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My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

alienchow.dev

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Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#71

Post by Animats »

Would that be this item? [1] The product description and SKU match.

It's not clear who "FS" is. A reseller? A manufacturer? They seem to be in Singapore. There's no excuse for the external plastic sheath disintegrating. They must have formulated the plastic wrong. The terms specify a 30 day warranty.

Here's a catalog of real mil-spec fiber optic cables.[2] This is overkill for home applications; you put these in a fighter jet.

In between are Telecom Industry Association compliant fiber optic cables. That's what telcos use. There are US manufacturers with real plants and addresses.

[1] https://www.fs.com/products/70220.html

[2] https://www.glenair.com/catalogs/fiber-optics.pdf

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#72

Post by chaboud »

jandrese wrote: post #57
Infernal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your car wouldn’t happen to be a Volvo would it?

Mini Cooper. From what I've heard it's a BMW thing.

BMW and Toyota have famously used bio-derived insulation reported to be like catnip for rodents.

The bio-oil plasticizers also migrate out more quickly in thermal cycling than the old dead dinosaurs approach. Hilariously, when I asked my mechanic about getting an M5, he laughed and explained that the radiator components are known to turn brittle and crack after 5-6 years because of this.

(I don't envy automotive folks. The stuff they have to deal with is next level.)

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#74

Post by fulafel »

sfeng wrote: post #58
timzaman wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pvc also dries out and cracks. But yes.

If it’s underground (meaning not in the sun) the lifespan of PVC is 100+ years. It seems unlikely it will be his problem if it ever cracks.

PVC used in water pipes had some surprises, the lifespan there turned out to be less than optimistically expected when PVC pipes came to the market. 100 years might be hard to test for...

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#75

Post by bananadonkey »

kev009 wrote: post #15

There are very survivable fiber cables designed for stage and A/V setups for instance, and even "real" military grade ones. But the common thin LZSH stuff is surprisingly resilient in my experience, so long as it didn't kink the OP would probably have been fine with a "standard" cable. In any case I would always try to place fiber in a place where it can be re-pulled.. conduit, tray, or a plenum. I bought a big spool…

The contractors were probably dubious of that resiliency given their lack of experience. I recently ran fibre in my house and have to say I was pleasantly surprised that fiber patch cables (unarmored) can survive a good pull through a duct.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#77

Post by vbernat »

From the photos, it does not look like the fibers themselves are damaged. You should check the error rate on both sides. If it is 0, the not optimal values of your speedtest are not related to your fiber. If it is not 0, the more likely issues are in order: connectors to clean (buy a cleaning pen), bend radius somewhere, faulty optics, then the fiber. You can also pay a professional to run an OTDR on your fiber. It would show where the fiber is degraded.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#78

Post by barryvan »

duk3luk3 wrote: post #66
alienchow wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do have PVC conduits under the flooring. You can see the photos here: https://alienchow.dev/post/homelab1/ In theory I can pull a new cable through. But practically it might be tough due to the number of bends (shelter -> wall -> vent -> ceiling -> wall -> floor -> room). In the worst case scenario I can give it a try, but it's probably going to destroy the new fibre cable when I pull it through. For now the connec…

you can always try the plastic bag + vacuum cleaner trick - take a thin flexible rope, tie it to a small plastic bag, stuff the small plastic bag into the conduit, use a vacuum cleaner at the other end to suck the plastic bag & rope through. You can then use the rope to pull through new cable. If you make the rope twice the length of the conduit, you can keep it in there indefinitely to pull through new cable wheneve…

This is an unreasonably effective way of running cables. The first time I used it it felt like magic with how quick and painless it was.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#79

Post by JoachimSchipper »

Animats wrote: post #71

Would that be this item? [1] The product description and SKU match. It's not clear who "FS" is. A reseller? A manufacturer? They seem to be in Singapore. There's no excuse for the external plastic sheath disintegrating. They must have formulated the plastic wrong. The terms specify a 30 day warranty. Here's a catalog of real mil-spec fiber optic cables.[2] This is overkill for home applications; you put these in a fi…

FS is almost certainly fs.com, who do sell lots of fiber stuff.

I agree that less-than-milspec equipment should survive being installed in a home, but... this fiber didn't. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46572962 seems to be relevant.

Re: My Home Fibre Network Disintegrated

#80

Post by esseph »

jandrese wrote: post #13

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…

The outside strands are kevlar. The fibers are inside the armored core often inside another jacket.
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