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My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

alienchow.dev

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Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#111

Post by alexfoo »

adinisom wrote: post #103
alienchow wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey actually I didn't know! It's my very first time dealing with fibre networking so I just maxed out the supposed durability specs. I figured I'd rather go overkill than regret not having done so. Ironic I know. Unfortunately I can't easily dig the cable out and bury it again in this case. I'll have to figure out how to pull a new cable using the existing cable through the PVC conduits as the cable shares a larger c…

If you want to pull another cable: - secure a string to the old cable - pull the cable out the other end, pulling the string through - secure the string to the new cable - pull the string out the other end, pulling the new cable into position

You forgot to also tie another piece of string to the new cable so that you pull the new cable AND this other bit of string through.

This gives you a piece of string in the conduit run to be able to pull through the next thing days/weeks/years later.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#112

Post by mzhaase »

alienchow wrote: post #6
johnboiles wrote: post #2

That seems incredibly fast for plastic to degrade like that. I wonder if you could have something generating ozone in there.

I'm not sure either. It's not an air tight bomb shelter and it's used like an average storeroom, storing stuff like winter jackets, suitcases and paint. I do use small amounts of Calcium Chloride based dessicants to keep the room dry.

Water based or solvent based paint?

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#113

Post by ZeroConcerns »

gertrunde wrote: post #104
ZeroConcerns wrote: post #96

There's no link to the data sheet of the actual cable, but, yeah, looks like this should not have happened in such a short timeframe unless there's something really funny going on in that room, like ambient temperatures above 50 degC. Another thing that should not have happened is installing the cable in loops in this way: any 'building' or 'underground' type cable needs to be of the exact length required at the dema…

From one of the photos, the cable spec "G657A2" is visible on the outside - and specs listed for that indicate it's "bending insensitive single-mode fibre", apparently it can tolerate 10 loops around 15mm mandrel. (Which does surprise me). But yes, agreed, a lot of "Er... why would you do it like that?" bits.

Those 10 loops definitely only apply to the single mode fibre itself, not the entire assembly with armor and everything, because that's just... physically impossible.

Cables for direct burial only like to be bent once or twice, and then only gently. Anything else may very well break the armor (whether plastic or metal), after which all bets are off.

Still, for the outer jacket to become brittle to the extent described, something else is required, which may very well turn out to be "shoddy manufacturing"...

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#114

Post by fc417fc802 »

alienchow wrote: post #14
defrost wrote: post #12

> A main component of why I was in sheer horror was the fact that I had stupidly buried all of these cables under my cement flooring in PVC trunking from my shelter to all of the rooms in the flat. This I don't quite get .. as I understand it "PVC trunking" is a type of cable channeling / ducting. I do a lot of cable and pipe layout around houses, farms, workshops, worksites, etc. and it's routine to use pipes / duct…

The electricians mentioned that in order to curve the cables along underneath the floor tiling they couldn't use metal trunking which would cause sharp angles, so they used PVC pipes to do curvy trunking for the fibre cables. I could theoretically pull a new cable through by ripping out the wall outlet if this cable actually fails. You can see it in my earlier homelab post. But due to the length of the trunking and t…

> due to the length of the trunking and the number of bends, I'm not too sure if I can safely drag a new fibre cable through.

I saw someone commented elsewhere about a plastic bag and a vacuum. Another option to keep in mind is a lubricant intended specifically for the task of pulling cable through a conduit.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#115

Post by alienchow »

mzhaase wrote: post #112
alienchow wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure either. It's not an air tight bomb shelter and it's used like an average storeroom, storing stuff like winter jackets, suitcases and paint. I do use small amounts of Calcium Chloride based dessicants to keep the room dry.

Water based or solvent based paint?

Should be solvent based.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#116

Post by ZeroConcerns »

alienchow wrote: post #108
ZeroConcerns wrote: post #96

There's no link to the data sheet of the actual cable, but, yeah, looks like this should not have happened in such a short timeframe unless there's something really funny going on in that room, like ambient temperatures above 50 degC. Another thing that should not have happened is installing the cable in loops in this way: any 'building' or 'underground' type cable needs to be of the exact length required at the dema…

Thanks, I really appreciate the SMEs commenting here. I'm learning a lot. Definitely learnt it the hard way this time. You're right that buried cables should be exact in length and fastened to a patch panel. I'll probably look into better conduit design as well for the next time (in 15 years?). Having shared conduits means I would risk damaging other cables if I tried to pull a new cable through.

Good conduit and patch panel design is definitely key for a happy life. Leaving some extra space/capacity initially is also a good idea, especially since (unless you're covering truly great distances) there's not exactly a lot of innovation in the single mode fibre space: strands you put in today (even if it's 'the cheapest stuff your vendor sells most of', which is generally my philosophy for selecting cables) will still be viable a few years down the road.

Sharing/in-place-repurposing conduit is not something I'd recommend, but if you must, leave a few dummy cables (a.k.a. 'pieces of string') on the initial install...

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#117

Post by EvanAnderson »

ZeroConcerns wrote: post #96

There's no link to the data sheet of the actual cable, but, yeah, looks like this should not have happened in such a short timeframe unless there's something really funny going on in that room, like ambient temperatures above 50 degC. Another thing that should not have happened is installing the cable in loops in this way: any 'building' or 'underground' type cable needs to be of the exact length required at the dema…

> Another thing that should not have happened is installing the cable in loops in this way: any 'building' or 'underground' type cable needs to be of the exact length required at the demarcation point...

This hasn't been my experience with fiber entrance cables terminated by ILECs, Spectrum, and Lumen. They typically leave a significant service loop bound to the cable ladder or backer board-- usually 15-20 feet.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#118

Post by sschueller »

nubinetwork wrote: post #109
mkj wrote: post #88

Fs.com are a well regarded company. The OP should contact them and see if there's a recall on those cables or something. Sounds similar to what happened with some mains power cables sold by a hardware store in Australia.

I don't regard them very well personally... I bought a bunch of DAC cables from them, only to have them start emailing me under the guise of assigning me a "account manager"... I blocked their domain from my mail server and told them to never contact me again.

They offer to provide you with personalized service and you block them? What do you do when you walk into a high end watch or clothing store?

FS provides account managers and they are very useful if you are working on a project as they can guide you and help you.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#119

Post by sschueller »

Sesse__ wrote: post #94

FS.com is great for all kinds of fiber stuff… but curiously, nothing long-distance. I never really understood it; you can get a 40-channel DWDM setup (including tunable 100gig SFPs) just like nothing, but a drum of quite normal G24 loose tube cabling meant for outdoor use? Nope. You'll have to go elsewhere for that. And I guess that's also what happened here; the poster picked the best thing they had for the purpose,…

I can confirm the pigtails issue. They are a huge pain to strip for whatever reason. Even cheap ones from AliExpress work better.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#120

Post by simonjgreen »

I’d be acquiring or borrowing a fusion splicer and splice protectors then getting them into a fixed enclosure on the wall with socket outlets.

It seems like wizardry when you first see it, but actually fusion splicing fibre is not hard at all once you’ve done it a few times.

The most important part is the cleaving, always use a high quality cleaver.

Chances are very high the fibres themselves in the cables are absolutely fine, they are remarkably resilient given their size.

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