 2wires for our phones.

Can't you boost the signal somewhere down the line?
I think the fibre route you want to follow you are going to pay a bit for someone to come and terminate.

Thanks for the replies guys.

WiFi could be the answer for the internet, but that doesent fix the phone issue, which is more important to me. A network connection is realy just abonus since I will be digging a trench for power anyways.

I toyed with the idea of putting a power box halfway, but that seems a little silly to have a power box in the middle of nowhere just to power a 5 port hub. That would fix the distance issues, but that intruduces a more costs when I am trying to find out if the cable that i have can be used for the task. And the underground rated cat5/6 cable is stupidly expensive.

As for telephone, yeah I only need twisted pair copper as a minimum.(cat 3 is the standard for telephones in Australia), but distance is still the issue with line quality.

we sell a cordless phone called an engenius.
these cordlesses have mega range, and they accommodate an external antenna.
we installed one with a ext antenna and the bloke will get a kay or two around his property.
bit exxy but might be worth the spend in your instance.
then do the same with your internet, get a wireless router and whack one of those black stick phone antennas on your roof.

hmmm

Looks like it has to be wireless... Pity really. the fibre cost me next to nothing. Ahh well.

As for thephones you talk about, i have heard of them before. The shed will eventually have a granny flat built into it, so that is also a driving force behind this need for network and telephone requirement.

thanks for the ideas folks. ill do some more wireless research for the internet and see what I can do about a telephone.

Quote:
Hey, wash you mouth. Old School BMX is cool, particularly when you win your class in our retro series [over 40's] even after missing round one completely.

As for your problem, I don't know that I can add anything at all since you have obviously done your homework, although power cable, in conduit, is supposed to be at a minimum of 600mm as you mentioned & telephone cable, in its proper 'white' conduit must be at 300mm.
The act requires that phone cable be at a minimum of 300 with a separation to power of 300.

The voltage drop in the phone cable over 100m will be almost unmeasurable over 0.040 wire but use 0.064 if you have any concerns. I would suggest 2 pair 0.064 HJ [hard jacket] which was intended to be direct buried, but install it in conduit in any shared trench. It will take a direct hit from lightning to kill it. This assumes that you will be running just a standard phone service off the end of it.
I'm sure that you know the colour code, white/ blue for pair 1 & of course red/ black for pair 2.

A five pair cable is also made, but the stuff that I used was 0.032 wire gauge which is the thickness of coarse hair & too thin for your needs.

Sorry that I don't have anything more to offer.

P.S.
The longest distance from an exchange over which we had a working phone service in my area was about 25Km. It wasn't the best, but was within specifications [just] & this was over cables that did not excede 0.064mm in conductor diameter.

thanks dodgeman for the extra bits.

The telephone cable reccomdations and info about distance is comforting. That means the telephone problem isnt really a problem anymore. Just buy the correct cable and distance isnt anything to be worried about either. Whew!

As for the network issue, it looks like wireless is the answer.

Thanks guys.