What fiber optic network interface card do I need for a WAN connection

Ok, after a lot of testing and research, a solution is here. A Mikrotik Routerboard RB250GS or a Smart Switch which allows you to create VLANS.

Effectively

Tested on a Netgear 724T Smart Switch & Mikrotik Routerboard RB250GS

1. Login to your switch in the switch (Netgear 724T) and create a VLAN named "WAN" with an ID of 6.
2. On VLAN6 set one of the ports to be Untagged and the other to be Tagged
3. On VLAN1 remove any membership for these ports, usually you can click the port until it doesnt have a U or a T
4. On PVID configuration set both to be PVID 6 (sets default VLAN to 6 on both ports)
5. Plug the X1 WAN port of your sonicwall into the Untagged port
6. Plug the Router interface into the Tagged port
7. At this point your router will be happy as it will see a tagged interface at the other end of the cable

Thanks to Damo and a Spanish forum.

Personally I wouldn't bother. You would need:

1. Cameras that support PPP
2. Hardware at the other end that supports PPP
3. To power media converters and the cameras

This is just making something that's already reasonably simple into something that's more complicated when it doesn't need to be.

You've stated that there is already power running around the perimeter of the campus, but to make things simpler, you probably want to remove as many things as possible from the actual camera installation.

Personally, I would be running fibre to a central location, and then using PoE to distribute power and data to each camera from there. Media converters are not small, and need power, in addition to the camera needing power and data. So to contain all of that in the one space you need:

1. Camera
2. Media converter
3. Power for media converter
4. Power for camera
5. CAT5/6 from convert to camera
6. Fibre to the media converter

But if you ran fibre to a central location, and then ran just ethernet with PoE you have:

1. Camera
2. Cat 5/6

And that's it. Obviously I don't know specifics about this campus so I don't know if there is space on the inside of the fence that you can bury this stuff and still get access to it, or if you'd need to run the whole thing from a few different nodes.

Depending on the cameras you choose, they may need more power than PoE can provide (e.g. a heavy camera housing with PTZ), in which case you may need to throw in an additional power lead for that. (fwiw, most security cameras I've seen lately really suck. They are either nice units but rubbish resolution, or high resolution but have IR filters so they're no good for night vision, or cost $1,000/each. Good luck with your research. And if you do get a high res camera capable of 20+fps, storing that amount of data becomes a whole different nightmare).

But either way I don't think that PPP is the way to go.