Adding a fiber link to my home network

Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by jcrawfordor on Sunday August 09, 2020 @03:34PM (#24102198)

You may underestimate the time and effort that can be involved in in-wall cabling in a retrofit situation... like most in my area I live in a house that is coming up on 100 years old, while I do my best to run all cables through walls there are situations where I have to run cables in conduits on the exterior as the only way to do otherwise would be to resheetrock most of the ceiling. There's just a cost-benefit analysis here, and most contractors aren't willing to put in the time (because the customer doesn't want to pay for the time!) to open up the walls to get access to run cables through them. Keep in mind that when you consider demolition, hanging sheetrock, texture, prime, paint, and clean, any cabling situation where walls need to be opened is probably going to be billed as a full day, and local building/licensing codes may not allow a low-voltage technician to perform that work, requiring a builder to be subcontracted.

There are tricks like flexible installer bits that allow for short runs through-wall without removing the wallboard but you're going to need an access hole every couple of studs at least... and at that point you're setting yourself up for so much patching it might be faster to just open up the wall entirely. You can also use all kinds of wire-pulling tools, I have a 30' telescoping fiberglass pole that I have used to run cables through inaccessible attics (flat and shallow roofs common here), but once again, you get into situations where running the cable for a single surveillance camera is an 8-hour job! I put up with this for my own house but clients aren't so happy about it...

And all of this is assuming wood-frame walls which are the norm for interior walls but exterior in many areas can be brick, adobe, etc., and blown-in insulation is great for heating bills but can make cable runs in exterior walls a huge headache.

At the same time, cables run "cable-installer style" (stapled to gables and run down exterior to straight-through holes) regularly last for over a decade and are very easy to repair when there are problems and modify when needs change. It's hard to blame them.

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Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by lowbloodsugar on Sunday August 09, 2020 @07:23PM (#24103804)

It cost me $3000 to have a professional run 7 CAT6 cables to every room throughout my 80 yo house, plus one to the modem, along with wiring proper earthed power into another four locations or so. The man was not claustrophobic. Plus less than $500 for another contractor to fill in and paint the sheetrock that was required in storage rooms. The cables meet in the basement in a server rack.

It was well worth it to me. I have teenagers and everyone has an Eero in their room, plus hardwire for the home theater and office.

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Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by lostlogin on Monday August 10, 2020 @05:16AM (#24107153)

That’s a lot of money. I’ve run about that many and while the the material cost was relatively low, but it has been days of work and a lot of frustration and mess. I think you picked wisely.

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Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by lostlogin on Sunday August 09, 2020 @03:57PM (#24102374)

> You may underestimate the time and effort that can be involved in in-wall cabling in a retrofit situation.

I totally hear you. I’ve done a lot myself, most recently on Saturday.

It’s hours and hours per run. I’ve used many weekends doing this and it sounds like you have too (and it seems you have considerably more sophisticated tools!), but the alternative is looking at cables that run along the walls.

I ran into a new one recently - the nogs (dwangs to some) being angled to give a herringbone pattern. A complete nightmare for retrofitting.

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Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by apple4ever on Sunday August 09, 2020 @04:07PM (#24102447)

Agreed here. I'd love to run cable to access points on my 1st floor ceiling, but the work required to do that (getting it up from the basement into the ceiling and through the joists) is just too much work. I've decided just to run the cable on the ceiling.

If I ever build or renovate a house, I'll be running it like that though.

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Re:Adding a fiber link to my home network by jcrawfordor on Sunday August 09, 2020 @05:24PM (#24103034)

In new construction, consider running "smurf tube" or other conduit between structured wiring enclosures. You'll be able to pull through more cables in the future reasonably easily, especially if you leave pulling line for yourself. In theory you can also get network appliances and etc. that mounts nicely in the structured wiring boxes although honestly the selection/pricing is kind of lame on those. This is starting to be more common in new construction, esp. multi-family.

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