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Fiber optic cables are too fragile for home use. If bent to any extreme the cable will be ruined. Hence only useful in homes with protected installations like

Fiber optic cables are too fragile for home use. If bent to any extreme the cable will be ruined. Hence only useful in homes with protected installations like a server enclosures.

NightlyDev 8y ago
That's a myth. Fiberoptic cables are actually really robust.
- StillBored 8y ago
  Well POF is, real glass still has bend diameter limitations, but most people aren't using single mode longer fiber runs that need glass. So, yes, all the common stuff is pretty flexible, because its plastic.
  - myself248 8y ago
    Yes and no. Even singlemode can be pretty flexible. Every manufacturer's product is different, but even 20 years ago, the singlemode we were installing could be wrapped around a Sharpie without damage (though it would lose a lot of light; that was an installation-only ability), and would happily tolerate something like twice that bend radius during operation. That being said, I've seen people do some horrific things with copper, and it tends to survive things it shouldn't. But if you treat glass even half as gently as copper wants to be treated, they'll both be fine. I think fiber gets a bad rep because large multi-strand cables have stiffeners to keep the jacket from kinking, and people assume the individual strands are similarly stiff. They really aren't.
    - sathackr 8y ago
      Just a couple of weeks ago[1]. The fiber wasn't run properly and got pinched between some innerduct and the conduit edge. Had 20+db of loss while it was pinched, but after unpinching it and massaging the kink out, it went right back to normal. [1] https://imgur.com/a/bHX6eRJ https://imgur.com/a/bHX6eRJ
olefoo 8y ago
For the lengths in use in home installations ( n < 1km ) plastic cables with a much greater modulus of elasticity can be used since the greater signal attenuation won't be a factor.
- exikyut 8y ago
  Are you saying there are plastic-based alternatives to optical fiber cables? Wow. What are these actually called, and what do I look for?
  - rdl 8y ago
    Polymer Optical Fiber (POF). Very common and essentially the standard in non-telco/non-IT use of fiber data networks (process control, vehicles, etc). I’ve seen studies of using them for gigabit or better computer networking, but I don’t think it is common yet. What people mostly mean here is multimode vs single mode glass fiber, though.
    - detaro 8y ago
      A company called Fuba makes Gigabit POF products which got quite favorable reviews. They are "media converter" type products for single runs though and not cheap, so no GBICs or switches with many ports.
StillBored 8y ago
Which is silly as most people don't have houses that need 200M runs much less the 50M that is possible with 10GbaseT over cat5e. Why spend money on SFP's and optical cables, when you can just pick up cheap 10GbaseT hardware?
- tssva 8y ago
  The 10GBASE-T doesn't support Cat5e cabling. It supports a distance of up to 55m on Cat6 and 100m on CAT6a. 10GBASE-T is showing up in more and more small business targeted equipment but I think more likely 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T will make it to consumer home equipment instead of 10GBASE-T. 2.5GBASE-T supports a distance of up to 100m on CAT5e. 5GBASE-T supports up to 100m on CAT6 and may operate on some Cat5e infrastructure. Additionally they both support PoE which 10GBASE-T does not.
  - virtuallynathan 8y ago
    10GBase-T certainly can work on cat5e, I run it over 10-20m at home.
    - mseebach 8y ago
      Works != supports
      - namibj 8y ago
        Can you explain why you need that much official blessing from the manufacturer to use it? If it doesn't work, you send it back?
        mseebach 8y ago
        Well, if you bought something that says on the box that it doesn't do X, you generally don't get to send it back because it doesn't do X. Some consumer outlets may let you do this as a courtesy, but it's not ubiquitous and certainly not if you're buying from trade suppliers. Also, for a 10-20m run, the price difference is literally in the single figures. The effort alone to send something back is (should be) worth more to you than that.

Fiber optic cables are too fragile for home use. If bent to any extreme the cable will be ruined. Hence only useful in homes with protected installations like a server enclosures.

NightlyDev 8y ago

That's a myth. Fiberoptic cables are actually really robust.

StillBored 8y ago
Well POF is, real glass still has bend diameter limitations, but most people aren't using single mode longer fiber runs that need glass. So, yes, all the common stuff is pretty flexible, because its plastic.
- myself248 8y ago
  Yes and no. Even singlemode can be pretty flexible. Every manufacturer's product is different, but even 20 years ago, the singlemode we were installing could be wrapped around a Sharpie without damage (though it would lose a lot of light; that was an installation-only ability), and would happily tolerate something like twice that bend radius during operation. That being said, I've seen people do some horrific things with copper, and it tends to survive things it shouldn't. But if you treat glass even half as gently as copper wants to be treated, they'll both be fine. I think fiber gets a bad rep because large multi-strand cables have stiffeners to keep the jacket from kinking, and people assume the individual strands are similarly stiff. They really aren't.
  - sathackr 8y ago
    Just a couple of weeks ago[1]. The fiber wasn't run properly and got pinched between some innerduct and the conduit edge. Had 20+db of loss while it was pinched, but after unpinching it and massaging the kink out, it went right back to normal. [1] https://imgur.com/a/bHX6eRJ https://imgur.com/a/bHX6eRJ

olefoo 8y ago

For the lengths in use in home installations ( n < 1km ) plastic cables with a much greater modulus of elasticity can be used since the greater signal attenuation won't be a factor.

exikyut 8y ago
Are you saying there are plastic-based alternatives to optical fiber cables? Wow. What are these actually called, and what do I look for?
- rdl 8y ago
  Polymer Optical Fiber (POF). Very common and essentially the standard in non-telco/non-IT use of fiber data networks (process control, vehicles, etc). I’ve seen studies of using them for gigabit or better computer networking, but I don’t think it is common yet. What people mostly mean here is multimode vs single mode glass fiber, though.
  - detaro 8y ago
    A company called Fuba makes Gigabit POF products which got quite favorable reviews. They are "media converter" type products for single runs though and not cheap, so no GBICs or switches with many ports.

StillBored 8y ago

Which is silly as most people don't have houses that need 200M runs much less the 50M that is possible with 10GbaseT over cat5e. Why spend money on SFP's and optical cables, when you can just pick up cheap 10GbaseT hardware?

tssva 8y ago
The 10GBASE-T doesn't support Cat5e cabling. It supports a distance of up to 55m on Cat6 and 100m on CAT6a. 10GBASE-T is showing up in more and more small business targeted equipment but I think more likely 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T will make it to consumer home equipment instead of 10GBASE-T. 2.5GBASE-T supports a distance of up to 100m on CAT5e. 5GBASE-T supports up to 100m on CAT6 and may operate on some Cat5e infrastructure. Additionally they both support PoE which 10GBASE-T does not.
- virtuallynathan 8y ago
  10GBase-T certainly can work on cat5e, I run it over 10-20m at home.
  - mseebach 8y ago
    Works != supports
    - namibj 8y ago
      Can you explain why you need that much official blessing from the manufacturer to use it? If it doesn't work, you send it back?
      - mseebach 8y ago
        Well, if you bought something that says on the box that it doesn't do X, you generally don't get to send it back because it doesn't do X. Some consumer outlets may let you do this as a courtesy, but it's not ubiquitous and certainly not if you're buying from trade suppliers. Also, for a 10-20m run, the price difference is literally in the single figures. The effort alone to send something back is (should be) worth more to you than that.