<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 8:17 AM, Richard Holbert <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:holbert.13@osu.edu" target="_blank">holbert.13@osu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
</div></div>I would have them pull fiber optic cable at the same time. Like Stephen<br>
said, the main cost will be for the labor.<br>
<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div style>In this case, the 'them' is me. I've never really looked at fiber gear and admittedly don't know much about it, but it seems like it would be very, very expensive -- the cards, the switches, the terminating blocks, etc? When I say 'consumer grade' I mean, within a reasonable price range -- there aren't any consumer grade devices on the market that I can find which support fiber for communications. I have a couple of devices that can do fiber for audio (ie my tv, receiver, and BD player), but those are meant to be very short runs and only for audio?</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>I really don't see fiber making a big dent in the copper ethernet space anytime soon (10 years?), especially when you're talking about short runs within a small structure like a residential house. Based on my limited knowledge, I think it makes sense for longer runs, or for very very dense and high I/O like enterprise SAN.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Also, not making a dent in the copper space means the cost is going to continue to stay high for a while. I did some quick checking, and just the cable itself is really expensive. It also looks very difficult to run - you can't just attach a snake and pull?</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Perhaps if the house was still under construction, I'd consider running the fiber lines before the drywall went up - or putting in conduits for running new lines in the future.</div><div style>
<br></div><div style>Someone mentioned resale value, but this is a limited ROI prospect, especially when it comes so something so technical. Most consumers today (even some smart technical people where I work) figure that wireless is good enough.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>It may be that as FTTP makes inroads, fiber runs will start to replace RG6 runs to better support things like HDTV over IP within the premises, not just to.</div><div style><br></div><div style>
As I said though, fiber is not an area that I've done much research into.</div></div></div></div>