Any fiber optic experts? Re Termination question...

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billmcgrady

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phoenix
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I ran a single mode duplex fiber line (with LC connectors) to my garage so I'd have internet out there. Well I broke the duplex LC connector in the garage. I tried asking some local fiber companies to reterminate but they said I have a fiber "jumper" cable and that it's too skinny for their equipment.

Is this true?

Or can I order a cheap ~$50 fiber termination kit from ebay and give this a shot? I have about 10 extra feet of this fiber in my garage so if I mess up i can keep lopping off a few inches and trying again. Thanks in advance!

Bill

Ps I spent an hour looking for fiber optic forums but couldn't find any. If this is a non relevant topic to this forum, can anyone recommend a forum that could help? Thanks!!
 
mikeames

mikeames

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Hi Bill,

I don't know the answer to your question. I don't want to hijack your thread but my concern would be if your fiber will be worth it? If your fiber is not designed for the application and you use a sub par termination what will be the advantage over a wireless link? Ubiquiti makes some cool stuff for that. Distance wont be an issue. Perhaps you got the fiber cheap but it comes with its own issues. For a reasonable investment you can get a link several miles in distance with speeds well over a gig. I want to add one to my house to link to my in laws who are a mile away. That way we can share one connection and split the cost will little to no downside.
 
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GoldDigger

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mikeames said:
Hi Bill,

I don't know the answer to your question. I don't want to hijack your thread but my concern would be if your fiber will be worth it? If your fiber is not designed for the application and you use a sub par termination what will be the advantage over a wireless link? Ubiquiti makes some cool stuff for that. Distance wont be an issue. Perhaps you got the fiber cheap but it comes with its own issues. For a reasonable investment you can get a link several miles in distance with speeds well over a gig. I want to add one to my house to link to my in laws who are a mile away. That way we can share one connection and split the cost will little to no downside.
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1. In general there is little justification for local network speeds much above your broadband internet link bandwidth. The biggest exceptions, IMHO, are if you are using network attached storage for frequently used files and if you want to stream high resolution video between nodes on your network.
Even then, the bandwidth of a local wireless network can be surprising for those of us who were around in the old Ethernet cable days.

2. One of my friends with a home in the mountains of the south end of the San Francisco penninula could not get any high bandwidth Internet connectivity at his location, not even fixed wireless.
His friend across the valley and about 3 miles away had cable Internet in his neighborhood. Two RF modems on WiFi frequencies and two surplus 4 ' diameter satellite dishes solved his problem very neatly.
 
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billmcgrady

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phoenix
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technician
Very logical advice. Unfortunately there are some external factors that prevent me from using these nice new Wifi technologies.

Plus I have the fiber installed aleady and it was working beautifully before this cheap little plastic LC connector snapped on a fluke. Normally I have this stuff buried in the corner out of harms way but a fluke scenario caused someone else to move this stuff and it broke. :(

I might just bite the bullet and pick up a cheap fiber termination kit on ebay and spend a saturday trying to terminate fiber for the first time. thanks for the responses.
 
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billmcgrady

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phoenix
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technician
Yes I'm hoping some fast connectors and an ebay tool kit will at least give me a chance to get a signal running through this fiber line again. If I mess up, I still have 10 extra feet of cable.
 
don_resqcapt19

don_resqcapt19

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Illinois
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I can't imagine that the cleaver in a cheap kit would be good enough to get a clean end for a non-polish termination.
 
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billmcgrady

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phoenix
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technician
don_resqcapt19 said:
I can't imagine that the cleaver in a cheap kit would be good enough to get a clean end for a non-polish termination.
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Yea I've heard that from a few people and I think I'll take your guys' word for it. I guess I saw a couple different vids where they physically demonstrated being able to get a signal through a fiber cable with their cheap kit.

I figured since the whole fiber cable and converters are neatly and carefully tucked away in my house/garage where they should never be accessed or damaged, it was only damaged this one time through a complete fluke accident that shouldn't happen again. So even if I get a makeshift termination going it shouldn't be touched for years. But since a lot of people with experience are advising against this I will listen to them. Although some of them immediately then tried to sell me a $400 cleaver haha 😁
 
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billmcgrady

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phoenix
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technician
egnlsn said:
How far away is the garage? Just wondering why fiber and not CAT6.
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I was ready to go with a 150ft outdoor cat6 cable but a respected friend warned against creating a voltage loop (ethernet is copper cable that does carry a voltage). He said even if my house and garage are properly grounded (they are) there's rare instances of electronics still being fried through ethernet, usually lightning strikes. At the time I was thinking about putting some nice stereo equipment in the garage and didn't want to fry them; in hindsight I'm mostly just netflixing etc out there and probably shoulda gone with the cat6. With that being said the fiber has been super stable and quick IMO.

UPDATE: A local fiber company finally called me back and said they could come next week for a quick house call and as long the fiber is the exact type/size that I say it is then it should be a quick re-termination in-and-out for $50. (y)
 
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