I Want Broadband Everything

Why in the world would they need to ground to the electric meter? The incoming line is fiber, so it's not susceptible to surges, spikes, lightning strikes, etc. Even if the fiber did get hit by lightning, it would just melt at the strike point instead of channelling the current. I can't imagine the ONT draws enough power to require a separate ground. Unless the ONT is DC-powered instead of AC. Even then, a separate ground would most likely be connected to the metal shell to prevent external shocks, and tying into the AC ground would suffice--assuming of course the AC ground was wired properly.
Ground Binder

I think they're just required to obey all of the existing code for the grounding of both telephone *and* cable television systems. Also keep in mind that in most installations they put the ONT outdoors and tie it in to existing telephone and cable television wiring plants, which are also outdoors.

But as I've mentioned here before, I didn't want any of that. Before the installer came I ripped EVERYTHING off the side of the house, and then had the installer put my ONT on a board I put up in the basement, so the entire wiring plant is indoors. Unfortunately, the rules aren't flexible enough to allow for different grounding requirements in this case -- code is code.

The ONT *is* DC-powered, and in a "typical" installation there's an indoor power supply with a battery backup that feeds DC back out to the outdoor ONT.
In my case it's a one-piece unit but the guts are the same inside.
There is a separate grounding terminal, but I'm not using it anymore. I tested for continuity and found that simply plugging the ONT into a grounded outlet provides a PERFECTLY FINE ground for the whole system.

So yeah, it's just regulatory bullshit, there's no practical value to it at all. Which is why I ripped out all of the unnecessary pieces, including an extra piece of coax with an extra connector just to add ANOTHER ground -- where, again, simply plugging the coax into the system provides that ground already so it's even more superfluous.

I suppose also that in traditional telephone and cable television applications, the other reason they put all the extra grounds on everything is to prevent malfunctioning equipment from sending dangerous voltages back up the line and endangering linemen and neighbors. But again -- hello, it's fiber!

What happens when lightning strikes a fiber optic line? Does the photon burst damage the receivers? or because the diameter of
the fiber doesnt match the UV watveleangth it just gets absorbed while bouncing?

The "light" in lightning is due to ionization of the air. If lightning were to hit a fiber optic line, there might be some brief illumination as the insulation and glass melt, but I think the intensity would be low enough and brief enough that any photons absorbed by the in-tact fiber wouldn't provide anywhere near enough energy to damage the receivers or transmitters.

BTW, most fiber optic transceivers used in the networking industry operate at the border between the near-infrared (NIR) and near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectrum, below the visible light spectrum. The wavelength range is generally between 800 nm and 1,500 nm, but there are some transceivers that operate at other wavelengths.
Fiber Binder

To be nitpicky, though, I'll bet if yif the set-top boxes let you look

at the error counts for received packets, it's probably a higher rate

Mine does. I had a problem that turned out to be malcolm had played with the splitter and disconnected one of the cables. But I called verizon and they told me how to fire up the diagnostics page on the set top box. It was pretty cool and geeky. I forget how to do it now but I'm sure it's on the web
And it gives you signal strengths and everything.

wavelength range is generally between 800 nm and 1,500 nm, but there
are some transceivers that operate at other wavelengths.

Since we're talking about aerial fiber applications delivered by telcos and cablecos, multimode fiber (810 nm) is squarely *out* of the picture.

I know that Verizon FiOS uses 1310 nm for upstream data, 1490 nm for downstream data, and 1550 nm for video (one-way RFoG).

Cable companies are probably using wavelengths in that range as well -- basically any of the ones you'd expect to use for single mode fiber, long haul applications.

I would agree that multimode is out of the picture, unless you happen to live right next door to the central office or a DSLAM/VRAD.

1490 and 1310 paired together sounded really familiar, so I checked my optics guide and those are the wavelengths most likely used by the 1000BASE-BX bidirectional SFP modules. They multiplex both wavelengths onto a single fiber strand, which is great for passive optical networks (PON). The SFP modules themselves come in pairs: a 1000BASE-BX-U (for upstream, I figure) and a 1000BASE-BX-D.

I really need to nag AT&T about doing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) in our area.
1000BASE-Binder

Woohoo! What do I win? Other than the distinction of having worked in the networking industry for close to 20 years. :P

I feel so ... ORDINARY.

After 15 years of having my home server directly attached to the Internet and acting as a gateway for the entire home network, today I switched things around and put the Verizon router out on the public side of the network where it is in "normal" installations.

It's kind of weird. I used to have such an elaborate computer setup in my house but it's just been getting smaller and smaller all the time. Between moving my Internet presence to a real data center, and having virtualization available to test whatever new technology comes down the line, there just isn't any need for me to have a basement full of computers anymore.

I briefly considered ditching Asterisk and my VoIP phones, but I'm still getting too much useful value out of that right now.

But now after 15 years, my server+firewall is now just a server. Which means I can now perform maintenance on it without knocking out every electronic device in the house.

I'm sure the other residents of the house are grateful for their consistent flow of electricity.

I don't know about that, but I do know he has a snowblower, so BEWARE!

I need a woodchipper.

Welcome to being old.
I don't have any more x10, no more answering machine, no more turn-on-the-a/c-from-my-phone-remotely, and whatever else.
I don't run my own mail system anymore, and finally I've come to realize, I don't even use this kick ass machine I built to do any development (although today I got this itch to try and get rc5 to run on my G1, we'll see how long that lasts).

So I've got a big ol' box and all I do is get my email and .... yeah... get my email.
Oh, and I remote to my office machine.
Kinda sad really.

The only thing that I still do, which doesn't involve very much doing is I have a linux machine at my dad's house that serves as a webserver for him and one of my domains I think.
It doesn't require very much doing because for wahtever reason, the thing won't die.

[nixo@ip nixo]$ uname -a
Linux ip 2.4.18-14 #1 Wed Sep 4 11:57:57 EDT 2002 i586 i586 i386 GNU/Linux
[nixo@ip nixo]$


[nixo@ip nixo]$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2 1.7G 1.2G 389M 76% /
/dev/hda1 97M 9.0M 83M 10% /boot
none 30M 0 30M 0% /dev/shm

That's right folks, a kernel from 2002, with a 1.7 gig hard drive.
And the thing just keeps humming endlessly.

Oh, I've still got plenty of stuff running, I just don't have much of it at *home* anymore. It's all behind the glass now.


In fact ... you're soaking in it :)

At home I still like my X-10 and my Asterisk, but I'd be interested in seeing if I could move it to a computer that doesn't suck down quite so much power.
Something with a flash drive for its primary storage and a big disk that spins up only when needed when I do my nightly remote backups of my stuff at the data center.

realize, I don't even use this kick ass machine I built to do any
development (although today I got this itch to try and get rc5 to run

on my G1, we'll see how long that lasts).

Well shit me timbers. It builds and runs.
Took a little work, but wasn't I stunned when the damn thing fired up on my g1.
It doesn't seem to be able to do the network connection, but the fact that it does everything else (configure, and make up blocks and run them) stuns me.
I know nothing of the sockets layer on the g1, but it did compile so something must be there.

what is the benefit o running rc5 now that they took the prize away?

they didn't. prize is still available from last I read.