Fibwr optical

[Gus]

How expensive are the poles? I would have needed 2 so decided to run 250 feet of underground conduit instead to the tune of 400 bucks. I don't want to know the poles would have been half the price.

[My 2 cents]

My understanding is that you need to have one pole for the initial run from the road to the property, then run conduit from there.

[MarkP]

The 4" poles were $295 each at either Hilo Steel or Central Supply so $600 for the two of them. 6" poles would have been $465 each at Hilo Steel and I forget but considerably more expensive at Central Supply. Something like mid $500s. Get this: the threaded cap for a 6" steel threaded pipe would have been $150 at Central Supply. The caps sold by Hilo Steel are formed sheet metal like on the tops of fence posts and cost like $20. They just press fit on.

So the $400 for the underground conduit compares favorably to my $600 plus other materials if you don't count the initial pole.

[MarkP]

Both 4" poles are set now. What a job. The concrete seems to be setting up OK although the batch I put around the top of the first pole seems like I can mark it with my nail after 24 hrs. I mixed that batch nice and stiff so it should be as good as an amateur can get it. It was raining off and on yesterday so maybe that affected the surface. Still it nags at me. Can concrete mix go bad in the bag from the humidity but still be powdery, not hardened into a block?

ETA: I think the answer is yes it can look and mix OK but the cement can have lost the capacity to harden. I bought these bags from Home Depot over the weekend. They sat in the cab of the truck a couple of days. Maybe the humidity got to them there or at Home Depot. I'll keep checking it. I hate the thought of the concrete being weak but maybe it is OK if given enough time. I don't have the same nagging feeling about the second pole. I could have one "off" bag I suppose. We'll see.

[Tink]

I feel that it was the off and on rain that drained from the pole and over the concrete. The curing of concrete is a chemical reaction, not a water ratio or humidity problem. concrete achieves its maximum strength in seven days. Check to see if you can scratch deeper than already, as the current surface is probably a leaching of the fine sands and concrete from the rain and shouldn't be much more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The rest will be, well, concrete.

Community begins with Aloha

[kalakoa]

Everything on "your" side of the "demarc pole" is considered "inside wire", Telcom doesn't really care, and it's all theoretically exempt under NEC 70.

Conduit should include a pull string.

[kalakoa]

bought these bags from Home Depot

Concrete inside the store is air-conditioned, the stuff out front is exposed to humidity...

[MarkP]

Well they finally strung the fiber optic cable in from the road yesterday. I installed 3/4" conduit from the corner of my roof along the top of the container and through the container above where all the other electronics enters and pushed the cable through. The excess is coiled inside awaiting final termination which is supposed to happen tomorrow. Fingers crossed. With the return of heavy rains I get intermittent service via satellite. Soon however I will be streaming NetFlix!

[MarkP]

I got hooked up yesterday evening and have been streaming Amazon Prime video since then. Seems to work darn good. Speed testing done on my new notebook computer showed 800 Mbps down and 97 Mbps up. The old desktop computer however showed only 20/37. I tried swapping cables around and it made no difference. The desktop numbers are very variable. I tried connecting both by WIFI and they both work at about 40/30 now although repeated speed tests one after the other generate wildly different results. Strange that the desktop computer is so slow when connected by cable.

[Aaron S]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkP

I got hooked up yesterday evening and have been streaming Amazon Prime video since then. Seems to work darn good. Speed testing done on my new notebook computer showed 800 Mbps down and 97 Mbps up. The old desktop computer however showed only 20/37. I tried swapping cables around and it made no difference. The desktop numbers are very variable. I tried connecting both by WIFI and they both work at about 40/30 now although repeated speed tests one after the other generate wildly different results. Strange that the desktop computer is so slow when connected by cable.

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If you have gigabit service, you need to upgrade the network interface card on desktop computer to get gigabit speeds. The desktop computer probably only has a 10/100 NIC on it.