Electrical Expert: FiOS Installations Safe - 'The only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.'
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knightmb @ 3rd Oct 09:41AM:
Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
I think that's the issue. Last I heard, it conducts about as well as glass does, which is very poor. So unless the fiber can somehow withstand the trillion volts it would need to pass any electricity from it (probably more than will ever come from a lightning bolt), I wouldn't worry about the grounding issue anymore than I would worry about the grounding issue of my plastic lawn furniture. :D
But, I find no mention of any battery backup units and such that keeps any points/nodes/whatever running (if any), so an overcharged, exploding battery might be an issue, but from what I can tell it's just fiber with some light shining out the end, hardly worth a mass panic of electrical circuit checking.
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Ricky Smith @ 3rd Oct 09:45AM:
Why?
Why is it only in New York that it doesn't meet code? Surely they must have installed it the same throughout the US.
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Ricky Smith
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NetAdmin @ 3rd Oct 09:53AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
It's not about the fiber optic cable carrying voltage, its about the grounding of the ONT, which has electronics in it and also connects to the coax in your house, which can have a voltage on it from crappy VCRs, TVs and other AV equipment.
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avd706 @ 3rd Oct 09:56AM:
Well if he's so brave...
quote:
"We bring in photons. And the only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.
...I dare him to walk around New York wearing a red verizon shirt.
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Enlightener @ 3rd Oct 10:01AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Here's what I don't understand....
I have AT&T U-Verse FTTP. I have your typical setup with a UPS inside the garage and an ONT mounted outside.
Why couldn't they have just mounted the ONT inside the garage and terminated my cat5 there?
It seems they could have put a simple passive enclosure on the outside of the house where the ONT is just to allow for the fiber to bend slowely and then go through the wall through a small conduit pipe.
Then the ONT could have just mounted inside the house like any other piece of CPE with simplified grounding requirements.
Do they really need that much access to the ONT to have it outside?
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Kearnstd @ 3rd Oct 10:04AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
however shouldnt that be handled by the third prong on the plug? not that an earth ground would hurt, can never be oversafe.
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majortom1029 @ 3rd Oct 10:05AM:
hmm
Yes but isnt the unit that attaches to the house powered? Aren't the tvs conencted via coax to that unit?
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beaups @ 3rd Oct 10:07AM:
Re: hmm
I think the coax is the problem. with an indoor wiring issue or a failure in the box, you could have a lot of power running through the indoor coax. with no ground, you would find out the "hard" way, vs tripping a breaker if it was grounded
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NetAdmin @ 3rd Oct 10:09AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
said by Kearnstd :
however shouldnt that be handled by the third prong on the plug? not that an earth ground would hurt, can never be oversafe.
In the previous discussions on this topic, it was noted that the electrical power to the ONT is supplied by a two prong plug.
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Austinloop @ 3rd Oct 10:15AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
The usual reason for the ONT, or the SMI for copper pots service being on the outside of the house is to allow the technician access without having to have someone at home to provide access.
This is somewhat different from business locations which, quite frequently have the network demarc located in side the building, as there is usually access to the that location through out the day, as well as off hours if there is trouble.
Having it on the outside allows testing of the facility, while removing the CPE from the equation. Should CPE be found to be the trouble, arrangements can be made to access, or, the customer can do his own CPE maintenance, depending on the individual situation.
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jacour @ 3rd Oct 10:26AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Grounding is a very complex topic, but suffice it to say that while the third prong on a standard electrical plug provides a degree of safety, it does not cure all ills and is not designed to handle lightning which can supply voltages of several hundred kV.
When you take a lightning strike on one part of your house, the electricity has to go somewhere. If one path is grounded and the others are not, you get different electrical potentials and current flow through the house, potentially frying much of the system and anything attached to it. Your computer surge supressor is designed to knock down transient voltage spikes from the electric company; it will not take care of big spike.
The right solution is to take the spike to ground BEFORE it enters the house, not after. If the external installation is properly grounded, that is exactly what happens. In an ideal situation, all sources of aberrant voltages are grounded externally and all ground rods are bonded together (i.e. the ground rods for your main electrical panel, cable, antennas, etc. are tied together).
The issue here is not the fiber optic, it is the other copper conductors in the box.
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kdwycha @ 3rd Oct 10:28AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
In the previous discussions on this topic, it was noted that the electrical power to the ONT is supplied by a two prong plug.
Just went out into my garage and my ONT has 3 prong plug. I was thinking the same thing when I was just on the toilet having my morning poo after reading this. Fiber doesnt conduct electricity very well and the ONT is grounded by the third prong.
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Austinloop @ 3rd Oct 10:54AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Based on the results of some lightning strikes on houses here in recent months, the grounding of the ONT would be the least of the homeowner's worries, rebuilding the house and replacing the contents would be much higher on the priority list.
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UofMiamiGrad @ 3rd Oct 10:57AM:
NY PSC Paid Off & Owned by Cable Companies!
This is a joke. How is it that NY is the only state having issue with FIOS installs & the miracle of fiber conducting electricity? Dangerous photons I tell ya! The damn ONT is plugged into the house electrical system, so how is lightning going to come into the house via glass? If a house get hits then best of luck to all your electronics, the ONT will be the least of your worries.
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ATTek @ 3rd Oct 11:04AM:
WIKI.......
......in the original story, the one with all the photos of the "non-code installations" MANY of them were said to be deviant because they were grounded "to the meter pan". In all the areas I've worked in in southern California, if the house builder didn't provide a bond for CATV/DBS, they would always end up grounding to a questionable looking clamp they would install on the BREAKER COVER which is attached to the METER PAN by way of a very loose fitting hook and slot hinge which has usually been painted with the house. I assume this isn't a code violation since it's very common to see and they have a clamp specifically made for this purpose. We however are required to bond to the main common bond or an outside cold water pipe.
So yeah....there could be some meddling here by VZ's competitors -or- it could just be NY being anal about a stricter than the norm electrical code.
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NetAdmin @ 3rd Oct 11:10AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
said by kdwycha :
Just went out into my garage and my ONT has 3 prong plug. I was thinking the same thing when I was just on the toilet having my morning poo after reading this. Fiber doesnt conduct electricity very well and the ONT is grounded by the third prong.
Before making wise-ass comments, I'd recommend knowing what you are talking about. For your reading pleasure:
»Ground and Bond class will start asap...
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Enlightener @ 3rd Oct 11:13AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
I understand (see my very last statement) but if the powersupply is on the inside, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?
Besides, they (AT&T in my case) have already deployed the remote gateway ( that has the VOIP TA built in ) and STB's for video far into the customer area so I'm kind of wondering if the old pattern of `this is the demarc` isn't just obsolete by now.
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RayW @ 3rd Oct 11:50AM:
Re: NY PSC Paid Off & Owned by Cable Companies!
said by UofMiamiGrad :
This is a joke. How is it that NY is the only state having issue with FIOS installs & the miracle of fiber conducting electricity? Dangerous photons I tell ya! The damn ONT is plugged into the house electrical system, so how is lightning going to come into the house via glass? If a house get hits then best of luck to all your electronics, the ONT will be the least of your worries.
Umm...it is not an issue with the fibre. Unless Verizon has come up with new technology, they still need a converter to go from photon over fibre to the electrical over copper that your toys use, and that is where the problem is.
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guppy_fish @ 3rd Oct 12:29PM:
Its not a safety issue
Ground is to prevent a user accessible part for being at a potential that can cause a shock, nothing else, ever.
As far as I can tell an ungrounded ont has no risk, zero
On the pots side, nether wire is at ground potential, so no effect what-so-ever on pots, the phone devices don't rely on the 2 wire pots, they are double insulated
On the WAN network side, the Cat5 OR coax is grounded at the computer or router or STB ... no issue there unless you have compounded issues were all the attached devices are not properly grounded
The ont is abs plastic, its powered by a transformer ( galvanic isolation ) so no issue there.
Its just a big to do about nothing and further, its all low-voltage wiring which for the most part doesn't fall under NEC rules as its below 48V.
When's the last time a laptop or external disk or other computer part had a ground? , they don't as they are double insulated
This is all hype and politically motivated and has nothing to do with operation or safety
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Vathral @ 3rd Oct 12:41PM:
Re: Well if he's so brave...
said by avd706 : quote:
"We bring in photons. And the only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.
...I dare him to walk around New York wearing a red verizon shirt.
I see more and more people GREETING Verizon drivers/technicians in the city.
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jmn1207 @ 3rd Oct 12:51PM:
Re: Well if he's so brave...
said by avd706 : quote:
"We bring in photons. And the only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.
...I dare him to walk around New York wearing a red verizon shirt.
Well, I got the reference. Good one. :)
I'm shocked that it had to come to this, but I hope Verizon can quickly get this resolved so they can continue expanding their FiOS footprint as fast as lightning.
Edit: Live long and prosper!
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beaups @ 3rd Oct 01:18PM:
Re: Its not a safety issue
the set top boxes are grounded? I've never seen a grounded set top box...but then again I don't have fios either
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David @ 3rd Oct 01:35PM:
Re: Why?
said by Ricky Smith :
Why is it only in New York that it doesn't meet code? Surely they must have installed it the same throughout the US.
That's what I would like to know, cause you figure they probably did the install pretty much the same everywhere else.
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battleop @ 3rd Oct 01:53PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
We have a tower at the back of our building for our wireless network. We use media converters for the network connection to the radios at the tower. We convert from Cat5 at the tower to Fiber and back to Cat5 at the switch that is in our basement. The only reason we use the fiber is to prevent lighting from entering the data center upstairs.
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RARPSL @ 3rd Oct 01:55PM:
Re: Well if he's so brave...
said by avd706 : quote:
"We bring in photons. And the only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.
...I dare him to walk around New York wearing a red verizon shirt.
Security only wore Red in Star Trek Classic. As of ST New Gen they were in Gold/Yellow (which was the ST Classic Command Color). According to a Studio Exec at a Science Fiction Convention hyping New Gen just before it aired who was asked about the change in colors, the change was due to Security asking for a new uniform color (due to them being targets for all the aliens) and having their request approved after Star Fleet Intelligence had discovered that the aliens had finally figured out the Command was Gold so they should stop going after the Red Shirts and start going after the Gold Shirts.
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fiberguy @ 3rd Oct 02:16PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
The issue that I have, which honestly doesn't affect me at this time, is that while it may be technically safe, ... codes are codes and must be followed.
So, if the city has a set of codes that Verizon must follow, then they need to follow the code as written and not go around them and they must be held to it.
Not to mention, of course by default, anyone Verizon hires is going be pro-Verizon's side, just the same as would AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Charter, Time Warner, Embarq, etc.
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fiberguy @ 3rd Oct 02:23PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
No, it hasn't made it obsolete yet.
In your case of the gateway, that is now considered CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) which is no different that a cable box or telephone.
There still has to be a place where their (network provider) and your (customer wires) meet together which is still the DMK point outside.
Your gateway still connects to the plant via your inside wire which is still bridged outside with the plant side. Any and all testing is still done outside the home, not inside.
Just in the case as cable TV, testing is still performed at the ground block (outside) and if they need to get to the cable box (which is the same as your gateway/TA) they'd need you home.
What is happening with the case of AT&T is that they pushed your telephone dial tone inside. That device that gives you dial tone still feeds back outside to the wiring where the testing is still done. In the case of an ONT such as Verizon or other fiber services, your dial tone still terminates outside in that ONT. In the case of VOIP, which is what you have, dial tone is not of their immediate concern since it's not a regulated service. They are more concerned that you have a clean data connectivity outside FOR that gateway to establish connection with.
Make sense?
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r81984 @ 3rd Oct 02:35PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
I have seen a lot of Star Trek to know not to mess around with photons.
They should be installing some regenerative shielding to help protect themselves from the ATT DeathStar.
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Enlightener @ 3rd Oct 02:43PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
It makes sense except that I'm not sure the gateway is considered CPE.
The latest TOS I saw says that AT&T owns the gateway, you agree to allow them to manage it, and you return it when you leave.
When I converted from FTTP ala legacy DSL to U-Verse FTTP they took my old gateway. I hadn't even realized they did it until it was too late and my old TOS didn't allow that for what I recalled.
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brianl703 @ 3rd Oct 03:01PM:
Re: Its not a safety issue
said by guppy_fish :
Ground is to prevent a user accessible part for being at a potential that can cause a shock, nothing else, ever.
Exactly. So the F connectors, a user-accessible part connected to the shield of the coaxial cable, could become energized due to a fault somewhere. It doesn't need to be in the ONT.
For that reason, the coaxial cable should be connected to a ground block. Maybe the FIOS installers could use the one for the cable TV drop instead of removing it...if they're too cheap to provide their own.
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brianl703 @ 3rd Oct 03:08PM:
Re: Its not a safety issue
said by guppy_fish :
On the WAN network side, the Cat5 OR coax is grounded at the computer or router or STB
It isn't. Cat5 is never grounded. Twisted pair Ethernet doesn't work that way.
Coax is not usually grounded by the set top box or TV set. Most of those have two-prong cords. Even if the set top box or TV set grounded the coax, that doesn't constitute a proper ground because it goes away when that device is unplugged.
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beaups @ 3rd Oct 03:09PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
as far as lightning is concerned, just about anything "can" conduct it. Air, trees, car tires.....if there is enough voltage (lightning) and the object has ANY even remotely conductive properties (maybe the jacket on the fiber is damp?)...current from the lighting will travel...people "do" get struck and "conduct" lightning even with rubber shoes on...even though shoes would not normally be considered a conductor.
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anon @ 3rd Oct 03:14PM:
Don't post if you don't know what you're talking about!!
He has no idea what hes talking about.
The STBs are NOT grounded. Consumer routers including the actiontec are NOT grounded. Laptop computers are NOT grounded.
Telephones (even with external power supply) are NOT grounded.
This means nothing in the system is grounded with the possible exception of a desktop computer. This is NOT GOOD. Go read about installers getting shocked because of a bad STB allowing large amounts of stray voltage into the COAX wiring.
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jester121 @ 3rd Oct 03:21PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Not needed, they can just modulate their shield harmonics. That always works.
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battleop @ 3rd Oct 04:04PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Yea and I guess there is a remote chance that an asteroid will fall out of the sky and land on our building too. :) I know it's not 100% impossible that will never happen but I pretty confident that lighting will never make it to the data center via the fiber.
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battleop @ 3rd Oct 04:11PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
How is fiber suspended from the pole to the ONT? I know that from pole to pole there is a steel cable. Then they hold the fiber with another steel cable that is wrapped around the fiber and steel cable.
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beaups @ 3rd Oct 04:40PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
very true. my point was probably less to your example and more to the general topic here, and that is grounding would be beneficial
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beaups @ 3rd Oct 04:40PM:
Re: Don't post if you don't know what you're talking about!!
Well put!
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NetAdmin @ 3rd Oct 04:59PM:
Re: Don't post if you don't know what you're talking about!!
said by DURRRR :
Go read about installers getting shocked because of a bad STB allowing large amounts of stray voltage into the COAX wiring.
Bingo!
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AstroBoy @ 3rd Oct 05:14PM:
Re: Well if he's so brave...
I got it! lol
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IM1811 @ 3rd Oct 05:22PM:
Re: Don't post if you don't know what you're talking about!!
said by NetAdmin :said by DURRRR :
Go read about installers getting shocked because of a bad STB allowing large amounts of stray voltage into the COAX wiring.
Bingo!
Agreed, but doesn't the most recent PSC outcry, including the 'Freeze on Installs' seem just a tad bit overboard, just a little too shrill? Fios and fiber are new, and are different.
Remember Edison and AC power »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Cur···campaign
F.U.D. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_unce···nd_doubt
Safety should be Job 1, but suspending new installs?
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TimCo @ 3rd Oct 05:51PM:
Re: NY PSC Paid Off & Owned by Cable Companies!
It smells like Cablevision. Also Newsday is now owned by them as well.
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avd706 @ 3rd Oct 06:38PM:
photons are dangerous
Doesn't the fiberoptic conduct a laser light, and isn't it strong enough to be considered dangerous?
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ashworth @ 3rd Oct 08:37PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Anything on your side of the demarcation point(usually inside) is considered CPE. Which again stands for Customer Premise Equip, which can be owned by the customer or the Co. providing service. In PA we call it tariffed (outside demarc, company serving side) and detariffed(customers side of demarc).
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nunya @ 3rd Oct 10:27PM:
So I read the DPS report....
And it was a yawn. But, there are legitimate causes for concern. FO strands do not conduct electricity. However, some FO cables have a metallic sheath (jacket) which does require grounding / bonding. Some cables also have a metallic messenger (support) which requires grounding / bonding. The DPS main concern was ONI's not being properly grounded. Some examples they found were pretty scary.
"Examples of the installation practices that
were identified as problematic included but were not limited to; trying to electrically
ground FiOS equipment to a premise's heating fuel vent pipe, ground wire connected to
a plastic pipe elbow, and several that had no ground present at all."
There are some loopholes and lose interpretation regarding systems where dialtone is derived on site. (e.g., NEC has not kept up with technology)
However, 820.93 and 820.100 could be interpreted to require the grounding of all coax, whether signal is derived on site, or not.
VZ needs to insist on every ONI being properly bonded and grounded. The problem with depending on grounded plugs is "cheater" adapters and not being able to verify you have met the ground conductor requirements. Requiring an independent grounding / bonding conductor nips that problem in the bud.
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dentman42 @ 4th Oct 12:25AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
said by jester121 :
Not needed, they can just modulate their shield harmonics. That always works.
Only briefly. Very briefly against the Borg. Oh, we were talking about AT&T, not Intel...
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Mark Uhde @ 4th Oct 02:29AM:
Re: photons are dangerous
LOL, direct exposure to lasers always have a health rating due to burning of corneal tissue or retinas, but NO, the fiber coming into house is not dangerous at all.
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Oregonian2 @ 4th Oct 02:42AM:
Re: NY PSC Paid Off & Owned by Cable Companies!
said by UofMiamiGrad :
This is a joke. How is it that NY is the only state having issue with FIOS installs & the miracle of fiber conducting electricity? Dangerous photons I tell ya! The damn ONT is plugged into the house electrical system, so how is lightning going to come into the house via glass? If a house get hits then best of luck to all your electronics, the ONT will be the least of your worries.
Doesn't seem that the issues have to do with the outside line which FiOS doesn't have one of, in terms of safety. For that matter, it doesn't seem much different if the ONT weren't even plugged in. The ONT really isn't much different than any other electronic device in one's house from the toaster to one's PC to one's digital camera charger. They all plug into power with or without a ground pin in the power connector, and they connect to something that a person could perhaps touch -- and in the case of a couple things above could be wired to something else as well (particularly with PC's or the camera charger (USB cables)). Traditionally things like the ONT would have the outside line, but that's effectively nil with fiber. There's concern about coax (in those cases where FiOS has coax connected -- mine has no coax). May be a good argument, but in any case it has to do with code violations. Even if a particular situation isn't dangerous, if it violates code it's bad. A bureaucracy (something required from a pragmatic point of view) needs to go by the rules rather than deciding if a rule is good or not. More so if things have political exposure.
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bl__ @ 4th Oct 04:26AM:
Hot, Neutral, Ground - OH MY!
LOL, you people have no clue what you're talking about.
Except for NetAdmin and all the Star Trek stuff.
I'm guessing few if any of you have replaced an outlet, let alone a breaker or done any high voltage panel work. It would be funny watching you all get zapped if you did try. I have worked in and around AC long enough to know when something is not right and it's time to seek professional help. You all should just stop right now and seek professional help with all your electrical problems.
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NormanS @ 4th Oct 05:00AM:
Re: Why?
As Andrew Cuomo demonstrated, WRT Usenet groups, New York isn't really a part of the U.S.A. They are their own planet, with their very own King.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
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NormanS @ 4th Oct 05:28AM:
Re: Hot, Neutral, Ground - OH MY!
said by bl__ :
I'm guessing few if any of you have replaced an outlet, let alone a breaker or done any high voltage panel work. It would be funny watching you all get zapped if you did try. I have worked in and around AC long enough to know when something is not right and it's time to seek professional help. You all should just stop right now and seek professional help with all your electrical problems.
I have replaced my share of outlets, and even ground some where no ground was present. And light switches. But, yes, I do know when it is time to get professional help. This premises is 43 years old, and originally had 100A electric service, and an old Zinsco panel. It also had some strange zones; one long circuit connecting a toaster oven, microwave oven, freezer, dishwasher, and garbage disposal unit on a single circuit leg; along with assort other outlets. So I informed the landlady that, with all of the equipment we were using (including a central air system installed 15 years ago), we should have a licensed electrical contractor upgrade the service.
I did not wish to DIY the service panel.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum
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BlueConnect @ 4th Oct 09:08AM:
Documents, some of
One of the documents states a Verizon tech was shocked (30VAC) because of faulty AC wiring in a customers house. What it does not state is if the shock came before or after the FIOS installation had been completed.
»www.dps.state.ny.us/08V0835.htm
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whizkid3 @ 4th Oct 11:36AM:
Re: Why?
said by Ricky Smith :
Why is it only in New York that it doesn't meet code? Surely they must have installed it the same throughout the US.
Its not only in New York that some installations don't meet code. There are no NY State ammendments to the NEC grounding & bonding requirements. These installs would most likely not meet the code no matter what state they were installed in.
The only reason this is a NY State issue, is because the NY State Public Service Commission (rightfully) took issue with these poor installations. The NY State PSC has no jurisiction (obviously) over, and could care less about any other state. At least they are on the ball.
The installers need to follow the electrical code (law) regardless of what they think about it. There are other ways to address getting the code changed, and you can be Verizon and other similar companies are associated with the NFPA - the NEC code making body. They will likely not be able to change the code in this regard, because they will need more of a reason, other than simply "we can save money by hiring unskilled, unknowledgeable, dangerous schlock installers".
That being said, there is a very important reason for the ONT to be bonded to ground (when it is installed outdoors especially). It is a box operating at AC voltage with electrical equipment that (typically) is permanently mounted outdoors. It has a primary surge protector (as required) for the copper lines that pass from outdoors into your house. They can only function properly when grounded. The device is 'cord & plug'. So the second you unplug the three prong plug, or all of the time with a two-prong plug, the primary protection (that is required by code), no longer functions.
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mc5w @ 4th Oct 01:38PM:
Fiber Optic Cables
If a fiber optic service is overhead, it very likely would contain a steel support wire. This would be required by National Electrical Code to be bonded and grounded to the building electrical service ground.
There are some hybrid cables that have low voltage wires in them in addition to the optical fibers but these are usually used strictly within a building. Fiber optic cables that have a steel or aluminum armor have not become popular because usually you would be better off to run thinwall conduit or flexible conduit and then pull a cable into that.
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FFJOHNL312 @ 4th Oct 04:28PM:
Grounding needs
It's a requirement for us not so much of the environment it's installed in, but because of this, direct from a Tier 2 support technician in the company, whom I trust:
"....you still don't get the point of proper grounding requirements - the ONT contains ACTIVE electronics that drive services for the customer. The ONT needs to be at the same ground potential as the AC power that is feeding it - PERIOD. That is the reason the ONT needs to be grounded. Forget the whole copper drop vs. fiber drop argument. This has nothing to do with the 'conductor' feeding the ONT - this is all about the ONT being properly grounded..."
For this reason alone is why the ONT needs to be grounded. Aerial drop wire has to have some support method, but not metallic so it DOESN'T pick up stray voltage and take it to the house. Newer stuff, including the fiber drop, this method is kevlar thread and in the fiber, flexible plastic reinforcing rods.
John
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whizkid3 @ 4th Oct 07:08PM:
Michael Stringfellow - expert?
Verizon hired "Michael Stringfellow, an expert on lightning surges". Michael Stringfellow:
Michael F. Stringfellow, Ph.D., P.E. is Chief Scientist for PowerCET Corporation. Prior to joining PowerCET he held the positions of Chief Scientist and Director of Research for EFI Corporation. Other experiences include 9 years with the Electric Supply Commission (Eskom) in South Africa, and work with Kearney National and Atlantic Scientific Corporation. His research has focused on lightning surges and their impact on commercial and industrial facilities, and utility transmission and distribution systems. Dr. Stringfellow has published numerous articles and research papers during his distinguished career. He is a member of IEEE and is an active member on several committees. He earned a B.S. Honors Degree in Physics from the University of London and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Electricity from University of Durham
»www.mike-the-strike.net/Business···age1.htm
While he may be an expert in lightning, he is not a registered engineer in the State of New York. Verizon had to go to Arizona to dig up this 'expert'. According to the State of New York, however, Stringfellow would likely not be considered an expert and be unlikely to be accepted by any court in the State of New York as an 'expert' with the electrical code.
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fiberguy @ 4th Oct 08:46PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Managing it allows them access to get in to it and make changes. You must return it because they own it. This is the same as a cable box would be or a cable modem, or, in the past, a leased telephone handset.
Ownership doesn't have any determination on what a CPE is, rather, where its placed.
Your old gateway, which was owned by them, aka "DSL modem" if it was leased was theirs to take in the first place. Your old TOS most certainly did allow them to take their CPE/DSL Modem if it was leased. Now, if you purchased it and they took it, then there is a problem for you to resolve.
And, by the way, you don't have fiber to the premise in either case of DSL or U-Verse. Its just fiber into the node or as some people call them, the refrigerator.
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fiberguy @ 4th Oct 08:49PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Overhead cables are supported by a wire called the messenger wire. At no time does that wire come in contact with anything that transports the service. It's simply a non-conductive wire that is attached to the cable via molding. Some cables don't even have a messenger cable attached, rather, just a very thick amount of insulation and clips are used via tension to attach the over head to a hook on the house and one on the messenger carrying the feeder line.
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Enlightener @ 4th Oct 09:25PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
The old TOS did not allow them to take the gateway but frankly I don't care.
BTW, I most certainly do have fiber to the premise. I'm really getting sick of so called experts trying to tell me what I do and don't have.
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Ulmo @ 4th Oct 10:10PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Yes, which is why having a good grounding rod attached as a least path of resistance (direct and well connected and well conductive) to the outside antenna before the fiber goes into the datacenter is required by any simple sane plan.
Foremost in my memory is the common concept of running the antenna pole directly into the ground, or a proxy for that (a big bonding wire to cover all the pole area that is nonconductive bridged to its conductive parts, directly to ground, with any necessary ground rods).
In a relative's house, without antennas, when I did my self-made structured wiring installation, I reviewed the grounding situation, and found that grounding was not adequate for my tastes. I invested a lot in copper wire to bridge ("bond") lots of grounding zones together. Since our utilities come in in three general areas of the house, I decided to add a grounding rod to any areas that didn't have one, make a bonding network between all those points and all of their members (utilities). Some utilities (water) have multiple bondings, due to some suspicion of lack of quality conductiveness in the pipe.
One concern I had was making this bonding more direct than any other possible electrical path; most of the paths in the home are pretty direct, so there's still major concern a lightning strike could take alternate routes other than the bonding wire. This is a good argument for doing all those silly right-angle parallel-only routes for non-ground wires, but going direct (diagonal often) with the ground itself.
I burried much of the bonding wire naked in the sand under the house. It already shows lots of green corrosion points, and I am concerned I will have to patch the bonding wire some years/decades from now.
The bonding wire goes direct from the electrical panel main neutral-ground-tie rod (which has both white and copper/green going to it for home electricity, its local grounding rod, and "neutral" from the power generation side), to the telephone utility demarc point (about 75 feet away), where it goes to the rod I added there first, then branches to the telephone grounds, water ground, and gas ground.
Along its path, I bond a few times to the water pipe again, and once to my structured wiring patch panel, which unfortunately I made the mistake of locating nearer to the center of the house rather than closer to the telephone utility demarc area, because of LAN distance paranoia. It was a tough decision. Obviously, this home wasn't designed for proper structured wiring considerations.
For many decades, we would get intermittant shocks when standing on the back yard's lawn and reaching to turn on (or off) the water spicket in the middle of the lawn. No electrical conduits passed near there as far as I know, and I know prettymuch everything about that property. The closest circuits are 30 feet away, and the neighbors are over 100' away in 4 directions. I made sure to bond the pipe that travelled that way to that ground bonding I made. I absolutely know there is something majorly wrong in the grounding situation somewhere, but lord knows where it is. I put GFCIs in 95% of the home circuits, but none of them are tripping constantly or even annoyingly often (I never hear of the problem from my relatives, who would tell me if they had to reset those things, since they don't really understand them; I have to test them myself). So whatever problems there are are somewhere before the GFCIs, or something they don't detect. I sometimes suspect neighbors and odd ground loops (our house is in the middle of a U in the aereal PG&E electric supply street path, but the amount of loop on the contiguous part of the U we're in is only half a mile or so). Who knows -- it could be someone's pool or jacuzzi, or a lamp post, or an errant short someplace. But it's quite a shock! They've prettymuch gone away since I installed that bonding. But it is pretty scary to consider. P.S., as I think about it, we often have trouble with mysterious PG&E pole breakers tripping during the drip-stage after a rain, especially 1 to 2 days into rain. Perhaps we host a local short in the main PG&E supply, and that is what is flowing through ground to all the local grounding pipes - some tree or shrub root is closer to our water spicket than PG&E's main ground rod, at zillions of amps. Oooh, how ugly: that water spicket does have something of a weedy type tree growing around it that has roots in our yard that span 100s of feet, so perhaps it has migrated its root system 1000s of feet into some sort of short. I wonder --- does 25 year old corrogated steel pipe get penetrated by weeds? I kind of doubt it, but ... it has a 40 AMP breaker on it. Hmm. Something to test again (that breaker's circuit is one of the few in the house without GFCI -- ok, now I have a real target to look at, and is also a good argument for placing the GFCI in the breaker panel rather than at the first delivery point).
I only got those shocks about twice a year or so.
One of the problems I'm concerned about my bonding is weird signal ground loop harmonics. I've only experienced a small amount of that anecdotally, but for safety reasons I already designed in my design stage to put safety first and signal quality issues second in priority, even though I strongly considered it at every step to minimize it as much as possible.
What are my points?
I'm not an expert in grounds, and even I know it's a pretty complex issue, and a major one. As a result of what I do know, I'm very happy I put in my grounding bond, and I've already noted a reduced amount of being shocked by that one exterior water spicket.
These transient shocks are complex enough that I'm sure it would break anybody's budget to diagnose, although that would be ideal given more resources. I already did conductivity checks of every single ground circuit I could find in every building on the site, and there is basically near zero resistance between all points. I didn't have the equipment to do full amperage testing of all grounds, but my memory is fuzzy about if I found a sort of half-decent cheap way of testing good amp flow through ground. I know that's part of testing a good ground system for those who are responsible for grounding.
Ideally, I'd like to add some more redundancy to our grounding to that relative's home.
Where I live now (a different home), some painter (landlord?) cut all the local exterior ground-rod connected ground wires for cosmetic reasons. I can only begin to explain how rediculous it is that baby boomers keep illegal aliens (the origination of those who cut those grounds) as their pets and throw their own kind to the wolves. But those are the declining standards we witness around here. Gunshots all the time ... yeah sure, these guys don't care about the damn ground.
Should Verizon? Of course.
Will FiOS fiber zap you with a big electrical current like telco wire? Heck no, in terms of probability and quantity. (Edit: I note though that since there is no metal plant connection in most FiOS cases, that faults on-site don't have the plant's fault absorption capabilities, which while not something to depend on, would at least exist with metal plant connection, and therefore the island needs more self-sustainment, such as its own ground structure; by design, it ought to be a proper ground structure.)
Is it (grounding near/at demarc) more important for metal utilities, like PG&E, AT&T, Con Edison, Comcast, Time Warner, Mediacom, and Qwest? Of course.
Do I sense politicking in this PSC crackdown? Mostly, but it's impossible to know for sure. But it came up, and has to be fixed. Personally, I'm not as mad at Verizon about it as if it were outside plant connected to the home premises (with metal/condutive material).
That all the other communications companies are being made to ground better too is definately comforting. They all should.
Dish Network installation guy at the same relative's house as above left the 14 guage dish grounding wire danging loose in the grounding clamp he screwed to the water pipe. That's connected to the same water pipe that would give me shocks further out in the yard. Needless to say, I clamped that ground wire down tight, and made sure my ground bonding went to that pipe, and I did test the resistance in that ground path to make sure it was good. It's still a little inky dinky 14 guage wire. Luckily, it's direct-tied to a metal pipe in the roof that goes to the flushing machine in the bathroom. So, if lightning does strike, that only means anybody sitting there will become ground, since I doubt that sewer pipe has exactly the right properties once it gets to the main horizontal sewer pipe (I think it's rubber-gasketed, so non-conductive). The person sitting there is closer to some other things that conduct (heater duct, water supply, etc.). Let's hope the lightning jumps from sewer to fresh water pipe before passing through any humans. Nice job Dish.
Comcast didn't used to have a ground rod, but lately they did hide a poorly connected little ground rod out in the back yard. I made sure it was better connected, and bonded it to an in-ground metal pipe, which itself has electrical supply running through it -- so cable lightning might zap electrical equipment, but find a better path to ground. Safety first. That's a point I can increase the grounding quality, for both safety and equipment damage.
It's probably a better installation than most houses as it is.
Edit: grammar and word corrections, and a P.S.
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Ulmo @ 4th Oct 10:14PM:
Re: Well if he's so brave...
said by avd706 : quote:
"We bring in photons. And the only person I've ever seen harmed by photons was on Star Trek.
...I dare him to walk around New York wearing a red verizon shirt.
Back in NYNEX days, we understood they were union workers pulling down income. But it has changed even since then.
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laarrry @ 5th Oct 01:57PM:
FIOS and lightning
I had a direct strike 2 months ago- It fried the ONT, the router, 2 computers and 2 TV's- I have a DIRECT 5 foot lightning rod connected to the case of the ONT- I can't imaging how much more damage I would have had, if I had not securely grounded to ONT from day one.
Can't be too carefull when dealing with lightning I guess
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fiberguy @ 5th Oct 03:43PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
Ok - put your money where your mouth is...
1) Try answering the questions that were asked of you.
2) Point us "so-called experts" where at&t has fiber to the premise.
3) Point us/me to the TOS that says they don't have the right to take the gateway (which could have been answered by you actually answering the questions asked of you above)...
... or, why don't you stop posting on a public DISCUSSION FORUM things that, quite frankly some so-called experts know better about, you're most likely to get called to the table on when it smells like bullshit.
You stuck your neck out there, and now your getting your face slapped. You can do two things, participate in the discussion that you brought up, or, shut up, walk away and look a fool.. the choice is yours.
(and for the record, this so-called "expert" can tell you that FTTP was not DSL... no matter what you think you have or had)
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anon @ 5th Oct 07:20PM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
You mean like these people: »Review of AT&T FTTP by MarkyD
And these ones: »utalk.att.com/utalk/board/messag···id=12867
U-verse is two things: FTTN VDSL in brownfield existing homes. In new suburbs and other greenfield sites where there is no copper, it will be FTTH/FTTP using GPON most of the time.
Just like Verizon uses VDSL for condos/apartments and has two types of PON equipment there are two types of u-verse.
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Robotek @ 12th Oct 11:52PM:
Re: FIOS and lightning
Guess what? You asked to be hit by lightning!
Unless yours is the tallest structure in the area you dont need a lightning rod.
For this same reason, you wouldnt carry an umbrella in an open field during a thunder storm.
You attached a lightning ATTRACTOR to your ONT and wondered why everything got fried?!!??
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Robotek @ 13th Oct 12:21AM:
Re: Does Fiber Conduct Electrcity?
The National Electric Code reads like a legal document
It's not about the fiber drop conducting electricity. It's regarding Coax cable;
Coaxial cables entering buildings or attached to buildings shall comply with 820.93(A) or (B). Where the outer conductive shield of a coaxial cable is grounded, no other protective devices shall be required.
(A) Entering Buildings. In installations where the coaxial cable enters the building, the outer conductive shield shall be grounded in accordance with 820.100. The grounding shall be as close as practicable to the point of entrance.
Basically Cablevision will clutch at straws to avoid drowning. Getting the PSC to enforce the NEC was a good move on their part.
The PSC report dosent reference Lightning strikes but instead the possibility of faulty equipment inside the house sending stray voltage back towards the ONT then back to other equipment without the Ground arresting the voltage.
A ONT mounted inside still needs to be grounded but with less requirements if no conductors lead outside.
The only thing Cablevision accomplished was to increase the knowelege of VZ techs like myself
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