[M_Six]

How does the fiber feed get into the house? Our current system is a coax feed from the street. It connects to a splitter outside and then into the various coax cables to the rooms inside. So if we went with fiber, would they have to drill new holes to get fiber into the house? Or is there some converter box that coverts the fiber cable to coax to use the existing cabling?

[Boomer 2019]

At some point prior to entering your house the fiber is converted to coax. This probably differs from situation to situation. The next time you see a local cable guy parked somewhere you should ask him.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Boomer 2019

At some point prior to entering your house the fiber is converted to coax. This probably differs from situation to situation. The next time you see a local cable guy parked somewhere you should ask him.

Our current ISP (Mediacom) has fiber "to the last mile" and then coax. So they convert it at the neighborhood box to coax. But I think that limits speeds. They offer 1Gig down but only 50mbs up. The other ISP (Consolidated Communications) is now running out their fiber network that supposedly brings fiber right to your house. Their plan is 1Gig up down and up and costs less than half of Mediacom's fiber plan. But I can't seem to find info on how that works as far as modem and wiring is concerned. Running a fiber cable from outside our house to my office where the modem is will not be an option, I think.

[vreihen16]

Coax is sooooooo 1980's.

Do they make you go with IP set-top boxes as part of the conversion package if you're one of those old geezers who needs traditional TV service?????

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Coax is sooooooo 1980's.

Do they make you go with IP set-top boxes as part of the conversion package if you're one of those old geezers who needs traditional TV service?????

Yes, you need a set-top box if you want cable TV. We only have internet service for them, so no boxes other than the modem. They also require you to use (rent) their modem if you add phone service, so we don't get that either. I have my own modem. But that's another question about fiber. Does it require you to rent a modem from the ISP or can you buy a fiber capable modem?

[Atavus]

When they do fibre here, we essentially get a box inside and it’s Ethernet or Wi-Fi from there on.

Cable TV type hybrid fibre/coax network is not the same thing.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Atavus

When they do fibre here, we essentially get a box inside and it’s Ethernet or Wi-Fi from there on.

Cable TV type hybrid fibre/coax network is not the same thing.

So you have an actual fiber optics cable running to some box inside, right? Is that box an all-in-one device with a built-in switch and wifi? Or is there a modem type device with fiber-in and Ethernet-out?

[carseatsm5]

ATT Fiber runs directly into house to a combo modem/router. I then run an Orbi Mesh from that.

[kscarrol]

We have had AT&T fiber in two locations for several years now. In our old house in Nola, the fiber came directly into the house to the AT&T supplied modem/router. From there it went via ethernet out to my desktop and a second ethernet out to our wifi (same set up as carseatsm5 above). Same set up here in SC though the house has ethernet to all tv's so the feed to my AppleTV devices is hard wired. Rest of the house uses wifi.

We have had the 1Gb service in both locations and my hardwired iMac would get download speeds in the mid to upper 900Mb back in Nola. In SC, my Mac desktop is on wifi and I consistently get right around 300Mb download and upload.

Edit: Not sure if this is just an AT&T thing but you can't buy your own modem from BestBuy etc., so you have a monthly rental for the modem/router.

[carseatsm5]

That is, it’s fiber to the home. Not fiber to the node as cable does.

[zx10guy]

Well, technically, a fiber cable is run to the house to a box called an ONT (optical network terminal) box. And depending on your ISP you may or may not need their gateway device to get network connectivity the rest of the way. Some places now just have an Ethernet hand off at the ONT where you just plug in your router.

There's nothing magical about fiber. It's just a transport medium. In the end, the light going over fiber has to be converted into an electrical signal that goes over some sort of wired medium. Fiber just has the advantage of being able to run over longer distances without signal issues. And also able to carry different communications over the same cable through the use of different wavelengths without affecting the other signals. These technologies are called DWDM (dense wave division multiplexing) and CWDM (course wave division multiplexing).

In my home network/lab, most of my high speed connections for my servers are done over copper...specifically direct attached cables/twinax. These connections are carrying 10Gbit and 40Gbit traffic. The only fiber I'm running is over fiber channel for my SAN array running at 8Gbit. The trunk I have between the compact switch in my office to my "campus" switch in my network rack is over dual Cat 6 running a LAG at 10Gbit.

[M_Six]

So they could put the ONT either on the inside wall of my garage or the outside wall and leave it up to me to get Ethernet to the rest of the house? That would work without having to run new cabling. I'd just use the existing MoCA network even though that might degrade the overall speed at the various outlets a bit. I think we're a year or more away from having fiber in my 'hood, so this is more curiosity than an actual need for answers to an immediate problem. And frankly, the bandwidth we have now suits us fine. I just hate paying more for 200/10 than the other ISP charges for Gig both ways.

[zx10guy]

Yes. The ONT is typically installed on an external wall. A friend with a new construction house had fiber put in and the ONT was at the garage wall. He only needed to have an Ethernet cable to plug into the ONT.

With Mediacom, I feel you on them. I absolutely despise them. They're the only game in town for my vacation home. Periodic outages and recently I've been having line quality issues...again. First time there were two issues. One at their distro box feed to my house and then supposedly the RG6 cabling I was using went bad. We switched over to the secondary RG6 the structured wiring company hired by the builder put in. That tested fine. But I'm getting line quality issues again after 2 years from their last visit to fix the problem. I highly doubt the other RG6 cable in my house has gone bad. I improved things by removing the splitter the tech installed at my structured wiring cabinet and going direct to my cable modem. The splitter was for if I wanted their TV programming to other coax outlets in the house. I don't ever plan on getting that.

I also went through the entire chain of couplers removing and reinstalling to ensure there connections are solid. I still get the occasional hiccup where I get a dropped packet when I do a test. But it isn't nearly as bad as before where I was getting constant dropped packets every few seconds.

Can't leave Mediacom there as literally there are no other landline based options. No DSL. Guess I can go dial up. LOL. Cellular or satellite is an option but those have their own issues. If T-Mobile provided their 5G home Internet service there, I'd seriously consider it.

[zx10guy]

Oh and I can't remember. But I think they'll install a UPS to keep the ONT powered up in the event of a power outage. It's a throwback to the days of POTS lines being ultra reliable and needing to be up through power outages. This is in the event you also get phone services through them too. I know Verizon includes a UPS with their FIOS service.

[Rich.Wolfson]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Yes, you need a set-top box if you want cable TV.

I am using CableCards on TiVOs with FiOS. Lightning fast. Absolutely reliable.

Yes, I know TiVOs don't stream well so for that I use AppleTVs.

But for a direct answer, usually the company installing the fiber will remove the Coax and use the same hole unless you ask them to keep the coax.

///Rich

PS-If your backup FiOS battery goes out, and they do after a few years, they tell you that they can't replace it and you don't need it. The battery is easy to find.

[B58-M340iX]

I have 2gig down/1gig up with Google fiber. The fiber line was ran and dug into my yard and terminates directly within the spdif port on the router. Some companies may run fiber up to a point and convert to coax (Fiber to the Curb, FTTC), or may run directly to the home, or known as FTTH.

[F32Fleet]

I have CAT5 run up the outside of the house to a third floor office which has a router (cable and wireless). The CAT5 originates from an ATT router on ground floor.

The ATT router serves both TV (one wirelessly).

The fiber terminates inside the house at what's called an ONT. The ONT attaches to the ATT wireless router.

My setup is older. Today the ONT is built onto the router.

[UncleWede]

My setup: Fiber from pole to ONT outside. Coax within the walls to TV boxes and a router.

I can get 1G/1G, but 25M/25M has served well for about a decade. Even now, with 5 adults running their own devices on Wi-Fi, 7 boxes, and at least 3 direct ethernet connections, nothing but the Firestick queues up. I'm about to get the ethernet adapter for the firesticks.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by B58-M340iX

I have 2gig down/1gig up with Google fiber. The fiber line was ran and dug into my yard and terminates directly within the spdif port on the router. Some companies may run fiber up to a point and convert to coax (Fiber to the Curb, FTTC), or may run directly to the home, or known as FTTH.

My ISP does FTTH, but it's Fiber To The 'Hood. Fiber to the nearest distro box and then coax for "the last mile," which is usually far less.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by M_Six

My ISP does FTTH, but it's Fiber To The 'Hood.

Have you experienced 9mm fade on your fiber? It's like backhoe fade, but caused by celebratory gunfire. Yes, it is a legitimate problem that telco linemen deal with in the 'hood every few months.....

[bucketfoot]

Fiber to the ONT inside the house, then CAT5 from the ONT to my router.

[OkieSnuffBox]

I'm shocked to read companies forcing you to use their modem vs being able to buy your own.