Fiber Optic Compared To Cable

[doubledragon5]

Lately I have noticed the ISP providers are pushing people to switch from dial-up or DLS to fiber optic service.. Today they told me that by switching to fiber optic I will increase my speed to at leat 5MB per sec compared to the 700kb now.. Is fiber optic faster than cable or is cable still the prefereed way to go.... I have noticed from experience that cable today does not seem to be as fast as it use to be....

[ktkendall]

Fiber will certainly be the way to go since it is not subject to electrical interference. I would imagine it's full duplex and full speed each direction, and the speeds that can be obtained are incredible.. It's just a matter of time till it's available and affordable to the average home end user..

[FLG]

Agree with kt, though the only downside is the fact that fiber is more delicate, and the connectors have to be professionally installed. So you cant just do it yourself.

[rave]

does this mean your fibre optic line is going straight to your modem?
or is it going to an exchange, then put out to a cable line to your modem?

[kosova]

fiber optics will be the future. But I hear that if the plastic/glass breaks and a piece of penetrates your skin it can kill you. It's very fast though, if you want to learn how it works here is a good link

[flawedreality5]

I thought that fiber optics required 2 cables. 1 for input and 1 for output.

[Stuey]

I'm under the impression that fiber optic connections aren't extended to the end-user and that it only refers to the cable company's infrastructure.

Also, if an optical fiber breaks, I highly doubt it can kill you. Where did you read such a theory? Also, at the tip either there is probably some kind of plastic lens, or the glass is finely polished. Anywhere but the ends... if the fiber snaps, I imagine that it won't be able to penetrate the cladding or jacket.

[Rebel_526]

A broken fiber line will not kill you, is is just a thinly stretched piece of glass. The ends are polished and fitted to a connector, and yes, it does take training to work with fiber. Also, fiber does require (at least for now) and input line and an output line.

Fiber is very brittle and is easily broken just by bending it too far (there is a formula to determine the maximum bend circumfrence, though I don't remember it off the top of my head).



Hope that helps

[doubledragon5]

Verizon here in Texas is offering 4 rooms of cable with over 300 channels, plus fiber optic internet for $120 month... Heck with the regular cable we have two rooms with 200 plus channels, and two rooms with basic, plus regular cable for $180.. I guess at that price their really trying to push the fiber optics...

They also say with fiber optics you don't need a phone line like you do with dsl...

[ktkendall]

Yes fiber uses 2 strands for a viable data circut, tansmit and receive, and yes the telco's backbone has been fiber for quite some time, but what were are talking about here and what is coming down the pike is fiber all the way to the home. You will of course have a piece of equipment then in the home to convert the light pulses to electrial pulses to go into your tv, pc, and telephone. It is true about the strands of glass if you actually were to get one embedded in your skin, because they are so thin, it could enter the bloodstream, and from what they taught us, when I went to fiber school is that if it makes it to your heart, yes it could kill you, and even surgically it is very hard to find and remove a fiber optic strand of glass because they are so thin, but the only time your going to encounter those dangerous strands of stray glass if if you are terminating fiber optic cable, which you are not going to do, because it will be done by the telco professionals.

[kosova]

Thank you for clearing that up ktendall, the only reason that I said that it can kill you is becase when we were doing the networking unit in Comp Tech class my teacher mentioned that fiber optics can kill a person, that struck me as important [fact] and I remembered it.

[ktkendall]

At least back when I was doing fiber ends, which was 15 years ago, you first had to strip enough of the end of the strand down to the bare glass, which you then can barely see, carefully set it down for a moment, mix some 2 part epoxy and shot a little into a connector, than push the raw strand up in there till there is at least a half inch or so is sticking out. After just a few moments the epoxy sets and your fiber strand is set, and then you have to cleave that litle bit that is sticking out off of the end as carefully and as flush as you can with the tip of the connector. Than came the polishing which was quite tedious. So now especially if you doing a whole bunch of ends in one sitting you will have all those little cleaved off ends of pure glass sitting around. I used to put a piece of black electrical tape sticky side up and stick them on to it, so I could see them, and keep trac of them and dispose of them properly. Anyways I do know that nowadays there are better faster procedures for doing fiber ends, and I realy don't see how the average person would ever come in contact with a broken piece because even if you grab a piece of fiber optic cable and bend it hard you will break the glass inside but it will not come out from within all the protection that is within the cable sheathing itself. I remember some of the heavy duty outdoor and underground fiber cable that has a layer of kevlar in there, which is what they make bullet proof vests out of. Used to dull the crap out of my snips cutting through that stuff..