Recommendations for fiber network connection between house and detached garage?

[pete_c]

My "el cheapo" tester helped me when I installed POE cameras to the edges of the property. I initially wired them using the old LED style tester and most of the terminations had been done incorrectly. The newer tested tested the wire for correct pairing standards. The little termination device has a beeper on it when their is end to end connectivity. Not sure how accurate the length of the cable testing. None of my runs exceeded 300 feet. It was a lot of practice using a RJ-45 crimper with short pieces of catxx cable and while time consuming if you make a mistake easy to do it another time. I printed a large color of cable chart to help me do this. Just unravel the end of the cable and flatten the 8 cables out in order and while pressing them flat cut the end flat across and slide it in to the RJ-45 connector which is clear and you can see if the wires are in the right grooves. Takes practice so make yourself some patch cables to test with. For wall sockets I still had issues with the colors. Many times punched down the connections tested them wrong and would re punch them live connected to the tester until I got it right. Never had to do this for a living but DIY learned for myself.

Many years ago a friend built a new home ~ 300 feet from his old home on a farm. Initially he used the internet ISP connection in the old house so I had him run underground cable to the new house from the old house and used this tester. Today he is still using this cable. He owns an apartment building in town 13 miles away and I wanted to originally to put in a wireless bridge from town to his house (had a clear view at the time).

Practice buying a bag of RJ45 ends and some short catxx cables. It will come easier to practice first.

My issues where relating to lining up the cable color order and keeping them flat next to each other and sliding them in order inside of the RJ-45 connector. Print your guide picture with terminal clip up or down and do them all the same. Hold the flattened cable with your thumb and first finger on one hand and the RJ45 end in the other hand. Once you slide the cables in to the RJ45 end, look inside of the connector to make sure the ends are all even then crimp the end on.

Get a good compression style crimping tool. These are also cheap now on Amazon.

 

[LarrylLix]

I did thousands of these and one thing that many do incorrectly is to use the curved crimp connectors on flat cable and vice versa. The flat ones kink and break your round cable conductors after crimping.

We found another trick was to slide the cable jacket back as far as possible to get good length on the conductors while straightening them out. Right after inserting them into the connector, slide the sleeving back up into the connector, just before crimping. This also helps the conductors be forced against the end of the connector inside evenly, so they all get caught in their respective metal connections, when crimped.

 

[JimS]

Got the $50 tester today. The first from Amazon was lost somewhere on the way to me so I had to cancel and reorder but the price dropped several dollars in the meantime. Anyway, I tested the cable and it tests fine. I do have a bit of excess wire length between the sheath and the plugs. I suppose I should reterminate and see if that helps...

 

[kurtmccaslin]

Back to the original question:

I am on top of a hill and had a lot of trouble with lightning. I blew my cat 6 system twice in two years, even with lightning arrestors on both ends. I decided to go with fiber between my house and garage (260 ft). I used Indoor/Outdoor Multimode 50/125 pre-terminated fiber with LC connectors on both ends from Lanshack. I got better pricing when I called for a quote vs. website pricing. You can buy the fiber bundle with a pulling eye on both ends, which is very handy. I installed a simple wall mount termination box on both ends and hooked to my equipment with short LC patch cables. I used Ubiquiti fiber switches on both ends with LC SFP modules, however, I also used $50 Star Tech media converters and they worked fine too. It was plug and play-- no configuration required.

This worked so well, I have since expanded my system. I connected my barn at a distance of 1065 ft with 3 junction boxes in between. I also hooked up the RS485 network from my OmniPro 2. (using extra fibers I installed for future expansion) Everything is rock solid with gigabit speed. The RS485 fiber converters were kind of pricey but they have been rock solid too.

I was very careful in pulling the fiber and had the benefit of 2 inch conduit. I pre-lubed the conduit twice and carefully pulled 1 ft at a time. On the long run, I installed a pull box at 420 ft to reduce the pulling force needed on the fiber.

I spent quite a bit of time researching options, but have been very happy with the result. Zero problems from lightning in the past 5 years.

 

[JimS]

Back to the original question:

I am on top of a hill and had a lot of trouble with lightning. I blew my cat 6 system twice in two years, even with lightning arrestors on both ends. I decided to go with fiber between my house and garage (260 ft). I used Indoor/Outdoor Multimode 50/125 pre-terminated fiber with LC connectors on both ends from Lanshack. I got better pricing when I called for a quote vs. website pricing. You can buy the fiber bundle with a pulling eye on both ends, which is very handy. I installed a simple wall mount termination box on both ends and hooked to my equipment with short LC patch cables. I used Ubiquiti fiber switches on both ends with LC SFP modules, however, I also used $50 Star Tech media converters and they worked fine too. It was plug and play-- no configuration required.

This worked so well, I have since expanded my system. I connected my barn at a distance of 1065 ft with 3 junction boxes in between. I also hooked up the RS485 network from my OmniPro 2. (using extra fibers I installed for future expansion) Everything is rock solid with gigabit speed. The RS485 fiber converters were kind of pricey but they have been rock solid too.

I was very careful in pulling the fiber and had the benefit of 2 inch conduit. I pre-lubed the conduit twice and carefully pulled 1 ft at a time. On the long run, I installed a pull box at 420 ft to reduce the pulling force needed on the fiber.

I spent quite a bit of time researching options, but have been very happy with the result. Zero problems from lightning in the past 5 years.

Got more details on your equipment? I looked at Lanshack and they have OM2, OM3, ... that match the description you gave. Same question on the other equipment. I did see somewhere the recommendation to get spare fiber, like 4 strand, in case one is damaged. Seems like a good plan. Trying to price out things.

 

[kurtmccaslin]

I went OM2 for my first 260 ft install. Then later added 750 ft to the barn with OM3. I think OM3 is a little overkill, but it is nearly the same price and gives some headroom. I would go with OM3 in the future.

There are some good videos on the lanshack site about pulling fiber. It is always good to have some spare fiber. Both in length and number of fibers.

I used a pull tape to pull the fiber in the conduit. You might get by pulling with your cat 5 cable, but you will have a lot more friction. I would pull the pull tape with the cat 5, then pull the fiber with the pull tape. A quart of wire pulling lube should do for your project.

I bought a wall mount termination box enclosure for both ends from lanshack. Monoprice has good prices on fiber patch cables for various lengths. You can get media converters from Amazon pretty easy. You just need to make sure that they are LC, Multimode, 10/100/1000. You will need one for each end. I see you can buy two media converts for $63.99 I used Ubiquiti fiber switches. That makes sense for me because I have a Ubiquiti network. Using media converters and rj45 copper switches also works well.

I also see some instructions where they talk about cleaning the fiber ends. I was very careful not to touch the ends of mine after I took the protective covers off and had no problems.

 

[JimS]

lanshack wants $370 for 4 strands of OM2, 250' (didn't have option for 2 strands) for indoor, outdoor. FS is $160 for OM2 direct burial 2 strands which is all I really need. Anyone dealt with fs.com that can give a review?

 

[JimS]

What are the tradeoffs going to OS2 fiber? It is cheaper than OM2 and can do 10G at 5km which is even better than OM2.

 

[kurtmccaslin]

I believe that is for single mode. When I was building my system, single mode equipment was much more expensive than multimode.

 

[JimS]

I believe that is for single mode. When I was building my system, single mode equipment was much more expensive than multimode.

Yes. OS2 is single mode. I have read that it is more expensive but that may be old info. I priced both at same length (270 ft) for 4 strands (for backup if some get damaged) from fs.com and the OS2 with end converters is $90 less than OM2. $404 for OM2 and $314 for OS2 all in with shipping and tax. Other than the connectors being more susceptible to dirt due to the smaller fiber diameter are there any other differences that would make OM2 a better choice?