2 House networking with Fiber

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rnicolitz

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I have two houses I would like to connect with fiber (I had a bad expirence with lightning and an outdoor Cat5e run). I want to run the fiber from the 2nd floor of the 1st house to the single story of the second house over a distance of about 100ft, through a PVC pipe about 12 inches underground.

Inside each house I have the same network switch, a Netgear FS750T2. These switches have a SFP port for fiber connectivity. I want to use a TRENDnet TEG-MGBSX Multi-Mode Fiber Mini-GBIC Modules in the SFP port to connect the switches, it has a Standard duplex-LC connector.

Does anyone know of a place that will sell a pre-terminated fiber cable that will connect these two switches? I don't want to invest in a bunch of fiber terminating equipment and slicing and so forth, just want a nice outdoor rated, lightning proof cable, to connect the switches.

Also what are the limitations on running the fiber? For example maximum bend raidus, and other problems might present themselves when running from 2nd story to single story house?

Thanks for your time,

Ryan
 
Honestly? I'd get some lightning arresters ( spelling? ) and use plain ol' cat5. It'd be easier in the long run and probably cheaper. I think they go for 20-40 bucks per end.
 
You should use fiber between buildings because of (potentially) different grounds. Copper between two different buildings is a networking no-no.
 
I'm not sure about the fiber but you should bury the conduit 18 inches below grade. And don't forget to call dig safe to check things out before you dig.
 
Thanks for the information so far. The link to Ebay was a good idea, don;t know why I didn't think to look there.

As for running Cat5 between the buildings I learned my lesson there. A recent lightning strike (in florida of course) nuked 3 computers, 2 wireless routers, and countless nic cards (even on laptops). So I'm done with copper outside.

I just wanted some ideas about Fiber and how easy it is to work with, I may try that ebay cable and just hook up the switches to see what I get.

Thanks
 
Arch said:
You should use fiber between buildings because of (potentially) different grounds. Copper between two different buildings is a networking no-no.
Click to expand...

At that small of a distance you could easily use metal conduit or pull a ground wire with your cat5 and ground at both ends to nullify the ground potential difference. I'd also recommended inline surge arrestors on both sides. Look at the APC netprotect series, or the Tripplite DNET1.

If you do go fiber, its not the fiber thats going to cost you its the ports to put them in. However, 100baset to 100fx media converters are pretty cheap no a'days. Doing a gig link is going to cost you though.
 
If your total distance is less than 100m than I would just run Cat5e or some good cat6.
Unless you're pusing serious data between the 2 locations.
 
shade_star said:
If your total distance is less than 100m than I would just run Cat5e or some good cat6.
Unless you're pusing serious data between the 2 locations.
Click to expand...

Like he has said, running coper wires like that outside is asking for trouble during lighting strikes. Even with protection you can still end up with problems. I have spoken with network administrators that even with arrestors, burying properly in conduit they still end up with fried switch ports.

Check out http://www.lanshack.com/ they make custom length fiber pre-terminated with pull eyes.
 
Thank you all for the input, man this board is active!

Like I said before, I tried cat5e outside and it was a disaster. Granted, it wasn't properly grounded in conduit at least 18" deep, and fitted with arrestors. But I live in Florida so why bother tempting lightning to test my equipment? When fiber will solve all the lighting problems, and give a nice speed bump.

You don't even need a special switch, you can get fiber converters like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156085

use a GBIC module like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156092

and run a 50m fiber cable like was linked to on ebay previously and i runs less than $300 total. (Converters on both ends). And in my case I already have the switches so I don't need the converters, just the GBIC modules.

Has anybody had any problems will pulling fiber? Broken strands anything like that? Any warnings about dealing with fiber?
 
You need to be careful when pulling fiber around your bends. Never do a 90 degree bend always 2 45's.
The strands will crack or break and you will get weird transmission errors.
And you are right you need nothing more than a convertor to convert the fiber end into something useful like cat5 unless your switch or router can accept a filber plug in.
GL and let us know how it goes. Take pictures!
 
Do you already have the conduit in place? If not Try NOT to use 90 Deg corners you should be able to get 45 Deg if you have 1" or 1 1/4" conduit with 45's you should be ok. I have seen some severely mistreated fiber on a lot longer runs than 100 feet working just fine.

I am seeing references to 5 and 3 cm radius. If you use 45's on conduit I would think you would easily fall into spec.

If you make the tube large enough so it could freely travel, you could tie a string to a piece of styrofoam and blow it from one end to another with a compressor.

Looks like a 50M piece would do the trick, ($114) leaving a bit at the ends to work with. Mono Price usually had good prices on cables, but they have nothing over 10M.. (Makes little sense)
 
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