Having an internet fibre optic installed
I'm posting this here as it not directly related to hi-fi, although the installation did have an unwanted impact on my system.
To begin at the beginning: I have been having problems with my internet provider, who suggested that they would be eliminated if I was to move from the copper cable connection (which has served me very well for well over twenty years) to fibre optic cable. I was initially reluctant, but was persuaded by the fact that the copper system would be switched off within 5 years. That fact and a renegotiation of my contract, which is now cheaper than before, convinced me to have the work done.
The immediate impact was the cable would have to enter at the front of the house, exactly where my system is located - and I have absolutely no intention of changing it.
As you can see the corner of the room where I have my system is right where the cable would enter, and where the optical fibre to electrical converter would be fitted. Not only is there very limited space, there are audio cables which run under the floor to monoblock amplifiers each located directly behind the respective speaker, and it was essential that these not be damaged. So the whole unit, equipment and LPs had to be removed, and a large heavy sofa moved so the engineer could work:
I had already marked where the unit had to be fitted, and pointed to the cables which I didn't want disturbed. Fortunately the engineer understood and did a very neat job of the fitting the converter and drilling through the wall to a junction box he fitted on the outside:
The whole would be covered by a heavy curtain and as the converter consumes a minimal amount of power it does not get warm. So now the LP rack and equipment could be moved back, taking advantage of the opportunity to simplify and shorten the cabling (I'm a great believer in having the shortest practical length cables between the various items of gear); I was able to remove a few metres of cable.
I have yet to replace the LPs, as I want to make sure I don't need to make any more changes to the cabling.
So all's well that ends well? No not really! I had been hoping that I could use the existing wiring feeding my router, which is located at the far end of the room; the wiring for which is neatly hidden by the carpet. No it cannot, the electrical link to the router now uses bloody Ethernet cabling, which means the router will now have to be sat on the window sill, near the fibre optic converter. Now my laptop is wireless, but my partner's is not. Not only that, she likes to use hers sat at a table at the far end of the room where the router was. So either I buy her a wireless laptop, or use a 10 metre Ethernet cable which can be run out when she want's to use her existing computer. The latter is obviously cheaper, but is totally against my ethos of not having cables snaking around the room!
I do have a plan where I can still use the existing wiring to connect the landline phone to the router in its new position. The only other concern is the fibre optic converter and router now have to be plugged into a socket that is part of a dedicated ring I had installed just for my audio system. These two units each use a SMPS, which is undesirable; but I have to confess I can hear no degradation in sound, and a suitable linear power supply is just too expensive.
As you can see, I'm not entirely happy with the way things are turning out - exacerbated by the fact that a conduit has to be laid from the path across the front of my house, down the front lawn to carry the fibre optic from the road up to the newly installed junction box on the front of the house. I was told that would be done within 10 days, or sooner. That was a fortnight ago, and I'm still waiting!
