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Fibre Optic vs Cat 5 or Cat 6


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We want to hardwire our televisions to the internet to stream Netflix and whatnot, and our electrician has recommended Fibre Optic cabling which carries a lot more data than Cat 5 or Cat 6 http://www.datalight-system.com/en/home/. Has anyone used this and is it worth the money? The cables are fancy conduits so we can use them to run other wires through also whilst plugging straight into them. This will feed internet to TVs, wifi boosters,  and data to CCTV, speakers and the printer in our home office.

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I am skeptical.

 

First off, your TV and your broadband will not provide you with a fibre connection.

 

So what advantage speed wise will a fibre from your comms room to your tv provide?

 

Just what are you going to stream, from where to what, that a good cat6 cable won't support?

 

by all means install a conduit through which you can pull some future system cabling, but I am not convinced this will give any practical benefit.

 

Concentrate more on real things like cabing for surround sound speakers etc.

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FIber is for backbone, long distance work.  You get 1Gb form Cat 6 (properly terminated) and you can get 10Gb from Cat 7/7A though you will struggle for find any network gear to run at that speed.  The fiber (if you have it) coming into your house will go into a modem and then it come out on 802.xxx twisted pair (Cat 5/6/7/7a)  If you can get 1 Gb you are not in the UK but the far east!  Most network switches (the box that connects everything together) are limited to 1Gb connections, the new XG (10Gb) stuff is only just coming on line and it is still wired fir twisted pair.

 

Just get decent (solid not stranded) Cat6 cable installed, terminated, tested and guaranteed and you will be fine.

 

Also your TV, Blu-Ray,.... all have a 8P8C connector (the ones you are used to).

 

Just get a good 802.af PoE switch and proper cabling and you will be fine.

 

I have had a look at the data sheets and it is POF Plastic Optical Fiber, so not usual fiber, and is limited and can't even reach the speeds of Cat7A 10Gb twisted pair.  It still has conventional connectors at the user end, just a waste of money.

 

I have fiber in my setup but only between my router and switches, this saves on my standard ports as they are all allocated.  Only one of my switches is 10Gb capable the router and other one switch only 1Gb fiber anyway.  A 10Gb router costs over $1000!

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Dont bother with fiber, its extremely expensive to terminate, and if not done properly it won't work. Theres nothing in a home which requires that kind of bandwidth, so just stick with CAT6 (the low smoke version).

 

I install HPE Aruba Modular switching in my day job, and often do 10GbE installs, but they are only useful if you are pushing a huge amount of data, i.e. multiple stations streaming full HD, and even then it doesn't get saturated, in fact the most useful thing for 10GbE is iSCSI SAN installs, where you can really use the bandwidth in a Hyper-V environment. In a house, i just don't see a use for this.

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Whatever you install you should installed a wired CAT 6 network as well.  That's what the conduit is for in that datalight system you linked to.  Their face plates have two wired and two fiber ports.

 

My guess is you will never use the fibre ports as everything these days is either wired or wifi. There are so few people with fibre in their house that I doubt anyone is making TV with a fibre port on it.

 

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3 hours ago, le-cerveau said:

Just get decent (solid not stranded) Cat6 cable installed, terminated, tested and guaranteed and you will be fine.

 

And make sure it's solid copper, not copper coated aluminium (CCA).

 

Agree with everything above. If you're dead set on making provision for fiber, run some conduit (making sure you only use long, sweeping bends - perhaps look up minimum radius for fiber).

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In the architects office I work in Universities and hospitals are the only buildings I can think of where we regularly install fibre inside the building and even then its only between the comms/server rooms. Same principle to large office buildings with multiple server rooms. Can't think of anywhere else. Haven't had to install in any secondary schools or any industry/manufacturing building yet so can't imagine how you'd need it in a house.

 

I'm all for future proofing though and putting in conduit / cable trays / access hatches / etc. to allow for future services. I put in a cable tray and have access hatches hidden in the ceiling of full height kitchen units so nothing will be seen but will allow future services to be pulled whatever that technology may be.

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Cat 5E will happily drive 1Gb at house scales. That's what I used, and that's what I get when the device NICs support it. Maybe I will be kicking myself in 10 years time, but it works fine for me.

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  • 5 years later...
12 hours ago, TheMitchells said:

Listened to the TED talk abouot Lifi - it sounds the future of data transmission.

 

Here's the company details.  They have working technology now.

https://www.purelifi.com/about-lifi/

 

Yeah I came across this not too long ago, when I first heard of it I thought someone was making a joke, but no, it’s a real thing.

 

many times faster than current wifi and barely any interference, so I guess my job of network engineer will turn into lighting designer before I know it 😂 

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  • 2 weeks later...

received this today - a little too expensive for me but i can see it being very useful in busy environments - offices/libraries etc. 

https://lifi.co/lifi-product/lifimax-compact/

 

LiFiMAX Compact: Reshaping the Way You Connect

Experience blazing-fast speeds and unmatched security while enjoying our special launch discount. Order now and step into the future of connectivity.

  Order with absolute confidence – it’s completely risk-free with our 100% money-back guarantee!

$1650     $1399

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