ArcaMax

I’m guessing you log onto the internet each day. I travel the information superhighway all day long as part of my business. Fiber optic cables have now been extended throughout my small town in New Hampshire, and I’m ecstatic about their arrival. I remember using a 300-baud modem back in the 1980s. It would transmit text via telephone lines at about the same speed as you see headlines crawl at the bottom of your TV screen.

I had to get my house ready for this installation. You may have to do the same thing if you want reliability for years to come. If you’re building a new home, it’s vital you do several things to get ready for this latest technology trend.

My house is served by underground utilities. I didn’t build the current house I live in, and I can assure you I would have planned for the electric, cable TV, and all future underground utilities to enter this house at a more convenient location.

In my case, all of the underground conduits terminate at the far corner of my attached garage. They could be further away from where they should be. I would have had all the utilities enter the house immediately adjacent to the mechanical room, where my electrical circuit breaker panels are located.

Fiber optic cable, in my opinion, is more fragile than traditional solid-copper coaxial cable. This means it needs to be protected from unintentional abuse years from now. I had to install 60 feet of electrical conduit to serve as the raceway from the distant garage corner to where it makes sense to have the fiber optic cable enter inside my home.

Your fiber optic cable may be one of two sizes. The outer diameter of the more robust cable is about the size of a standard No. 2 pencil. A much smaller cable can also snake its way through your home. It has an outer diameter about the size of a cocktail straw. You can see why this tiny cable requires significant protection from being damaged.

Allow me to share what we did at my son’s home and at my house. Three years ago, my son moved into a brand-new home. It was a speculative home built by a builder for the market. My son is a software engineer, and video gaming is one of his hobbies. He knew that while wireless WiFi is good, a solid Ethernet cable is better if you want the best speed.

One weekend, we extended Ethernet cables to four different locations on his main living level. It was easy work because the basement was unfinished. We moved the cable hookup to a future closet space under the stairwell leading to the basement. The wireless WiFi router was also placed in this space.

My son would have installed conduit from this future closet to all the locations if he had been involved in the design of the home. Plastic conduit is easy to work with, and it’s a great DIY project if you're building new. Plan it so you have the fewest long-radius bends in the conduit. One-half-inch conduit is great for the small fiber optic cable.

My situation was quite different. I had a complex conundrum to solve. It was impossible for me to install Ethernet cables to the key rooms in my existing multi-story home. I would have had to chop out lots of drywall to accomplish this. She who must be obeyed would not tolerate this mess!

I decided to install a powerful wireless WiFi router in the wall about 8 feet off the ground above my entrance hall coat closet. This is a great central location. The wireless signal would reach all three levels of my home with ease since the staircases are adjacent to the entrance hall. My open floor plan would ensure a strong signal throughout the main living level.

I had the good fortune to have a vaulted ceiling in my entrance hall. This void space extended over a mudroom that connects the entrance hall to the garage. I was able to snake a conduit from the void space over the entrance hall coat closet to the garage ceiling.

I then constructed a box made from 3/4-inch plywood. The box was 24 inches wide, 16 inches tall, and 12 inches deep. I built the box in about 40 minutes. It would have taken hours and hours of painstaking work to create this above the closet using lumber and drywall. Once the plywood is painted, everyone will think it’s drywall.

This open alcove will house the optical network terminal (ONT) and the wireless router. The ONT is a small magic box about the size of a deck of cards.

The wireless WiFi router requires a 120-volt electrical outlet. I decided to power this outlet through a switch that’s next to the closet light switch. This way, I don’t need a ladder to unplug the router to reset its RAM memory from time to time.

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