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My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

alienchow.dev

131–140 of 237 posts

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metal coil will hold the actual fibre itself, yes - after a few more layers of protection. This is what is usually called “armoured” cable and is suitable for suspension and direct in ground. Dunno why he’s using it indoors. Honestly, this writeup is… weird? Dude doesn’t know you can terminate fibre at home with like $50 of gear? I had the fucking fox attack a freshly laid 500 meter line, literally the day before…

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…

> AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive.

They're more like $600 expensive than $6000 expensive these days. For very low budget, you could go with a mechanical (aerobic) splice; it's more loss, less robust and takes up more space, but doesn't require a fusion splicer.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#132

Looking at the pictures it looks like the fiber itself might be inside of that spiral metal conduit in the middle and the outside is just abrasion protection. There are way too many strands for that outside bit to be the fiber. It's obviously bad that the outside plastic disintegrated, but it looks like the buried cables might be fine. I have a similar problem on my car where the 12v wiring is disintegrating like thi…

Yes, the whole thing is built like bike brake cables, with a spirally metal support core, the goodies up the inside, and then a nylon braid and PVC jacket over the top.

I have issues with the PVC-jacketed cables under the bonnet of my nearly-30-year-old Landrover, where the plasticiser has been baked out of the insulation and they've gone brittle. Worst affected are the wires to the fuel injectors and the lambda sensors, presumably because the former are at the top of the engine and get reflected heat off the bonnet, and the latter because they're near the literally red-hot exhaust downpipes.

That's okay for an old vehicle that you'd expect to repair, though.

I've seen the same problem in three-year-old Toyotas, and that is Just Not On.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#133
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…

In the olden days, when things like TVs and VCRs had cabinets made from polystyrene and PVC-jacketed power cables, you'd often find that if something had been put away with the mains lead coiled up on top, it then left a "scar" on the case. This is because the plasticiser in the PVC jacket attacked the polystyrene, leaving the mains lead fragile and brittle and a nasty gooey mess on the case that you couldn't fix.

That's why the leads are wrapped in a polythene bag.

When people started using polystyrene sheet insulation in houses (thankfully they no longer do this!) the cables running inside the walls were affected in the same way, with the PVC insulation rotting off as the plasticiser leached out and attacked the polystyrene. Of course there you had the added joy of having a potential electrical fire with a source of just-about-inextinguishable fuel, the polystyrene foam made of fuel and air.

I wonder if something similar has happened here, something's gotten onto the fibre jackets and pulled the plasticiser out?

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#134

The link to the product says "TPU outer jacket". That's thermoplastic polyurethane, which is well known for degrading via hydrolysis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane#Hydrolysis_and_bi... ...so it is a bit amusing to see "TPU Jacket Features Water, Abrasion Resistance" in the product description. PVC or PE would be far better and more common.

> PVC or PE would be far better and more common.

Be aware, depending on where you live and where the cable goes, PVC and HDPE outer jackets may not be allowed due to fire safety issues. But yes, neither of those are prone to the same degradation over time, so in many cases they will be a good choice.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#135
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no legal requirement for it to refer to MIL-SPEC. More often than not it is just pure marketing without any actual spec tied to it

Military grade afaict just implies the military ‘could’ use it, by that definition almost any company sells military grade products or services, except companies who explicitly would not sell to the military.

the military often writes a spec and then refuses to buy anything that doesn't meet it. Most soldiers are not going to walmart to get supplies - even f walmart sells that type of thing.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#136
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of things where mil spec is extremely strict and high quality. They wont be sold to consumers as they are priced accordingly

A company can not sell a product to consumers cheaper than it can sell to the federal government, and the federal government contract normally comes first. A lot of the stuff you can buy (minus restricted items), it'll just cost you.

They can't sell the same thing but they can sell something slightly different. put a different type of paint on it and you can sell for different prices.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#137

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

> [...] a string [...]

Does someone have a recommendation for a specific material the string should be made of?

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#138
Regarding the last few sentences about the speedtest, Fibre doesn’t degrade in a way that you get 30 to 40% line speed. DSL did that, fibre doesn’t.

Speedtests for 10G are complicated and will show low numbers because of all the different TCP parameters and schedulers. Sometimes because peering links of your ISP or the speedtest providers are saturated.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Radon is a noble gas. It's not going to affect fiber or wiring... but yes, if you're going to spend much time down there, definitely a good idea to check for it.

Radon is radioactive. The alpha particles it emits can break down polymers and degrade plastics.

Interseting - I have high radon (mitigeted in the house via a fan), if I burry fibre what will I need to do to get something that will work? I have an outbuilding that I want to give internet.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#140
post #138

Regarding the last few sentences about the speedtest, Fibre doesn’t degrade in a way that you get 30 to 40% line speed. DSL did that, fibre doesn’t. Speedtests for 10G are complicated and will show low numbers because of all the different TCP parameters and schedulers. Sometimes because peering links of your ISP or the speedtest providers are saturated.

When I had 5Gbs fiber with a UDM I could never get it to speed test close to 5Gbps.

My internet network would would test at theoretical limits with proper iperf2 settings. I tried using public iperf servers but wasn't successful.

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