One random guess other than gases of various sorts: If you have the lights on a lot, it's possible you have lighting that is not properly uv filtered somehow.
(It theoretically could be lots of heat/humidity vs certain types of cable jackets, but that would be obviously noticeable most of the time)
The fiber and even the armor itself looks fine in your pictures and I bet the error rate is zero. Outside of bending, i can't see how you could damage the fiber when the armor is in perfect shape. That armor will unravel if you really damaged it. The speed thing is not how fiber works. It's hard to get marginal link enough to generate retries that degrade your speed by 10%. Most of the time either you have full speed link, no link, or so many errors speed is zero. The optics almost always have rx/TX signal strength DDM you can look at
Also did you say you direct buried it in cement? If so it's not rated for that. Direct burial and concrete tight/safe are not the same thing at all, not the least of reasons being concrete is highly alkaline (ph12-13) when poured
The second possibility is that I keep the leftover wall paints (Nippon Paint Vinilex 5000) in the same room and have noticed that much of the solvents have evaporated. It is possible that the solvents in the air might have caused the cable to fail in 3 years. It would explain why the other ends that aren't exposed to the air inside the bomb shelter aren't falling apart.
Some other learnings from this. Buried cabling should always be permanently fixed and attached to a patch panel instead of dangling in the open. That was the original plan but I figured it wouldn’t be an issue. I was wrong. Always measure exact length of buried fibre cabling as they aren’t meant to be stored in loops.
This is awful advice I would discard immediately. It's poor practice and against code.
When pulling cable, especially fiber, the ends of the cable should be able to reach the fathest corner of the room. Excess cable should be in a service loop, properly secured to a wall, and terminated on a patch panel. Both ends of he cable should follow this rule. That means you're typically pulling cable that's 15m longer or more, depending on the room and configuration.
NEVER buy and pull cable that is the exact size. The cable literally comes from the factory looped up, it's designed to be looped (watch bend radius).
if you're using 25gbps/sfp28 transceivers, you probably have FEC. if so, you probably have both correctable and uncorrectable error counters to look at.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Standar...
It's just a weak pander to people's weak egos. Freedumb, if you will.
On the other hand, when a product is designed and manufactured to sell to a military, it's going to be expensive, and that extra cost isn't going to quality or capability, it's going to compliance. You're more than likely paying extra to get something using some old and outdated technology, that includes paperwork to prove that it's only built using the approved old and outdated technology.
Common mass produced products manufacturers have incentives to not mess-up too badly: recalls or warranties on such scales are a nightmare.
With military contracts, its a paid maintenance opportunity.
This
In the military, military grade is a synonym for crap
Is one supposed to send it back for a refund and order the much thinner, less-durable cable? Or is perhaps the landscape not as black-and-white as your "this is automatically snake-oil"?
Anyone who thinks the triggers listed as MIL-SPEC from, say, Geissele here:
https://geissele.com/triggers.html
aren't totally fine is out of his mind. They're amazing triggers, widely used and loved.
And they don't say which specs its passing (at least not on the main page): it's just MIL-SPEC.
As a sidenote my very best laptop passes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-810 but most people will just say it's "military grade" or "MIL-SPEC".
Guess what? Its screen never broke overnight like the one of my MacBook M1 Air did (the infamous "bendgate").
I can bend my LG Gram's screen and it's keeps working fine. I can let it drop. Friend who sold it to me stepped on it when he woke up once.
There's a very big difference between saying: "There are shady vendors" and saying "Military specs do not exists and it's impossible for consumers to buy items passing military specifications".
Yes, there are dishonest vendors.
Yes, military specs do exist.
And, yes, it's possible for consumers to buy products passing (and even surpassing) actual military specs.
"Military grade" is generally shit. It's built down to a price, manufactured the cheapest possible way, so they can get the lowest possible tender submitted. Bonus prize if the manufacturer is owned by either someone already in government, or with close ties to someone in government.
The only "military grade" devices I own are some woefully unsuccessful radios, which failed in the market because they were actually good - easy to use, reliable, and easy to repair - which made them about 5% more expensive than the cheapest option which was made by a company part-owned by the government and part-owned by someone who donates heavily to the Conservatives.
Military grade snake oil?
When I see "military grade" I assume overpriced $30,000 hammer
I have a similar problem on my car where the 12v wiring is disintegrating like this because the manufacturer tried to switch to a more environmentally friendly wiring. Now the wire jackets turn to dust at the slightest touch or if they vibrate too much. I'm forever tracking down intermittent shorts in the wiring harness.
Honestly, this writeup is… weird? Dude doesn’t know you can terminate fibre at home with like $50 of gear?
I had the fucking fox attack a freshly laid 500 meter line, literally the day before I was going to stuff it in conduit and bury it. Didn’t just break the fibre, she (I know this fox, well) chomped it into pieces, hauled on the exposed Kevlar, generally had a party.
Did I despair? Did I launch a baby complete with bathwater into the sun?
No. I bought a cleaver, some alcohol wipes, some stripping pliers and a whole bunch of mechanical terminators.
Needn’t have worried. Repaired it, outdoors, first attempt, in the rain, and have since buried it - no problems five months on.
Unfortunately I can't easily dig the cable out and bury it again in this case. I'll have to figure out how to pull a new cable using the existing cable through the PVC conduits as the cable shares a larger conduit with multiple other fibre and Ethernet cables. The whole project was orchestrated remotely in a different timezone with me giving the electricians instructions over WhatsApp photos and audio recordings, so that limited what I could realistically control onsite back then. Often the contractors would proceed with a do first ask questions later approach while I was still asleep. The networking project was holding up the entire home renovation so everything was learnt and planned in a short amount of time.
AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive. Do point me in the right direction for the $50 tools and I could go get some and DIY.
I have issues with the PVC-jacketed cables under the bonnet of my nearly-30-year-old Landrover, where the plasticiser has been baked out of the insulation and they've gone brittle. Worst affected are the wires to the fuel injectors and the lambda sensors, presumably because the former are at the top of the engine and get reflected heat off the bonnet, and the latter because they're near the literally red-hot exhaust downpipes.
That's okay for an old vehicle that you'd expect to repair, though.
I've seen the same problem in three-year-old Toyotas, and that is Just Not On.
Another thing that should not have happened is installing the cable in loops in this way: any 'building' or 'underground' type cable needs to be of the exact length required at the demarcation point, fastened properly to prevent movement and terminated on a proper patch panel (can be a one-port box-type thingy for small setups), from where you use regular patch cords to connect your equipment.
(Loops are definitely allowed though, but that use case is mostly for aerial fiber to enable repair splices, and there are some very specific bend-radius and strain relief requirements, which, again should be spelled out in the cable data sheet)
How exact is exact? :-) I once had to reterminate some fiber that was cut and terminated to exact length, which means there was literally two centimeters from the wall to the connector. I literally had to squeeze the fiber splicer up against the wall to have a chance at splicing on new pigtails, but I had two mis-cuts and I was hosed. :-)
This hasn't been my experience with fiber entrance cables terminated by ILECs, Spectrum, and Lumen. They typically leave a significant service loop bound to the cable ladder or backer board-- usually 15-20 feet.
Definitely learnt it the hard way this time. You're right that buried cables should be exact in length and fastened to a patch panel. I'll probably look into better conduit design as well for the next time (in 15 years?). Having shared conduits means I would risk damaging other cables if I tried to pull a new cable through.
Sharing/in-place-repurposing conduit is not something I'd recommend, but if you must, leave a few dummy cables (a.k.a. 'pieces of string') on the initial install...
But yes, agreed, a lot of "Er... why would you do it like that?" bits.
Cables for direct burial only like to be bent once or twice, and then only gently. Anything else may very well break the armor (whether plastic or metal), after which all bets are off.
Still, for the outer jacket to become brittle to the extent described, something else is required, which may very well turn out to be "shoddy manufacturing"...
This is awful advice I would discard immediately. It's poor practice and against code.
When pulling cable, especially fiber, the ends of the cable should be able to reach the fathest corner of the room. Excess cable should be in a service loop, properly secured to a wall, and terminated on a patch panel. Both ends of the cable should follow this rule. That means you're typically pulling cable that's 15m longer or more, depending on the room and configuration.
NEVER buy and pull cable that is the exact size. The cable literally comes from the factory looped up, it's designed to be looped (watch bend radius).
>Loops are definitely allowed though, but that use case is mostly for aerial fiber to enable repair splices
Again, awful advice that's against code. Underground fiber must have service loops at both ends, and must be terminated to a patch panel.
While some show brittleless, more plstics goes gooey and tarry - especially some ABS coating that makes the material more grippable,like computer mice or binoculars.
I bought a big spool of 6 strand Corning stuff a long time ago for various projects, the cost and diameter don't increase much to add some protection lines even if you never imagine using them they can save you a re-pull if you bugger something up in construction.
Honestly, fibre, even unarmoured with just a standard Kevlar & HDPE sleeve is hardy stuff. When I first started mucking around with it a few years ago I was like “don’t breathe on it too hard”, now I’m like “tie the fibre in a knot on the bullbar and pull it with the truck”.
Speedtests for 10G are complicated and will show low numbers because of all the different TCP parameters and schedulers. Sometimes because peering links of your ISP or the speedtest providers are saturated.
My internet network would would test at theoretical limits with proper iperf2 settings. I tried using public iperf servers but wasn't successful.
It's cheap as chips and saves you a lot of future brick cutting or concrete breaking
In theory I can pull a new cable through. But practically it might be tough due to the number of bends (shelter -> wall -> vent -> ceiling -> wall -> floor -> room). In the worst case scenario I can give it a try, but it's probably going to destroy the new fibre cable when I pull it through. For now the connection still works, so I am hoping it doesn't get to the point where I have to give that a try.
FS provides account managers and they are very useful if you are working on a project as they can guide you and help you.
We ran fibre cables in the ceiling when constructing our house. I requested the electrician to shield the cables with some tubing, but he probably thought I was being extreme. We have 9 cables, 2 of them don't work, likely from being bent by mistake or something.
The wiring is intermixed with electrical and ethernet (for cameras) cables, making the process a bit tricky. At least for us we might only have to cut the ceiling boards in a few places to help guide the replacement cables.
The soles (rubber because winter) are in perfect condition, and the leather isn't too bad either, though I've not really conditioned it enough and it's starting to show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane#Hydrolysis_and_bi...
...so it is a bit amusing to see "TPU Jacket Features Water, Abrasion Resistance" in the product description. PVC or PE would be far better and more common.
Be aware, depending on where you live and where the cable goes, PVC and HDPE outer jackets may not be allowed due to fire safety issues. But yes, neither of those are prone to the same degradation over time, so in many cases they will be a good choice.
This I don't quite get .. as I understand it "PVC trunking" is a type of cable channeling / ducting.
I do a lot of cable and pipe layout around houses, farms, workshops, worksites, etc. and it's routine to use pipes / ducting / channels to allow other cables to be threaded through after or to replace bad cables.
As much as cable deterioration sucks it should be a relief to have ducting to pull good through after the bad.
But yeah, maybe it's not that bad after all. I hope it won't get to that point.
One of my love / hates is Australian parrots and cockatoos - fantastic birds, noisy as hell - and they can rip out and shred unprotected wiring from rural camera and sensor systems like winged can openers.
I saw someone commented elsewhere about a plastic bag and a vacuum. Another option to keep in mind is a lubricant intended specifically for the task of pulling cable through a conduit.
That's why the leads are wrapped in a polythene bag.
When people started using polystyrene sheet insulation in houses (thankfully they no longer do this!) the cables running inside the walls were affected in the same way, with the PVC insulation rotting off as the plasticiser leached out and attacked the polystyrene. Of course there you had the added joy of having a potential electrical fire with a source of just-about-inextinguishable fuel, the polystyrene foam made of fuel and air.
I wonder if something similar has happened here, something's gotten onto the fibre jackets and pulled the plasticiser out?
It seems like wizardry when you first see it, but actually fusion splicing fibre is not hard at all once you’ve done it a few times.
The most important part is the cleaving, always use a high quality cleaver.
Chances are very high the fibres themselves in the cables are absolutely fine, they are remarkably resilient given their size.
It's not clear who "FS" is. A reseller? A manufacturer? They seem to be in Singapore. There's no excuse for the external plastic sheath disintegrating. They must have formulated the plastic wrong. The terms specify a 30 day warranty.
Here's a catalog of real mil-spec fiber optic cables.[2] This is overkill for home applications; you put these in a fighter jet.
In between are Telecom Industry Association compliant fiber optic cables. That's what telcos use. There are US manufacturers with real plants and addresses.
I agree that less-than-milspec equipment should survive being installed in a home, but... this fiber didn't. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46572962 seems to be relevant.
https://www1.hkexnews.hk/app/sehk/2025/107950/documents/sehk...
Plastics degrade like this in sunlight due to UV.
If you put plastic storage bins outside, in a short time picking them up will usually cause them to shatter in your hands.
As a sort of cautionary tale - PEX (plastic) plumbing is quite interesting. It is almost like the fiber-optica cable of plumbing. It is really easy to install without welding and can be snaked through walls easily. However, it comes in lightproof packaging and is not to be left exposed to sunlight - otherwise it must be discarded. Holding back 100psi of water requires strong bonds.
Note that this UV exposure might have happened before you installed it. It could have been sitting in the sunlight at a distributor or depot or as a second-hand cable. It could also have been in the sunlight in your house before you pulled it.
Years ago some electronics sensors were replaced and started having problems. I came to realize it was a voltage drop with the new increased load. I was able to pull in new larger wire by using the old wire as the puller.
The second thing is that domestic buildings usually do not come with a consistent ground plane. I worked in a 1960s build purpose made for mainframes and we had ~48v floating between racks at either end of the building and had to do a shitload of work to reground the building, in the 90s (-we were decommissioning an IBM 3033 and deploying a secondhand cray1) the point being somehow, God knows how, prior rs232 serial wiring didn't care and the ground plane for the mainframe was fine at the time. Pre Ethernet this stuff maybe just passed code.
I suspect people who build their own home to some spec acquire these theories. Data comms? Not much reason tbh unless you're pushing a lot more data than normal.
Ordinary unshielded copper Ethernet doesn’t care: it’s transformer-isolated at both ends. Shielded cable may object to carrying any substantial amount of current through the shield.
Anyway, there are a handful of good reasons to use fiber:
- Length. Copper is specced for 100m. Panduit will sell fancy copper cable that they pinky-swear works for Ethernet at 150m. Single mode fiber will work at silly long distances.
- High bandwidth. Copper will do 10Gbps. High speed specs exist, but there is approximately zero commercial availability of anything beyond 10G using copper at any appreciable distance. Fiber has no such problems.
IMO if you are running fiber anywhere that makes it awkward to replace (i.e. not just within a single room), use single mode. Multimode fiber has gone through ~5 revisions over the last few decades, and the earlier ones have very unimpressive bandwidth capabilities at any reasonable distance. Even the latest version, where truly heroic engineering has gone into reducing modal dispersion, relies on fancy multistrand cables for the faster Ethernet speeds. Single-mode fiber, meanwhile, continues to work very well and supports truly huge bandwidth at rather long distances, and even decades-old fiber supports the latest standards. And the transceivers for single-mode fiber are no longer much more expensive than multimode transceivers.
I ran SMF and have no regrets. https://sschueller.github.io/posts/wiring-a-home-with-fiber/
Also, not needing to rerun any cabling if we want to bump up speeds in the future, you just change the laser module on either end. These should be good to >100x current speeds. Not the case with copper.
The real problem here is that 10GBASE-T is ancient. The spec dates back to 2006! And worst of all: it only saw lukewarm adoption by the datacenter industry, so there hasn't really been a reason for manufacturers to refresh their lineups. This means that SFP+ transceiver you buy in 2026 might be using chips manufactured using a 20-year-old node. No wonder it is running hot!
2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T are essentially using the same technology, but you don't hear anyone complaining about it running hot: hardware for this only recently started to become available due to consumer demand, so any hardware for that is being manufactured using more modern technology, which means a lower power use.
It's still going to consume more power than fiber, but a modern 10GBASE-T SFP+ transceiver should not be burning hot.
25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T were standardized 10 years ago, but there are still basically zero products available with support for it. The datacenter market just wasn't interested and chose to use fiber and DAC instead. Worst of all: it requires Cat8 cables and is limited to 30 meters. This means it can't reuse existing cabling, and doesn't have the reach for many home applications - OPs blog post mentions the longest run in their apartment being 55 meters.
Combine that with the general death of wired networking for home & office use, and it is extremely unlikely the market of hardcore tech enthusiasts is big enough to warrant massive investments into developing some kind of 25G-over-Cat6-for-100m standard.
10G is pretty much the standard for high-end gear these days. This means any kind of future-proof setup needs to be prepared for a future upgrade to a fiber-based technology.
(speeds: 100 gig today, but faster speeds are coming.)
Ethernet runs on many mediums, as well as over the ether.
(He’s gone, plaid!)
I've also had problems with their pigtails also being weird, by the way (layers separating so that automated cutters can't stretch the pigtail properly). It's weird when everything else is so good—it's as if they only care about what's going on internal to a data center and you never need to do a splice. :-)
I don't think it's fair to make fun of the cable specifications, seems to me they held up just fine despite the jacket disintegrating. The article doesn't mention the error rate, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was still zero.
Next time pull indoor/outdoor wet location rated cable with XPLE insulation, it might work better.
The conclusion paragraph seems doubtful to me though - unlikely that speeds will slow down from a cables external plastic flaking
As an alternative if you are networking a single location and you don't mind seeing some finishing profiles on the walls (or want something easy in a pre-existing situation) you can also drill somewhere along the wall and feed the cables directly down to the floor or up the ceiling and cover them up.
But always, ALWAYS, make them easily accessible and easily removable.
Got plenty of experience to say no cable will survive a lifetime, and if you experience a problem without easy access you are fucked.
Next what popped in my head, “Military grade means, made by the lowest bidder.”
But that reminds me of something: I spend money on hobbies, but I spend the absolute minimum amount of money possible on home IT research and learning. Fuck that noise: if my employer wants a lab, they can damn well pay for one.
If you ever experience this, but can't uncoil the transmission cables, a workaround is to spin your desk chair in the opposite direction of data flow, at about the speed of light (for the respective cable medium). This temporary cancels out the effects of ethernet frame looping induced dizziness. Alternatively, you can treat any sickness symptomatically by chewing on a piece of ginger. The latter also helps with aforementioned data-abrasion in fiber optic cables through means not fully understood, yet.
Bruh
