fiberhome
@anonymouse.org
| Want links or info on home/SOHO fiber networking(inter-bldg)
I have been searching for days now trying to find a page that might explain the ins and outs of running fiber between two nearby buildings (underground, using irrigation pipe as conduit). I know you can pick up a 100 meter roll of dual multimode fiber with preattached LC connectors on eBay for under a hundred bucks, and the media converters used at each end don't cost much more than that. Everyone seems to think fiber is better than copper for runs between buildings (since it's not affected by lightning) but just TRY to find any information on actually running the stuff, that's geared toward the do-it-yourselfer - it's like being in the 1980's and trying to find information on running a copper-based network in a home!
If anyone knows of any helpful pages that are NOT geared toward someone with a degree in networking, or just has any tips about pulling fiber through almost 100 meters of pipe (which unfortunately has to be shared with a couple of coax video cables), I would appreciate it and I'm sure there are others who stumble across this forum that would appreciate it as well. |
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WiFiguru
Formerly jnethostman
Premium
join:2005-06-21
Lodi, CA
| I can't answer your question on helpful pages, but I will tell you that SX (Multimode) fiber can only go up to 300meters. LX (Single Mode) fiber, can go up to 3 miles....along with that, if you dont plan on pushing over 1Gbps, I'd stick with copper to keep it cheap. |
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barkode15
join:2001-12-28
Danville, CA
| reply to fiberhome
I also can't help with the fiber questions, but I do have something you can try to run the cable. If it's a fairly straight shot through your pipe you can tape a plastic bag to a roll of string. If you push the bag in one end of the conduit and put a shop vac on the other end, hopefully the bag will get sucked right to the vacuum.
I've used this on a short shot under a cement walkway and it worked great. No guarantee it'll work on 100', especially if you already have cable there, but its cheaper than a 100' fishtape... |
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON | reply to fiberhome
MM fibre is good upto 2km, SM, up to 80km...
Need some specific questions, to help you get answers...
Are you looking for help on fishing the underground pipe; on configuring the media adapters, or ???
Laz |
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ajc
aka IGnatius T Foobar
join:2000-05-06
Mount Kisco, NY
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·ACE Innovative Net..
| reply to fiberhome
What are you running over that existing coaxial cable? If it's cable TV your other option is to buy a pair of NIM-100's or MI-424WR's on eBay and bridge your LAN over the cable plant. Then you wouldn't have to do any wiring at all.
--
Art Cancro
UNCENSORED! BBS »uncensored.citadel.org |
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WiFiguru
Formerly jnethostman
Premium
join:2005-06-21
Lodi, CA
| reply to LazMan
said by LazMan  :MM fibre is good upto 2km, SM, up to 80km... Need some specific questions, to help you get answers... Are you looking for help on fishing the underground pipe; on configuring the media adapters, or ??? Laz Multimode fiber:
Typical transmission speed/distance limits are 100 Mbit/s for distances up to 2 km (100BASE-FX), 1 Gbit/s to 220–550 m (1000BASE-SX), and 10 Gbit/s to 300 m (10GBASE-SR). |
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fiberhome
@anonymouse.org
| reply to fiberhome
I just wanted to follow up on this, as over the long weekend one of my RSS feeds popped up a link to just the sort of article I've been looking for in a blog post:
How to use fiber optic cable for short runs between buildings (and why you should)
The article shows one way to do it (I suppose there are many) but at least it shows a more or less complete method.
To answer some of the questions that were asked, I know that the run in question is well over 100 feet, but under 100 meters, but I haven't measured it exactly. Copper works great until you have a nearby lightning strike, then you get to replace equipment at each end. I've been burned by that before, no pun intended.
I've done the vacuum cleaner trick to fish a string, and I've gone really lo-tech before - a wad of paper towel or toilet paper tied to a kite string to get things started, then use the kite string to pull a lightweight rope. That only works with dry pipe, but if the pipe is wet inside you wouldn't want to use a paper product as your wad.
I was looking for a general how-to one setting up a fiber link, not on help fishing the wire. The TV cable does carry regular VHF and UHF television. The idea of sending the data down the cable had occurred to me, but I didn't know that equipment actually existed to do that, however ultimately there's still the issue that if lightning induces a strong enough current in the cable, it could burn out the router at each end. And, who knows if it would attenuate the TV signals, some of which are already marginal. Fiber just seems a better choice, because it's unaffected by lightning, heat, cold, etc. and it's also somewhat future-proof, in that it runs at Gigabit speeds, so if you upgrade the rest of your local network in the future you're not stuck with cable or equipment that's not capable of the higher speeds.
Thank you to all who responded, I appreciate the thoughts, although I was a bit surprised that some folks in a fiber optic forum would actually suggest I might be better off to use something other than fiber. If you suggest in a regular networking forum that you want to use copper between buildings they will often say you're crazy, or that you need really expensive lightning protectors, due to the possibility of damage by lightning. I guess fiber optics really are still bleeding edge technology as far as ordinary SOHO users are concerned, although phone companies seem quite comfortable with it, and the author of the article mentioned above didn't make it sound all that difficult. |
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