I do like it, you’re just crap at writing (and rude). Great shame.
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For just the wall plates, filtered down on LC per your post, I see
- LC Duplex UPC OS2
- LC Duplex APC OS2
- LC Duplex UPC OM1/OM2
- LC Duplex UPC OM3/OM4
Also for the bend insensitive cables there are UPC and APC variants, though all of them seem to be OS2 and not OM, so I guess that leaves out those wall plates then.
But then another cable you post is LC UPC to SC UPC duplex. So where does SC come in all of a sudden and what’s the difference? Other cables are all LC UPC, so perhaps it was a mistake, but I don’t know anything about this stuff so how can I know?
Then on the transceiver I see an example with MTP-8F female to 4 LC duplex SMF. Is SMF another variant to UPC and APC? And what’s MTP-8F?
As probably many other people, I only got interested in fiber optic as an alternative to copper ethernet connections by stranding onto this thread.
I’m willing to learn but I can’t really see the woods for the trees and it’s also hard to find anything decent on the internet regarding how to run these things at home.
Just go with the UPC. The difference between UPC and APC is how the tips are shaped. I’ve always used UPC. The difference between OS1 and OS2 is OS2 is designed to be buried in the ground outdoors. It will still work fine indoors, it’s just a bit stiffer. Single mode is better than multimode for this application because the single mode Transcievers have better quality lasers. Multimode is only better for extremely high throughput not required for residential applications. MTP is multiple strand fiber. Not needed for this application. So best to buy LC Transcievers.
There another Transciever type called BiDi. It means bi-directional. So you can send data both directions through a single fiber strand. If that’s used it cuts the cable cost in half. But you must use BiDi Transcievers on both ends.
Here’s bend insensitive simplex to use with BiDi Transcievers.
SMF just means single mode fiber.
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Some info on BiDi Transcievers.
Thanks, that’s very helpful. Will take some measurements and order these up.
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I must say it is funny reading through this topic. I work for a tech company designing networks and have done so for this company close to 20 years. I have had this discussion thousands of times. The problem you have with going 100% fiber is the endpoints. As mentioned you will have to have some form of a transceiver to go from fiber to copper for the majority of devices today.
Now if I was wiring up my home today I would pull Cat 6/7 and coaxial to each room. I personally would be more concerned with the location of the jacks in the room more than fiber. If money isn’t a concern I would also pull a fiber run. The cost is going to be the labor not the cables.
I have had customers go 100% fiber to future proof themselves or so they thought. I have even had customers go 100% wireless again to future proof themselves or so they thought. Honestly fiber, copper, and wireless play a vital part in designing and building networks. For home residential use the trend is wireless and copper. Today you can get up to 10Gig via copper and really who needs that type of bandwidth in your home.
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Well very few devices need a physical connection these days. So hardwiring your house is really only needed as a high speed, future proof backbone for Ethernet. You can physically plug wifi units into each zone if you want for very high speed wireless, or if you need physical copper for some reason, a $30 FMC is no big deal. Paying more money for inferior performance makes no sense in my mind. If it was 1997 I probably would have gone with copper due to fiber being so expensive at the time. But not in 2017. As we progress into the future, technology is only going to advance. Eventually copper isn’t even going to be used anymore.
Cool device here that does 10G fiber to Thunderbolt 3:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/twin10g-sfp-thunderbolt3.html
The copper vs fiber debate reminds me a lot of the innovation of video over the last 25 years. I remember when the DVD was released. VHS aficionado’s were furious. They argued till they were blue in the face that VHS was superior and DVD’s were stupid. Then out came 1080p TV’s. By now the same VHS buff’s finally adapted to DVD, and 1080p now became the new enemy. Now we’re on to 4K and the same DVD buff’s finally just adapted to 1080P. Once again they’re furious.
There’s just a certain type of people who hate innovation. I’ve never understood it.
I think you are reading way too much into this. I don’t remember seeing anyone who says they hate innovation. Maybe I missed a post somewhere.
Now today you can take single mode fiber to 100Gbps and sure in the future it will go way beyond that. But we are taking residential/home wiring. If you want to wire your home with fiber by all means go ahead. But for 99.99% of the people having the ability to go 10Gbps via Cat6/7 copper will do just fine.
So MiveraAudio your idea is to have a fiber switch > fiber patch > transceiver > Cat5/6/7 > endpoint. Remember the endpoint is copper. We are talking residential/home use.
Again if you want to wire with fiber go ahead and knock yourself out. You will have a very nice fiber network in your home. I still recommend anyone wiring their home to worry more about the locations of where they want to wall jacks vs. pulling fiber. Consumer products are still 10/100/1000 Mbps. Consumers want cheap and easy which is why wireless is in such demand.
Just because copper is capable of handling the job of yesterday and today’s Ethernet, doesn’t mean it makes sense to spend more money on than much better preforming fiber. That’s just like saying a car with a gas engine can get you to work, so ignore electric cars, even if they become cheaper and have longer range between charges.
You would simply use a fiber switch, then fiber in the wall to wall plates. Since 90% of today’s Ethernet is done with wifi, you can use wifi devices such as these:
Together with this FMC to power and feed the mesh unit:
Wall mount right above the fiber wall plates. Use as many as required to fill your house with strong, fast wifi. Now Ethernet to 90% of today’s devices is handled.
Now if you have a couple devices that need copper Ethernet, buy a couple of these to handle the conversion:
In a couple of years when copper doesn’t exist anymore, toss the FMC’s in the trash. Much cheaper than pulling all the obsolete copper out of the walls and rewiring.
Clearly you are trying to justify use of fiber based on the magic unknown. As I stated before if you want to wire your home with fiber go ahead. Whenever consumer fiber endpoints hit the market you will be ready. Pulling fiber in a home just to connect to an access point for wifi is pretty crazy.
The links are talking about Wifi Mesh which isn’t a concern for someone internal network. We are not talking about wiring a campus or compound. The original poster asked about wiring up their home. Also as I stated before what you are looking to do for your wired devices is go fiber switch > fiber patch > transceiver > Cat5/6/7 > endpoint. So one would need to purchase a fiber cable to go from the wall to the transceiver, then a Cat5/6/7 to go from the transceiver to the endpoint.
I say go for the fiber and you will be ready.
The facts are there’s absolutely no reason to go for copper besides the ability to avoid a couple FMC’s for legacy devices. There’s not a single advantage to copper besides that. When you wire your home for Ethernet, it’s for the future, not the past. Fiber is the future, not copper.
Those mesh units make excellent wifi access points for home use. They only cost $89 each, and preform very well. They can mesh together wirelessly to form a large bridge, but faster if each unit is hardwired. For most houses 1 unit will do the job, but for bigger houses you can use more. The closer you are to wifi devices the faster.
The OP is planning to wire his whole house anyways. If it was already wired with cat6, I wouldn’t recommend tearing it out today and replacing with fiber. But if you’re doing a fresh install, no point using technology that’s soon to be obsolete. The money saved on the fiber will pay for a couple $23 FMC’s.
Say you were building a new house and needed to decide on a roofing material. 1 option is asphalt shingles with a 20 year life expectancy. Then another option is a new material, that’s more attractive, has a 200 year warranty, and costs less. Would you just go for the asphalt because it meets the needs for you today? Or would it be logical to choose the superior, less costly technology?
I think you have been miss informed. Fiber doesn’t compete with copper and vice versa. They are used together to build a network. Fiber is generally used to connect network switches together over a long distance and at higher speeds. You also see fiber in data centers to connect high servers. If anything competes it would be wifi vs. wired ethernet.
The OP isn’t going to save money by running fiber in his home. The cost of fiber cable vs. copper is moot. The labor to terminate fiber is higher, fiber switches cost more, you need fiber sfp transceivers for the switch, and you need a fiber to copper transceiver for the endpoint. Also equipment you need to terminate fiber is more expensive which is why you pay more to have it terminated.
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They are only used together because copper hasnt been completely displaced yet. Not because it’s better. All the links I shared for dirt cheap fiber is pre-terminated cost. The Transcievers are only $7 a piece. The switches are the same cost as copper only switches of the same grade.
Wiring a home with copper today, then tearing it out in a few years to replace with fiber certainly isn’t a cheaper way to go.
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Wow just priced out 1000 ft of premium pre-terminated, bend insensitive simplex fiber for use with BiDi Transcievers. Only $36!!!
Cool alternative to an FMC. Great for laptops that don’t have Ethernet inputs:
You still haven’t explained why everyone (I’m assuming your statement above applies to everyone that doesn’t yet have fibre in their house) will be required to pull out all of their Cat-5/6 cabling and install fibre “in a few years”.
Is there a shortage of copper? Are governments world-wide introducing legislation to phase-out the use of copper cabling? Do you have insider information on any consumer electronic devices that will require a 10,000x increase in bandwidth within “a few years” that ONLY fibre will be able to transport? Can you even point me to a single consumer-level device that even includes a fibre transceiver built-in? Also, what about the new wireless specifications promising a corresponding increase in bandwidth to make use of this 100+Gbps fibre backbone? Can you point me to the white papers for those?
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I suppose you can leave it in the walls. This just applies to folks who want to keep up with the times. But I suppose some people still use CRT tv’s and VCR’s. The Amish still use horse and buggies. Nobody will ever be forced to keep up with the times. However there is some folks who like to be. This is who this thread is for.
Folks who suffer from Metathesiophobia, really should avoid my posts.
Mike, your entire argument is based on the premise that copper cabling standards are become obsolete. This is simply not the case.
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