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Wiring my home with fiber

sschueller.github.io

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Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#71

Post by minus7 »

sschueller wrote: post #12
orliesaurus wrote: post #8

For those wondering, as the OP didn't mention it super-clearly imho - but his internet provider is able to do 25gbit [1] for CHF 69 a month (+ CHF ~340 set up cost) CHF 1 ~= USD 1 these days Question for OP: Why did you build such an expensive "router" - you justify it by saying you also want to run PiHole, but you probably could have done this whole setup much cheaply [1] https://www.init7.net/en/internet/fiber7/

The router is more of a server. Pihole is just an example (and yes a $35 pi would be plenty for it) but I have many old servers running all kinds of other things so I decided to update and consolidate some of this.

Good joke, there are no $35 pis

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#72

Post by shagie »

mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

This is one of the things that my father did when he did the wiring for the house ~50 years ago - conduit everywhere. It means things like drilling into the wall is safer (you hit metal rather than wire) and when you want to, you just pull more wire through it.

There are so many parts of it that were "over engineered" for a house 50 years ago that are "oh, that's convenient" now.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#73

Post by sponaugle »

Aloha wrote: post #62
sponaugle wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One interesting technique I have seen with fiber is running it along/behind baseboards in old houses. Since it is very small (and you can get even smaller single mode fiber) it can in some cases run along side. Some people remove the baseboard and put it behind it. It creates some routing issues, but might also solve some.

Bend radius?

Yea, that can be an issue, although for shorter runs it is surprising how much loss you can have and still work fantastic. There are some very cool bend insensitive multimode fibers that would work well in that case.

I saw a video where someone was doing this and they used little plastic bend guides that were painted trim color.. not perfect but also not as noticeable as I would have thought.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#74

Post by yrgulation »

This is likely not useful in most west european homes (even gigabit connections are unheard of in the uk, 10 megs being advertised as “superfast”, let alone tens of gigs). But still a fun project!

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#75

Post by minus7 »

I also installed fiber a while ago after being told "this isn't hard" by Michael Stapelberg's post [1]. Luckily I managed to get by with patch cables; a 30m cables really goes a long way! I even managed to get a duplex LC through a 16mm conduit with a pretty tight 90° bend, but just with lube, quite some force and luck.

I can just recommend going for it if you're curious. Cables and tranceivers really aren't expensive from fs.com (though their sales people may start bothering you).

Edit: And old, used network cards from ebay, of course.

[1]: https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2020-08-09-fiber-link-ho...

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#76

Post by jimmaswell »

jonatron wrote: post #48
pooper wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit…

That conduit would look terrible. Most people care about how their houses look. Decorative trunking exists: https://www.d-line-it.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1240-x-... , I've used it, and it blends in well enough.

That's a pretty good idea. I'd consider this more if I wasn't just putting some keystone wall plates through the floor into my basement. I'd also have to put trim around a door frame.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#77

Post by dfc »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #70
thefounder wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Then you use it to pull whatever you need(hdmi etc). When you pull the new wire(hdmi) you attach an additional wire at the tip so that you can pull back your initial wire once your new HDMI is in place. If you don't have an initial wire installed you can use a…

> You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Unfortunately, in my experience of 6 or 7 new builds in the last 15 years or so, coaxial cables are usually staples to the studs and useless for this purpose.

Coax stapled to the studs is different than coax running inside of a conduit.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#78

Post by RHSeeger »

latchkey wrote: post #66
mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.

While it's not rocket science, I always find it to be super annoying to do. Getting things smooth/flat when you're done (generally, I think I wind up doing 4-5 layers of mud) takes a fair amount of time. Plus sanding it down without getting the powder everywhere is difficult; I use a wet sander / sand "sponge", but even then I wind up with some of it spreading around.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#79

Post by sschueller »

kube-system wrote: post #18

Is the equipment used for termination more expensive than the splicing equipment? I just use premade MMF in my house.

I have no experience with terminating connectors directly. There appear to be all kinds available, even ones with gel inside them but they suffer a lot more loss than if I splice a fiber.

Using the splicer gave me the flexibility to splice pig-tail ends or just two fibers together with a small loss.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#80

Post by RHSeeger »

jonatron wrote: post #48
pooper wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit…

That conduit would look terrible. Most people care about how their houses look. Decorative trunking exists: https://www.d-line-it.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1240-x-... , I've used it, and it blends in well enough.

To be fair, it looks terrible to you (and to me), but there are plenty of people who have no issue with it. Just like there's people who get agida when there's things like toasters that sit out on the kitchen counter, but a lot of people think it's fine.
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