Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wiring my home with fiber

sschueller.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 305 posts

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#141

Post by dfc »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #119
akvadrako wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it isn't rocket science, but plastering if one of those things best left to professionals, much more so than plumbing or electrical for instance. They usually make near minimum wage, are just so much faster and produce a better result. I've started plastering a few of my walls and after wasting a couple days doing a few square meters ended up hiring a couple guys to do the rest of the house. There is just no…

Here in Switzerland it's 10 CHF / square meter for white and 15-20 CHF / square meter for colour walls plus transport plus recycling plus material. I wouldn't call this cheap :-)

Surely you could save some money by doing the painting yourself? Is it all or nothing there? In the States drywall and paint are two separate crews.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#142

Post by yrgulation »

Jabbles wrote: post #128
yrgulation wrote: post #74

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!

Here's some actual data that contradicts your hyperbole: In March 2021 the median download speed of UK home broadband connections was 50.4 Mbit/s https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/224192/... "Superfast" is not used to describe 10mbs, it is 30-300mbs.

Thanks for correcting, still extremely slow.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#143

Post by bombcar »

_zoltan_ wrote: post #125
sponaugle wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Ubiquity Unifi 6 Pros right now, but am going to switch to the Enterprise ones (with 6Ghz) at some point soon. They are all integrated to the same controller (a UDM Pro), so all SSIDs I use are available everywhere. I even have a couple of them down the driveway all the way to the gate so I have wifi coverage all the way out.

Why switch?

Probably for the sweet, sweet 6GHz.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#144

Post by moogly »

I did this as a small-scale experiment/proof-of-concept earlier this year in my 2 br apartment, preparing for wiring for 10G (and possibly beyond as the years pass) when I move into my house later this.

I went with singlemode fiber. Don't really see the point of multimode. At all. After doing some research I am not sure who it is made for.

Sure, the BiDi SFP+ modules are a bit more expensive but not overly so.

The fiber is cheaper.

It's easier to splice/use field assembly connectors if needed.

Much easier to hide the cables. If you go with 0.9 mm you can even hide it in nooks and crannies under door trim etc.

It is future proof. SMF will always be supported.

Now the only problem is that the Mikrotik CRS routers I want to get are either out of stock or have insanely inflated prices. Seems to still be affected by component shortages. I already have a couple of CRS305 and some CCS610, but I'm going to need more of those now plus a CRS309 to scale it all up.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#146

Post by jjeaff »

adrian_b wrote: post #87
lucb1e wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do I understand correctly you're proposing to just run it on the outside of walls/ceilings? How would you ever again close doors that it needs to go through? My aesthetic requirements are basically zero (to the dismay of my partner indeed; we meet in the middle) but I do want to be able to practically use the apartment still.

The interior doors in most houses that I have seen have wooden frames in which it is very easy to make holes for passing cables. Some newer houses might have door frames made of plastic or metal, instead of wood, but even in such cases it is much easier to make a clean hole through the door frame, instead of through a wall. I have made many such holes in door frames for passing Ethernet cables or TV coaxial cables. W…

Why would you prefer to make a hole in your doorframe rather than the wall? Sheetrock is so much easier to deal with. But perhaps you are referring to a concrete construction, which is uncommon in the US.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#147

Post by ComputerGuru »

culturestate wrote: post #24
uri4 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do data processing and can saturate similar bandwidth. But 10Gbps goes to my home server room. There is no need to have 10Gb in bedroom, such tech produces a lot of noise and heat. Maybe Stadia or similar video streaming could use such bandwidth. But this looks more like wiring for residential building with multiple flats, or office building. Or like some sort of tech flex.

> There is no need to have 10Gb in bedroom …until later in the home’s life when that bedroom is no longer a bedroom, for whatever reason. If you’re gonna do a project like this you might as well take it to its logical conclusion. It’s the same kind of advice I’d give to anyone who buys e.g. an iPad Pro - you might not think you need a cellular model right now, but that one time you do need it two years from now you’r…

That’s some very hypothetical talk. The master bedroom in a typical home is likely and forever going to remain a bedroom, at least if there is sufficient other space available in the home. If you buy a couple of iPads (you and your spouse or kids or whatever) and upgrade them every x years, springing for an extra $100 on each one every time adds up. You never need the cellular module, though it might be nice to have since there are always other, less convenient options (hotspot on phone, standalone hotspot, public Wi-Fi, etc).

You cannot take your mantra to its logical conclusion and apply it to everything, everywhere, at least not unless cost is absolutely a non-issue for you.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#148

Post by yrgulation »

themoonisachees wrote: post #132
yrgulation wrote: post #74

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!

The uk is behind most of europe. Even east eu countries have fiber to a significant chunk of the population now, and west is doing great. In france i get 5Gb/1.2Gb for 49 euros. Switzerland is even better. When i sold routers to businesses they would always be gigabit fiber available, so much that i had stopped checking. That said 25Gb is a lot outside of switzerland.

> Even east eu countries have fiber to a significant chunk of the population now

Yes, “even” the barbarians of east europe have it. In romania you get around 10 gbps per second for roughly 10 euros a month from what i hear, and pretty much everyone has fiber. I believe Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are doing great as well.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#149

Post by yrgulation »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #116
yrgulation wrote: post #74

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!

About 70% of UK homes have access to a gigabit connection through either fibre or the Virgin Media HFC network. FTTP coverage is about 40% nationwide. It’s not that rare.

Well i clearly couldnt find such homes and believe me i looked. I was happy to have found homes with proper structural integrity let alone high speed internet.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#150

Post by ComputerGuru »

minus7 wrote: post #71
sschueller wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Meh. It’s (supposedly) a transient situation that’ll resolve in due time.

More importantly, I and many geeks I know but/bought several when a new model first comes out because they are (were) cheap but electronics wholesalers don’t offer free shipping so it makes sense to buy as many as you think you’ll use (until the next one comes out) in one go to minimize the amortized cost.

I miscalculated and ended up using all of mine, but I have friends that still have some of their stock.

Post reply on HN