Campus Area Network

As the name suggests, a Campus Area Network or CAN is a network spread over a

limited geographical area such as a University or PSU campus. You can setup CAN

in a number of ways. One inexpensive way is to use a plain vanilla telephone 

cable as the communication medium, and a device that can interface various

patches of LANs across the campus. One such device is the LAN Extender from

Excellent computers. It’s a G.HDSL based router that functions as a router and

a bridge.

Let’s see how to build a Campus Area Network using this device.

After the initial configuration is done using the RS232 cable, configure the LAN Extender either by Telnet or a web browser

Each LAN Extender box comes with two RJ45 Ethernet cables, an RJ11 telephone

cable, a power adapter and a surge protector box. The various connections to the

box are done as follows at each end of a campus area network.

Cable 1: Power adapter

Cable 2: RJ45 Ethernet port. You could either connect the LAN extender

directly to a PC using a cross-over cable, or connect it to an Ethernet hub or

switch using a straight through cable.

Cable 3: Console port. Initial configuration of the LAN Extender is

done by connecting it to a free COM port on your PC using a RS232 cable.

Cable 4: RJ11 Telephone cable. A plain two-wire telephone cable serves

as the WAN link between the two LAN Extenders.

Each LAN Extender box comes with two RJ45 Ethernet cables, an RJ11 telephone cable, a power adapter and a surge protector box.

Once you have connected, you need to check the connectivity. Make sure, both

LAN extender and the PCs/Networks they connect to are on the same subnet. Then

simply ping a computer from one LAN to another. If you get a response, your CAN

is ready.

Price: Rs 36,000 per box with one year warranty.

Contact:

Excellent Computers, Chennai.

Tel: 4337249/4361319,

Email: info@ec.co.in

Anil Chopra