A Question for Tech Geeks.

[JDCAVE]

The telephone provider (Telus) just pulled fibre up through the conduits in our strata to each of the suites. We have connected to fibre and upgraded to 150 mb/sec. Not hugely fast, but better than the previous 50. My desk top is connected directly to Ethernet from the modem to a wall outlet and thence to the computer via a short cat 7 cable. I am getting 170 mb/sec upload and download speeds.

Question: my wife and I were debating whether that copper Ethernet could also be upgraded to fibre—so fibre all the way to the computer? Is that doable and are there advantages to doing that?

Jim

 

[O C Diver]

I would start by checking the modem speed in your computer. That may be the limiting factor.

Ted

 

[SteveK]

Jim,
I had that talk with the installers a while back. On short distances with copper there will not be a noticeable improvement is what they said. The fibre improved what they delivered by copper over longer distance.
Still at 150? When Telus started that install in condos a few years back Shaw went up to 300 and still using the copper. So who knows.
Just checked, I have 128.45 down and 10.33 up using copper to router to WIFI

 

[JDCAVE]

So the Telus and Ledcor “tech” people told my wife about having fibre from the modem to the computer, but I don’t see how that works with the existing Ethernet connections. I don’t believe there is any mechanism to connect fibre from the modem to another computer. I think these individuals were not correct on this. And I agree the speeds over copper are sufficient over these short distances.

Jim

 

[Sababa]

Your existing Ethernet should support gig speeds already. There is no reason to mess with it, especially if your speed to the premises is only 150 mb/s. And what’s up with that? We get a full gig from our CenturyLink fiber in the Seattle area.

 

[rslifkin]

I see no reason to replace your copper ethernet with fiber at those speeds. In my own house I have mostly copper gigabit ethernet (with PoE for wifi access points and such). For the few devices where I want a faster connection between them, I have 10 gigabit fiber as well. But the extra hardware, cost, etc. of fiber isn't worth it for anything that doesn't need the extra speed.

 

[SteveK]

The modem is the bottleneck, or the throttle. I was getting less than now and when I went the upgrade (pay more $) as they were leaving I asked did they forget to replace the modem? Apparently not, they just tell it to let more data through faster.
Guessing if I were to pay more there is still more that can come out.

 

[JDCAVE]

Thanks. These responses answer my questions. I didn't think there was a need to pull fibre through the walls to my computer either. It was what the techs suggested, but I don't see the benefit. We are going up to 300 mbs, and Telus has 1.5 gbs. Telus hasn't been particularly good at communicating and their "Tech" really aren't particularly "Tech Savy"

Jim

 

[MYTraveler]

Is it even possible to connect fiber directly to a typical computer? What port would a computer have to allow for that? Mine don't have any fiber port, so far as I know. And at the other end, doesn't the router that serves your network only have at most one fiber port, with the rest being ethernet (copper)?

 

[Iggy]

This is roughly what you would need. https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Bro...mzn1.fos.18630bbb-fcbb-42f8-9767-857e17e03685 and more.

To make you laugh!! I called Xfinity to drop my service to save money. I had 1.2gigs and wanted to to 800megs. They said we can save you $20 per month and bring you to 1.5gigs. I said sure! My system can't go over 1gig!

Just for fun, right now my wife watching a hd show and I am watching a 4k movie. Download speeds are bouncing from 60megs to 0 due to buffering.

Here's the kicker in this too. Streaming a 4k movie uses about 25megs per sec. A HD movie uses about 5 to 6 megs per sec. Web searches, e-mail use next to nothing.

Point being most cable modems are docsis 3.0 which means most likely it will not go over 600megs per sec. My docsis 3.1 modem will do up to 2.5gigs. But some of these 2.5gig modems only have a 1gig ethernet port and the better ones do have a 2.5gig port. Now with that 2.5gig port on your modem you need a router that can support that speed. Most will not go over 1gig with out spending over $300 to $500 depending on features.

With all that, if you ever go over 1gig in speed or even 800megs that would be a something! Do you really need fiber to your computer? Most likely not. A fair speed download speed would be between 300 to 400megs. I used 4k movies as in example because its the most intensive usage that most users have.

 

[rslifkin]

Is it even possible to connect fiber directly to a typical computer? What port would a computer have to allow for that? Mine don't have any fiber port, so far as I know. And at the other end, doesn't the router that serves your network only have at most one fiber port, with the rest being ethernet (copper)?

You pretty much have to get into the realm of enterprise networking gear to get into ethernet over fiber. It's out there (in 10, 25, 40, 100 gigabit and possibly more at this point). But it's not terribly common outside of datacenters.

 

[Hyperion]

Don't bother with anything more than Ethernet for your house. As stated by others most modern ethernet devices are 1gig and therefore plenty for what you are doing.

 

[Mischief Managed]

You pretty much have to get into the realm of enterprise networking gear to get into ethernet over fiber. It's out there (in 10, 25, 40, 100 gigabit and possibly more at this point). But it's not terribly common outside of datacenters.

I work on DWDM systems and we are selling a lot of 400 gigabit interfaces that connect directly to 400 gigabit router blades these days. The speed increases are amazing. 400 gigabits is the equivalent of 6,250,000 56k modems (I know the math does not add up, there's 8k per modem lost to robbed bit signaling), for those of you who still remember dial up.