So I’ve had cable Internet for ages. I’ve been through the ringer with them since buying my house many years ago. Intermittent issues that ended up with many many tech visits. It resulted in the wire from pole to my house being replaced, most of the interior coax being replaced, having a powered splitter installed and I’ve been in a great place since then.
I’ve wired my networking around this setup. Main coax comes in the basement near the elec panel and goes directly to my powered splitter in the center of the basement. I have a dedicated coax wire from the powered splitter to the cable modem upstairs. There’s a regular splitter off the powered one which goes to every room. That said, I don’t have cable TV anymore so have abandoned it for the most part. My cable modem goes into a router right next to it which has all 4 ports used. One simply crossed the room to a computer. The others go back into the basement where I have a punch board set up. Two go to punch board and one to a switch. Those route to different rooms wired for cat6. The two dedicated to my basement office come directly from the router through the punch board with no switch. One supports my gaming machine, the other my work setup for WFH days. The office is actually back where the ingress of the house coax and electrical is (my office closet has the main elec panel for the house).
Following?
In amazing timing, no less than two weeks after finishing the basement and doing all this work, I find out fiber is coming. I’ve always wanted fiber over cable but I’m wondering if it’s worth it if everything is working ok for now.
If I were to put it in, I’m assuming most of my setup goes out the window. I’d imagine the fiber drop would be where the elec panel is? Then what, I put the router in the office and wire the two machines directly off the router then use one of my in-wall jacks to get back to the main punch board to connect everything else? But then the router is in the corner of the basement. That’d probably kill my wifi to the rest of the house and the clean in-wall setup for my office will be toast. I’d be back to having two cords running around my office and the second drop in the office is worthless.
Is there an alternative? Could I pass the fiber connection back to the central hub area and put the router there? I don’t have any access to the ceiling anymore as it’s all drywalled. Now I wish I ran 3 or 4 cords to each basement room instead of 2.
What terrible timing. A month earlier and I could have done a lot more to prep for this while the walls were open.
Hope what I said makes sense. I can try to make a picture.
No experience with fiber at all. Just trying to get an idea if this is worthwhile. I suppose I could get a mesh wifi system and use my cat6 as a backhaul as well but that’s expense on top of recently replacing my router anyways. Open to thoughts!
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- fiber is absolutely worthwhile.
- In my experience you can have the fiber brought to your hub, but your provider likely isn’t going do that for you. You will need to call them for the Fiber, and then have someone else run it, then call them back to terminate it(again based on experience)
- Whether mesh works for you is a decision for you. It doesn’t pay for me, in my environment. I’d have paid 3K for the latest net gear mesh system. When I could invest the same 3K in a much more prosumer system with a top of the line router/switch/AP. But you have to make that decision.
Yes, it’s worth moving from cable to fiber. I’d pay a premium to do so, but it’s often cheaper.
You didn’t specify your fiber provider, but in most cases, they will provide you with an ONT during installation, which is something that converts a fiber connection into an Ethernet connection. They also usually provide some sort of gateway or router too, but that can either be optional or required from them, depending on the ISP. You just need to connect this ONT directly to your existing router, or put their required gateway into “Bridge Mode” or “Passthrough Mode” first and connect that to your existing router.
Either way you usually get a choice to where they put the ONT / gateway. In your case, you can have them install this right where your modem (and router) is at today, right next to each other. As long as that area is accessible, they can probably use the same hole as your coax coming from the outside into your basement.
It’s very likely the install will mean no changes for your network at all, other than retiring the coax and modem, and now using their ONT. If they require use of their gateway, then just put it into Bridge Mode as already stated. Just think of the ONT as your new modem for fiber.
Just be present during install, and show them where you have things right now, and the installer will work with you to put it in a good spot.
Ok. That makes some sense. So the ONT is the fiber to Ethernet translation. From there I just need to make the Ethernet go where I need it to go. Router can stay upstairs. So I can either have them put the ONT where my coax ingress is (in my office) and use one of the in wall cat6 to get it to my hub (but lose that drop for my home office) or if they can install it somewhere else closer to the main router or on the unfinished side of the basement then I can run it wherever. Does the fiber to the house go underground? Unfortunately the side with the finished office and elec panel is the closest to the street with no obstructions. The other parts of my house have various things in the way from decks and driveways to pools assuming it needs to go underground.
I’ve had fiber installed at two houses this year, and in both they worked with me to get the fiber, the ONT and the Ethernet exactly where I wanted them at no additional charge. At my old house, the fiber came in through the basement in the back, the fiber runs under the joists until it ends up under my office, and they ran Ethernet up to an outlet on the office wall. At the new house, it enters into my basement workshop, on the top shelf of a cabinet, where the ONT is and Ethernet goes to my router. There is plenty of extra fiber coiled above the drop ceiling for relocation.
That’s great to know. Do they run the cable underground to your house or do they do something different?
It depends on the neighborhood. Where I live, all utilities are underground. At a former house, I had broadband coming from utility poles.
Is this internet only without TV cable services? If so you’re golden with fiber as others have already answered.
Fiber providers provide the TV services in different manners. Verizon Fios uses the coax to run the TV signal from the ONT to the STBs. Spectrum now provides a streaming app for their TV delivery.