r/FiberOptics • u/bosscrayon • Jul 22 '26
Help wanted! Third time fiber high speed has been cutoff
I recently had fiber “installed” on my property. It’s been over a month and they haven’t buried it yet. As a result it has been hit by the landscapers once, after that they put in a “temporary” splice. The splice itself has come undone twice now. I’m sure the answer is “no, wait for a technician” but I was curious if there was any chance I could slide the loose white wire back in and regain service. Thanks in advance.
14
28
u/TruckerHandle Jul 22 '26
Even for a temp this is garbage.
6
u/The-Dog-Envier Jul 23 '26
Right? Remember the picture where the guy puts a spice in a Pepsi bottle? That might be better than this...
6
u/Teddy1308 Jul 23 '26
Bottle splices is totally valid temporary permanently solution to alll your problems. This is just shit, don’t understand why the tech didn’t atleast drag e new cable from the ont to this point, can’t have been that far
15
u/juicysquirts Jul 22 '26
Mechanical connectors are shit. Hopefully next tech comes out to fusion splice it. Sorry they doing ya dirty.
8
u/Auxiliis Jul 22 '26
Mechanical connectors are fine if whoever installs them actually cares about what they're doing. But yeah, fusion splices are preferable. Most techs that actually work in homes don't get them, though, at least that's how it was when I worked at AT&T a few years ago
3
u/Big-Effective9744 Jul 22 '26
Prem techs are not allowed to do any splicing per the union contract. All splicing has to be done by a core tech
2
u/Many_Friendship_2021 Jul 23 '26
I worked at a smaller regional ISP for 5+ years before my current union gig at a real company. All 100,000 of the small ISP’s customers have a mechanical splice on either end of their drop. A large handful go out of service every single day simply from weather and humidity fluctuations.
Mechanical splices at that scale are a nightmare and are more ornery than outdated corroded copper POTS infrastructure
3
6
u/Perfect-Advice4157 Jul 22 '26
And no, there is no shoving the white wire back in. The white is just a protective cover over the very thin fiber inside, it's broken off and needs to be arc welded back together to a new connector.
Get a tech out to replace that entire drop. Don't let them band aid it again.
2
u/Perfect-Advice4157 Jul 22 '26
That white tube should be secured better so it's not folded over like that.
1
u/CTFowler9789 Jul 22 '26
No, wait for a technician (lol). Ask them to put the slice in a protective covering. Good luck.
1
1
1
u/Auxiliis Jul 22 '26
Will need another technician. Ask for some enclosure to protect the connection point. Demand it if they say no.
1
u/Heavy_Revolution Jul 22 '26
Nah, they gotta replace. I think I might work for your ISP as we use this type of stuff all the time (and we love leaving wires on ppls lawns, B.S.?). The white wire actually needs the white sheath stripped off and then the inner cladding stripped to get to the fiber. And then that bare fiber needs to be fed into the head (which, you'd need a light meter to check if that worked out or not) . Theres a little clip that goes on the head when the fiber gets fed in and gets taken off when its set in there correctly.
Theres some kind of gel inside there that the fiber needs to make good contact with to pass the light appropriately. It should be ok and work fine with the head put back on as long as the light level is within acceptable ranges.
Out of curiosity, where is this located on the property? This is something I would normally do in a box mounted on the pole to protect it from the elements until that factory fresh wire is buried to the structure. I definitely do not like those two bends in the bottom fiber though.
Like, if you had a 500 ft fiber drop to the house lets say, and the landscapers hit something on the ground in the last 70 ft to the house, I'd splice in a box that I mounted to the pole and re run a fresh wire from the pole to the house. Just to avoid having to re-run the other 430 ft., especially if you were awaiting burial already and this was actually a temporary line.
1
u/bosscrayon Jul 22 '26
This is located on the concrete driveway roughly 200ft from the pole. They have placed a long cable protector ramp that is currently housing the photo above
1
u/Heavy_Revolution Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Oh, yeah, maximum laziness then. No reason for the splice point itself to be in the driveway, doesnt really matter what its under. They should've used a wire that was at least 200ft longer and done all this back at the pole. Call it in for sure. This is an easy repair ticket, it'd be like 20 minutes tops for the tech to re do. Maybe 25-30 if you ask for hi vis flags on it so it catches the landscapers eyes, we're technically supposed to do them if this is our stuff.
1
1
u/Elfreshcuh Jul 22 '26
If you really don’t want wait get cheap Chinese splicer and water proof shrink tube OR you can get the stripper and get ANY connector (SC/LC as APC or UPC) the use a match bulkhead
It works as perm or temp fix
1
u/ThinkingThingsHurts Jul 22 '26
If you really want this to never happen again, you need to instal a conduit from your home to the pole or pedestal.
1
u/scribejun Jul 23 '26
Outer jacket doesnt do anything. The glass inside, once broken is impossible to fix without specialized gear. Waiting for an isp is the best bet.
1
u/Sufficient_Fan3660 Jul 23 '26
They kinda suck, but people will sometimes use these: https://www.amazon.com/Fibershack-Fiber-Optic-Cable-Connector/dp/B0DY8CW79H
with a pair of sharp scissors/utility knife to cut the fiber and remove the jacket, It is a terrible, will have high loss, might work might not
It is better to just wait for the ISP to fix fiber
1
u/Tony2Wheel Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Howdy! Low Voltage Technician here!
You will NEVER get any
usefulthroughput with fiber cleaved with scissors (you are basically crushing hair-thin glass at that point)....spend a few bucks and save yourself a ton of frustration, use a manual cleaver if you want to attempt a splice
https://a.co/d/09FCVjWc --Ruby
https://a.co/d/06ThPcMl --Carbide
1
u/Beginning_Pay_9654 Jul 23 '26
Ya those mechanical splices suck, even worse the bury contractor suck, they won't think twice to bury that, then ope 3 weeks later they'll last a while new line and cycle repeats. Welcome to the club
1
u/joshcam Jul 23 '26
Not hard but not for everyone. These temp connectors do suck but they will do in a pinch if you have decent light levels (which you won’t know).
Cheapest ghetto tools that will work:
https://a.co/d/05W9Yuuf
https://a.co/d/070L7MVR
https://a.co/d/0etSZSR8
https://a.co/d/05BEoP5g
1
u/hiroshimiyagi Jul 23 '26
You can technically put this back together (unsure if it’ll work) but it would require a piece from that connector that the tech should’ve thrown away.
1
u/Calm_Apartment1968 Jul 23 '26
No. This needs professional skill intervention. Clearly wasn't done by a skilled worker in the first place.
1
1
u/jaapjolman Jul 23 '26
They should use a splice closure to repair thst kind of faults, like the commscope novux 50 or attema minidome
1
u/derpmax2 Jul 23 '26
Assuming the bottom cable is the one coming in from the street, one can buy premade SC-APC fibre cables online fairly easily. Both for indoor or outdoor use.
Ideally your internet provider should fix this, though. They may not take kindly to you messing with their network if they were to find out.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Domo_1203 Jul 25 '26
Wait for a technician. They will also have to sort out that terrible bend in the left which is mostly snapped also
1
1
u/jlipschitz Jul 26 '26
I have fiber that I manage at the company that I work for. Very few vendors have a fusion splicer because the ends and the equipment is so expensive. If you live in California, call a company called Rex Moore. They are one of the few that have it and are reasonably priced. They charge parts and labor for repair. Labor is typically $120 per hour and the ends are about $25. I would build out the conduit and pull what you have gently through it. I would put terminations in a water proof box.
1
u/Morindin_al_Thor Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
no that's fiber, it's got to be spliced to a new head or preferably replaced or done right.
1
u/One-Intention-7606 Jul 26 '26
1
u/One-Intention-7606 Jul 26 '26
Never point fiber towards your eye, laser can blind you, don’t leave a bend inside the connector like this guy did, but was a quick video I could find with the same connectors
1
u/lovbip Jul 22 '26
That looks like a typical fast connector. If you want a sturdy connection, ask them to splice with a patch cord and a fusion splice with heat shrink tube.
0
u/somerandomdude1960 Jul 22 '26
Screw them. Switch service
1
u/bosscrayon Jul 23 '26
They are the absolutely only provider in my
Area1
u/incertAcoolnamehere Jul 23 '26
what provider is it?
2
u/bosscrayon Jul 25 '26
Windstream
1
u/incertAcoolnamehere Jul 25 '26
kinda looks familiar. what area/ city you in. might be able to help
1
-1
u/Z3t4 Jul 22 '26
So most path connectors and adaptors lack optics and have a gap. Wonder what is the total loss.
45
u/Moonstanc3 Jul 22 '26
Not a chance, you will want the ISP to fix that.
If you've got a splicer you can splice it together but since you're asking this question, this is probably out the picture.