what will i need to run ~2000' fiber cable?

robble

robble

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 6, 2004
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Hi Folks,


Unfortunately at my new house there is no internet service besides satellite available. Wave said I am more than 5000' from the nearest junction box.

so...

I need to get internet to my house from a neighbors house that is about 1000' away as the crow flies through heavily forested terrain. So it won't be a straight line.

I haven't asked my neighbor yet but going to propose he let me get a Wave account at his address (which can get service) and use an ethernet to fiber converter.

Amazon has converters for about $90 that claim they can go that distance. I also see a 2000' roll of fiber for ~$300
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I28PTPC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_51W0zb5D9NFZ4

Most of the other fiber is MUCH more expensive so kind of afraid the cheap stuff isn't what i'll need.

Note, I have neither tools nor knowledge of how to install the connectors on the end of fiber.

So basically, since my fiber knowledge is near 0 could someone recommend the adapters and actual fiber that doesn't cost thousands that I'll need?

I live near gig harbor, washington if any guru lives near me and would like to make a few bucks (i'm not stingy) to help me set it up.

If the neighbor says ok then I am willing to spend the money it requires as long as it isn't several thousand. My last house had gigabit. I don't think I can handle satellite (although I'm lucky to have weak 4G LTE on my phone right now).


Thanks!
 
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Sounds like a big fuck around. Reason is you will need to armour/protect the fibre and tree roots + falling tree branches make your chances of this working pretty slim.

I would look at putting a tower up or running out of the largest local trees with a reasonably non directional (e.g. allow for tree movement) 900MHz PTP wifi link. It will penetrate trees pretty well, not sure about 1000ft though. You'd want LOS if possible or minimal trees to attenuate signal.
Definitely would not even attempt doing fibre through a forest like that unless you have serious directional boring equipment. Even then I think trees and rocks will fuck your chances up, roots will kill it in 5-10 years down the track etc..
 
You're options are aerial fiber or buried. That cable isn't really proper for either.

Standards for multimode fiber don't go out quite that distance, you'd need single mode cable and converter (unless a 100mbit connection is ok)

I think you'll find direct burial cable at around $0.50 a foot for smallest which is probably 6 or 12 strand, that's just for the cable, doesn't include the labor to trench and lay it down. That's the hard part. Even with aerial, I'm assuming the poles aren't already there for you to use....

You're in a tough spot, and to be honest putting down thousands of dollars for this when your neighbor could sell his house tomorrow and the new owner might not like your arrangement and just cut it all up....that's a big risk to take.

Any fixed wireless ISP's in the area?
 
That cable is bulk cable. It isn't nearly as easy to terminate (put an end on the cable for interface) as twisted pair cable. I've only known professionals to do it. I don't advise doing that yourself. Look to have it professionally done or have a custom cable made to your needed length. It will probably cost you less in the long run.
 
N4CR said:
Sounds like a big fuck around. Reason is you will need to armour/protect the fibre and tree roots + falling tree branches make your chances of this working pretty slim.

I would look at putting a tower up or running out of the largest local trees with a reasonably non directional (e.g. allow for tree movement) 900MHz PTP wifi link. It will penetrate trees pretty well, not sure about 1000ft though. You'd want LOS if possible or minimal trees to attenuate signal.
Definitely would not even attempt doing fibre through a forest like that unless you have serious directional boring equipment. Even then I think trees and rocks will fuck your chances up, roots will kill it in 5-10 years down the track etc..
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i looked into the enstation5-ac but one of their enginners didn't think it would work through the trees. :(
 
no wireless isps in area. heck, i have to use weboost's $900 cell booster just to get 4g on my phone.

arial wouldn't work with all the tree branches falling in the forest.


Eickst said:
You're options are aerial fiber or buried. That cable isn't really proper for either.

Standards for multimode fiber don't go out quite that distance, you'd need single mode cable and converter (unless a 100mbit connection is ok)

I think you'll find direct burial cable at around $0.50 a foot for smallest which is probably 6 or 12 strand, that's just for the cable, doesn't include the labor to trench and lay it down. That's the hard part. Even with aerial, I'm assuming the poles aren't already there for you to use....

You're in a tough spot, and to be honest putting down thousands of dollars for this when your neighbor could sell his house tomorrow and the new owner might not like your arrangement and just cut it all up....that's a big risk to take.

Any fixed wireless ISP's in the area?
Click to expand...
 
If it's 100% private property owned by the 2 of you and you stay out of public right-of-way it could be done. Renting a vibratory plow is about $300/day. You could use the plow to bury conduit and place hand-holes every 300ft-500ft or so. Get a reel of indoor/outdoor single mode fiber and pull it through the conduit. Leaving 3-5 loops in each hand-hole for splicing in the case of damage. Then you could pay someone to come in and terminate the fiber.

All in it'll be $8k or so to do it right.

You could also get direct-burial fiber but it's usually really expensive.
 
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possibl
bds1904 said:
If it's 100% private property owned by the 2 of you and you stay out of public right-of-way it could be done. Renting a vibratory plow is about $300/day. You could use the plow to bury conduit and place hand-holes every 300ft-500ft or so. Get a reel of indoor/outdoor single mode fiber and pull it through the conduit. Leaving 3-5 loops in each hand-hole for splicing in the case of damage. Then you could pay someone to come in and terminate the fiber.

All in it'll be $8k or so to do it right.

You could also get direct-burial fiber but it's usually really expensive.
Click to expand...

possibly future. Looks like I'm going to have to cut back on my budget for right now. I wpuld do $8k in a heartbeat but wife was bitching earlier today about all the money i've spent in the last two weeks since we moved here. she doesn't undetstand why i needed to spend ~$4k on a mower (almost 2 acres of yard), aircompressor, chainsaws, weed whackers, the 4G booster and other tools you just need living in the boonies.
Tried teling her it's like stocking a pantry with flour, sugar etc... just stuff you need but she aint accepting it.
 
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hmm.. .47/ft. roughly $800. plus a couple cpnverters and renting a trenchdigger. might could be done for under $1500.
 
robble said:
that sounds promising. 900mhz to cut through forest... not sure what kind of bsndwidth that could provide but like you said - i don't have many options.
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900MHz is what I said the first reply ;P haha

It's your only public band hope really. Remember 800Mhz is used for the original cell towers and that goes through trees pretty well, you might get in the order of 100-300mbit from my investigation of Ubiquiti gear but should have pretty low latency, few ms. Also look at using out the airlink simulator and finding the highest ground around you. http://www.ubnt.com/airlink/
Good luck.
 
robble said:
hmm.. .47/ft. roughly $800. plus a couple cpnverters and renting a trenchdigger. might could be done for under $1500.
Click to expand...
Don't forget armouring/PVC conduit and what happens when that breaks with a tree branch/root. I don't think cheap fusion splicers exist yet...
 
You can get direct burial cable and avoid conduit. You're right about the roots though, not much you can do about that part....

Also, I think all of this is moot if the OP hasn't even gotten permission from his neighbor yet...
 
I would try the 900Mhz Ubiquiti link setup first. Less work and expense then digging a trench and laying fiber. And before you even thought about digging, you would have to check for existing easements. You don't want to be the next 5:00pm breaking news about exploding gas mains or county wide power outage.

As for power tools, end of season and BF sales are your friend. Don't forget the WiFi connected game cams.
 
Do you have overhead service? Check with the hydro company (assuming they own the poles) to see how much they would charge you to run cable on their poles. It might actually be cheap. Then check with your ISP if they are willing to connect you to a fibre that you run yourself closer to their equipment. Basically you would be in charge of that span so it's out of their hands if something happens.

Failing that I would probably go with the point to point RF link as suggested. UBNT has some decent products for that too.
 
I find a 2 fibers single-mode LSZH outdoor cable, which is $0.37 for 3 foot (2000ft is around $230. The cable is completed with the LSZH material jacket, which has good flame retardant performance. Besides, you can also custom the length of the cables for your needs. It may be suitable choice with the reasonable price.
 
UBNT wireless is what I would look at. You really don't need much bandwidth, just lowish latency and good penetrating power. I have been very impressed with their products for wireless links (it is what they started as). Frankly in the wireless bridge department, I have yet to find anything better and we use very expensive Cisco gear at work that does not even perform as well.

Go for lower wireless band (like 900 as mentioned) and don't worry about speeds. You want power and penetration, not speed.
 
Master_shake_ said:
2000 feet of fibre?

Gonna need at least 1 billion in government subsidies.
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Really would it cost that much? I always been kinda curious what it would take to start a small ISP but the part that would be really expensive is having to get fibre run from "The Internet" itself, which means running fibre to a major city like Toronto where you can get a "raw" connection and lot of IP addresses (to hand out to customers). But did not figure it was THAT expensive.

That said I would look at UBNT AirFiber myself. Would be kinda fun to set that up actually. Just need to setup two towers that go over the trees and then some. (trees grow).
 
Having fiber run costs between $30 and $300 per foot, depending on location, amount of sidewalks that have to be replaced, other construction, etc.
 
Have you looked into using coax to see if it's feasible in your situation?
 
I'd look into ethernet extenders as well--you can get 100Mbps over just phone wire that you can leave unburied if you wanted to. The ones I've used have been by netsys-direct.com and were used to get ethernet over 30 year old water-logged 100pr bundled pots wire. Those have been discontinued, but they have several different replacements now including one that can do 22k feet over phone wire at 15Mbs and one that can do 100Mb 12 miles over single mode fiber, all under $600 for the equipment:
https://www.netsys-direct.com/collections/ethernet-extenders
 
I may still try asking the neighbor in the future but for right now I didn't want to dig up the forest to bury a line. I ended up getting Exede satellite internet. It's not nearly as bad as the thousands of horror stories I read. I get a consistent 20Mb down and 5 up at all times of the day so far. Unlimited/unthrottled data. Can't game with a 700ms ping though. :(
 
robble said:
I may still try asking the neighbor in the future but for right now I didn't want to dig up the forest to bury a line. I ended up getting Exede satellite internet. It's not nearly as bad as the thousands of horror stories I read. I get a consistent 20Mb down and 5 up at all times of the day so far. Unlimited/unthrottled data. Can't game with a 700ms ping though. :(
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My condolences buddy. Sounds like you moved a little too far out there...

Hope the wife is worth it.
 
robble said:
I may still try asking the neighbor in the future but for right now I didn't want to dig up the forest to bury a line. I ended up getting Exede satellite internet. It's not nearly as bad as the thousands of horror stories I read. I get a consistent 20Mb down and 5 up at all times of the day so far. Unlimited/unthrottled data. Can't game with a 700ms ping though. :(
Click to expand...
Those are some really great bandwidths for satellite--I never knew they had improved beyond the 4-5Mbps level. But I hear you on the ping times--can't be helped when you think about your packet beaming all the way out to space and back though. :O
 
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