A tour of my home network (FTTP)

[@treyscarborough1901]

John I do work installing fiber systems for large carriers in the US and I have to say I am impressed with your set up. It is better than a great deal of the ones I have been brought in to work on.

[@hr.ausragend1814]

i can relate...

[@brandonedwards7166]

couple of diodes and a beefy capacitor could keep the network running during power failure until the battery takes over.

[@crashk6]

+John Watkins Now THAT is a home networking project!

[@trollobite1629]

It shows the current state of the art when a hobbyist is able to build a mini headend in his garden that serves the local community. 😎😎💯❣️

[@MrAlekoy]

Nice. In the cabinet with the powersupply etc. I would remove the relay and battery charger, and adjust the voltage output from the mean well powersupply to 27.2~27.5V that is nice for standby charge for the batteries, the sealed batteries prefer constant voltage charging anyways, and this will make things simpler and avoid the reset of the converter :) Alternatively you coud keep it like you have it now, but replace the relay with a 220v one, and supply it from the supply side of the powersupply, this will also make the changeover fast enough to avoid the reset :)

[@imark7777777]

That has been my exact same problem, I have a bunch of 12v SLA batteries and I would like to keep a small mobile router powered. I have a mobile hotspot that is limited to 10 devices that I then reroute through a travel router that gets me as many as the internet can support that are concurrently using it. I have been trying to set it up so I have a battery pack that I can just plug in and have everything running and unplug it and not have anything drop. This would have been really handy in my previous job as I could have left mostly everything in a cart with everything else I carried in and just rolled in nd plugged-in, make sure the hotspot had signal and not had to worry about content restrictions that were far too restrictive. all the kids in the school either knew how or knew who to ask on how to hack around them or had their own data plan. So with that logic I should be floating at 13.2 to 13.75 correct? My only concern then is amperage of power supply. I'm assuming I just spec it for what I would need to run the equipment 0.5 to 1 amp? Is there a concern if I were to go to like a 2, 3 or 5a. As ultimately I really want a mini pfSense router, a mini access point and a small switch. Yeah I just like to roll in my own mini ISP and eventually have failover between two cellular providers, a wired connection and whatever nearby open wi-fi can connect to. And possibly a built-in automatic backbone VPN to corporate AKA home.

[@ukpm]

17:12 "That's quite nice." Guess who's pleased with their cabinet build-out ;)

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Meeeee!!! :o) Thanks for watching!

[@ukpm]

You have some serious dedication to get all that installed and looking so good. I've got a 40U cabinet in my loft that's been sitting since Jan to be mounted and wired up. Need a leaf from your book Sir!

[@PrestonMainard]

Could you make a video detailing how you provision new ONT's and the management features of the OLT? I really like your videos!

[@ekabubii]

Cheers mate, I intend to start a similar system in my town in Africa. I am impressed by what you have done as it is similar to what I have in Mind.

[@jasbindersingh2441]

The way to avoid the relay is to use dc to dc convertors On the 12v or 24v input you wire both the output of the mains ( you put mains into a mains to 24vdc power supply) And you put the output of the battery's into the same input What you then do is just tweek the dc output of the mains to dc supply so the output is fractionally higher than 24vdc And you make sure the battery output is ever so slightly lower than 24vdc - if needed by using another dc to dc convertor The majority current will be drawn from whatever roughly 24vdc output is the slightly higher- current will still flow from the lower supply (in your case the battery) but at maybe 1 or 2 per cent of the current which will flow from the mains power supply. When the mains powered ps is down powered ie power cut, the output from the batteries will obviously be massively higher and all current will be derived from the batteries .... no switching or anything...totally instant.

[@CB-sf6fp]

John, If you connect a large value (or ultra) capacitor in parallel with the dc input of your media convertor it will prevent the point-to-point link from resetting when the relay switches.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Cheers Chris, good idea. I'll throw a diode in there too. Looking at 48v supercaps on Farnell they're a bit on the pricey side. I'll keep an eye out in the scrap bins for a beefy regular capacitor and give it a go.

[@CB-sf6fp]

John Watkins John, I'm glad you like the idea. You already have an awesome setup but I figured you, like me want something ever better. :-) A diode shouldn't be needed as current flowing in the direction of the capacitor will not be detrimental and the voltage drop across a diode might be. Super-caps are super expensive, yes. But you've got the right idea by checking surplus first. If not, you're also right, a suitably large, conventional, electrolytic capacitor should do nicely.Anywho- Best of luck. And keep building awesome things!

[@BaldurNorddahl]

A capacitor will act like a short circuit when you power it up and it may blow the fuse. You need a current limiting circuit such as an inductor and a diode to ground to prevent that from creating over voltage. But why not just power the thing from the battery all the time? The battery is the largest capacitor you can imagine...

[@jonosadler]

Nice setup by the way.... I'd recommend doing away with the relay, should be able to just set the existing PSU to about 27 volts and then run load and batteries in parallel. If you want to get really fancy you could put a specialised battery charger in, but I don't think there is any major benefit in this situation. I'd also recommend monitoring the mains, you could do this really cheaply by just finding a mains voltage IP device of any sort and pinging it every x seconds, mains goes off, device will stop responding to pings.

[@EvanHolleyForce]

Awesome,it's very helpful to me.My local broadband charge is £26.38 for 100M/40M,based on twister cooper VDSL2.

[@rjy8960]

Hi John, This is amazing! I take my hat off to you sir! Really impressive set of skills to put this together. I work in networking (layer 1/2) and am just starting to set up a home lab with a few servers and playing with virtualisation. You mentioned in your video about getting some more servers - I'm getting mine from Bargain Hardware here in the UK, worth having a look at (I'm not connected with them in any way). I'm pretty lucky in that I'm served by Virgin and get 350Mbps down and 20Mbps up (I'd love more up for my Pi-based VPN system). Not sure what you are using for an NTP server, but I'm running a Pi with an add-op GPS HAT board which works really well and probably cost less than £100. Really enjoyed the video's - I'd be interested in seeing future updates as you roll them out.

[@ExStaticBass]

Seeing this I've had a couple ideas that might be helpful. If you use a few super capacitors as a sort of buffer then the devices your powering won't see the switch at all. It should be enough to keep them working while the relay clicks over. Secondly, I'd put some sort of metal shielding between the batteries and the other components. In the event that the device is struck by lightning it's best to keep those two areas separate. Otherwise this is a rather brilliant installation. Thanks for sharing...

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, thanks for watching. Great minds... I recently bought a couple of 33,000uf 40v capacitors and beefy diodes to do just this as I have put in an almost identical installation on the other side of the hill. I've got some 3mm steel sheet which I can trim into a shield for the batteries.

[@RandomUser830]

This is just awesome! Very nice setup. So neat! 👍👍👍

[@dancoulson6579]

You could add a large 1F power capacitor across the 24 supply, after the battery backup system. This would stop it restarting by buffering the short delay during the contact switching.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Dan, thanks for your suggestion. Funnily enough, I've just tonight replied to ExStatic Bass below saying I've got the bits to do just that!

[@notbrozoh9680]

lives in the middle of nowhere, has an amazing setup, and rack.

[@GuillermoFrontera]

You can simplify and eliminate the relay. You will need a battery charger with enough power to feed the batteries and the media converter at the same time, and connect both to the output of the charger. Similar to a car, when the charger is active, will provide power to the batteries and the media converter. When AC power is lost, batteries will feed straight to the media converter.You can also use a DC to DC 24v to 24v power module tu compensate voltage variations because of charging and discharging.This way you can eliminate the 24v power supply, the relay and smooth the 24V feed.Just my Two Cents.

[@BaldurNorddahl]

There is not much advantage in using GPON when you have the splitter at the same location as the GPON switch. It is cheaper to use bidirectional SFP modules in an ordinary fiber switch.

[@wiziek]

What? What the hell you mean by GPON switch...

[@BaldurNorddahl]

@@wiziek this is a GPON switch (OLT): www.ui.com/ufiber/ufiber-olt/

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

The music is Darude: Sandstorm

[@jakehall12]

I watched this video a number of times over the year, I was just wondering if you’re still running the set up and could do an updated video

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hey Jake, thanks for watching! It's still running and has grown bigger. I have loads of fibre customers now and a couple of 10m lattice towers up for wireless customers. This summer I extended the fibre over the hill to the next village and built a solar powered site for wireless customers. I've talked with a mate who helps me out now and again about making more videos, but we never get around to it, too busy trenching and building :o( I'll try to film the next project!

[@lowvoltagedude7837]

Very well done 👍 I was a fusion splicer for a number of years and you did a great job!!!!!

[@jessedwyer4616]

I love it..... But I think you are slightly insane.

[@andersonpyaban8042]

insane is what gets things done my friend

[@clavius1998]

@@andersonpyaban8042 yyuy

[@luaking84]

Nice setup. Have you considered adding TV packages to that setup? You could multicast it / use tvheadend or if you're feeling adventurous, use RFoG on 1550nm

[@112Haribo]

96 core, 800 meters. For only 45 pounds. How exactly did you manage that !

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hey Harold, it was a very vague eBay listing - no length or spec, but in one of the photos you could *just* make out the cable markings enough to go into detective mode and figure out what brand and part it was. I guessed the length based on the drum size, but wildly underestimated. It was a nice surprise when I collected it!

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Heh, and last weekend I picked up 2Km of new, 4-core Brand Rex CST Armoured cable for £180! Perfect for long single customer drops.

[@rantional8180]

2km? was that another ebay lark? or did how did you blag that mate? lol. nice score and thanks for the vid!

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

I won a 500m drum on ebay, then when I got there to pick it up they offered me another 3 drums. We settled on £180 for all four. My latest ebay win was 4km of 72core for £130!! It was only advertised as 1km :o)

[@niceguy235uk1]

More than likely nicked.

[@TRS-Tech]

Well all I can say is if I lived near to you I would buy you a very very large beer. You have done a fantastic job with both your kit and topology. I have worked for openreach as a consultant for many years and you have done a better job than some of the so called "experts" working on the 21CN kit. I do hate you in a wqy... how dare you get all that kit for that price! That has to be the bargain of the century. !!!!!! I would sugest a couple of steps you could take to protect yourself. I worked on some of the main red care infrastructure as my degree is in network and computer security. Sadly I have seen a few well meaning nice people like yourself get into trouble because of one or two (insert naughty word). The first is physical security. One day you are bound to get a visit by someone with a single digit IQ who mistakes blown fibre for copper. This year alone I have seen three thefts of this type and its sadly getting worse. I would sugest some form of steel bar across your joint boxes and maybe a trick I used once that involves using a spare fibre in a conical shape housing with a magnifying glass at the wide end and a fibre at the other in each joint box. At the other end of the fibre use a highly sensitive LDR / transistor / relay linked to a dedicated zone. That way when the box is opened and sunlight or a torch is present in the box the conical housing (pointing upwards of corse) will create an alarm condition. Failing that roller shutter switches and cat 5 with the pairs wired in parallel and a 50v supply to counter voltage drop yiu would get the same result. The other worry is the behavior of people on your intranet. The last thing you want is unpleasant traffic and downloads getting you into trouble. The way the law currently stands you would be responsible. You could consider a server running something like a sophos secure gateway or smoothwall with detailed logging and site filtering. You have done a great job and its fantastic that you are so comunity spirited I would hate to see you get into any trouble. You could consider a document listing your users IP and stating that they are responsible for traffic from that IP. Keep up the great work and thumbs up to you for a great job. If I can ever help in any way please just drop me a line. All the very best. Stuart.

[@____________________________.x]

Yes, good point on the physical security. A cheap IoT board that monitored door switches would be able to send out an SMS if the box was opened. IP monitoring would be awkward, surely it would require consent, and then there is the issue of privacy. Interracial midget clown porn may not be illegal, but his neighbours wouldn't want to share their tastes with their IT guy.

[@TRS-Tech]

LOL at the clown porn... (quickly turns of dvd player) Firstly that's a great idea using a basic signaling device, maybe even using SNMP but I would also sugest a local alarm and whilst that won't deter some of them it may be enough to get them to disappear before they do any damage. In high risk area's Openreach fit steel reinforced doors with a padlock under the box lid. You absolutely need to have audible and signaling alarms at the cabinets. A cheap ebay car alarm at each end would do the job and would be very loud, most of them have a shock sensor so that would be an extra level of protection....... With regards to the monitoring the sophos system for example has an option that needs two user passwords to reveal the logs. If you had a second person that was trusted by your users you can then tell them that the logs would only ever be examined if the police demanded it. I am sure your users would have no issue with that. You could show them the section in the new laws and explain that its there to protect everyone. Sadly my friend the old saying of " no good deed goes unpunished " usualy turns out to be true. If you know anyone in the local police force they may be able to offer some advice. I know its a highly unlikely event but give it some thought. I don't want to panic you but if there is anything life has taught me over the years its CTA! Cover Thine Ass. :) If I can help in any way please give me a shout. I am virtually bed bound now with spinal problems so I don't exactly have a packed social calendar! Regards... Stuart.

[@dh2032]

midget clown porn

[@rjy8960]

Hi Stuart, Just read your last paragraph - I hope in the 11 months since you posted it, your condition has improved.

[@EvanHolleyForce]

The relay seems "finder Relay interface modules 58.34",but video is too blur.Can you show how to wiring between PSU & battery charger+battery?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, it's a generic 4 pole, double throw relay with a 24v coil. The coil is connected to the 24v PSU (pins 13 & 14). Pin 1 - Pin 3 Pin 2 - Pin 4 Pin 5 - Negative of battery charger Pin 6 - Positive of battery charger Pin 7 - Negative of 24v PSU Pin 8 - Positive of 24v PSU Pin 9 - Negative of battery Pin 10 - Positive of battery Pin 11 - Negative of PoE Injector Pin 12 - Positive of PoE Injector

[@JaMoBo265]

Hi, maybe you could try to swap the 24V coil relay with a 230V one. The 24V PSU will always have that delay because of several smoothing caps inside. Good luck!

[@danjones7783]

Hi Mark, awesome video! Where abouts are you in Devon? Looking at your power setup - ubiquiti has recently launched the Edgepower which is a telco DC PSU aimed at WISP's. It has a 150W AC PSU & a 150W DC PSU capable of running on 24V - 54V battery strings & charging them to boot with no interruption in changeover & remote monitoring. Only problem is the 54V output, though I suspect eBay/Alibaba/Farnell/RS/etc would stock a 54V to 24V DC to DC module If you want a laugh, have a look at the advert for Digital Loggers DC UPS

[@maxiecoates8108]

Hi John - Firstly thanks for the video I would like to understand what is the role of the fiber splicer in this setup? is it simply to connect to fiber cables together?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Max, yes. The black plastic enclosures are just for managing the fibre connections. They have multiple cable entry ports, so you can split a large core cable to many smaller ones.

[@keatontaylor3612]

Rolling your own GPON network for local neighborhood is awesome! A few questions: What is your speed on the 5Ghz p2p link? What is the max distance you deliver GPON service from the OLT? How many subscribers do you plan on servicing?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Thanks Keaton! When I installed the 5GHz link, I tested it with IPERF and got more than 600mb over it on an 80MHz channel. Now it's in production, I have it on a 40MHz channel as I only need to put 200mb over it, which it does with ease. The link distance is 2.4Km and current link uptime is 62 days (reset due to a power cut). With only a handful of customers right now, the furthest is 550m away. The current fibre runs close to about 40 dwellings/businesses, I would like to service them all with just a small amount of extra build out, maybe offer them a DIY install kit where they bury the tube to their property boundary. This would involve running the service back up the fibre that goes to the mast, so my furthest away would then be 2.2km.

[@kain41]

Have you considered using pfsense for routing and voip? Can also do caching which would help with backhaul usage

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hey Kain, I did consider pfSense but Zeroshell allows you to create and manage VPN bonds so easily I went for that. Asterisk for me runs on FreeBSD, I'm very familiar with it after years and years of use, and it is rock solid. Good call on the caching though.

[@bjarnenilsson80]

Great video John, have you rolled out IPv6 yet?

[@louishenn3028]

I like it. I just have one question: who did all the digging?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Louis. I got lucky with a lot of it, the local farmer was installing a new power cable and spurs to the properties so I took advantage. I had to hand dig all the hand-holes though :(

[@Saaj2]

awesome video mate, really interesting on how you've got the whole fibre setup to different properties. Do you work in the network infrastructure industry or just have a really strong interest this stuff? please post more updates!

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi SB123. Thanks. My day job is in the field for a wireless ISP, but I wouldn't do it unless I found it interesting!

[@VW_Fan]

Where does the internet come from on the other end of your wireless p2p link? Is the other end connected to the b4rn network or something?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi BrisbaneAU! At the far end of the link are a pair of 80/20mb VDSL lines, bonded by the Alix board shown in the rack to get around 150/35mb.

[@VW_Fan]

Thanks, please can you do a quick video of the other side of the wireless link please?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, I've just posted a video with few pictures of the far end.

[@danengo2]

How did you set up your vlans? Did you need a managed switch? Also how did you set up the multiple gateway failovers? thanks! :)

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Dan. You're right, you need a managed switch. I use the Level One GSW-2496 as my 'core' switch and a 3Com 3CDSG8 in my home rack. These allow you to setup tag or port based VLANS, I use tag as it's more flexible. The red box in the main rack is a PC Engines ALIX board running ZeroShell. There is also an installation of ZeroShell running on a dedicate server in a datacentre. To bond (for speed and failover) the total of 3 connections I have, the datacentre ZeroShell runs 3 VPN servers (each one on a different public IP) and the ALIX Zeroshell runs 3 VPN clients with each one connecting over a different link by setting static routes. Both ZeroShell instances then have a bond created between the 3 VPN sessions (this is where you set the failover or weighting up) and finally a bridge between the bond and an ethernet port. This gives a transparent and resilient tunnel to the datacentre.

[@jackeng1234]

great video really interesting, keep posting updates.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Thanks Jack. I'm pulling in a temporary connection through some woodland this weekend for a customer. I'll try to get some footage! It's over 1km using armoured 4-core fibre.

[@cgcrghvtygjy5462]

John Watkins how do you get permission to dig the ducts?! Awesome work btw

[@Zeamus634]

Did you have to re-drill the cabinet door and drill a bigger hole to fit a new keyed lock or did it come like that?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Zeamus634. Nope, the cabinet came with a standard panel cam lock installed, the supplier (Expert Electrical) also sold the key type lock as an accessory - so I ordered that too.

[@FrancaS_Cast0523]

How many customers do you have in your network?

[@dasl73]

Hi John, awesome setup. I live in a Devon hamlet with a dozen properties all Exchange Connected copper - so no ADSL/VDSL any time soon. Running 4G broadband at the moment but your setup has me thinking an upgrade is in my future! Where are you in Devon? Probably not 1km from me :-(

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi dasl73, about 15 mins from Exeter. I've PM'd you with more details.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

@XtraPixel Hey, I'm selling 80/10, 160/20 and 330/30mbps packages to people in the villages now. Jurassic have some very competitive signup offers and packages!

[@magnusll110]

Hi John. Big fan of your projects I have watched your video a lot and tried to do something similar at my parents old place but without luck. Are you going to do an update on your network? ?

[@robertsulley]

Incredible! Verging on insane! Tell me, the other end of the 5ghz link, is that a friends house, or some other rogue infrastructure installation?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Robertsully, It is on a house, but I don't really know the person. I'm going to do a video about the far end next week.

[@lukedyte3969]

I really enjoy learning about this stuff. but i can't fully understand this. as far as i can see it's a 5ghz link of I'm guessing a gigabit speed or so? then goes down to fiber. into your house. then to a switch and out to other people's houses. what i cant understand is how your giving ips to each fiber/ customer connection?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Lute, In the plant room cab is a small router running Zeroshell. This creates 3 VPN tunnels (one over each separate connection - two masts and one ADSL backup) to an identical router in a datacentre. The 3 VPN tunnels are bonded together and packets sent accross them based on each link's capacity, this creates one big tunnel which is then effectively a bridge into the datacentre *Where I have a pool of public IPs*. The datacentre bridge is connected to a GPON OLT which manages the traffic to the end users' routers. The end users routers are currently just using DHCP - there is a DHCP server in one of the racks which provides public IPs based on the WAN MAC of the router.

[@BaldurNorddahl]

Have the GPON switch add option 82 to the DHCP requests. Then you can program the DHCP server based on identity of the customer instead of MAC.

[@sebastianmalek7246]

is this tunnel a L2 bridge? also, what kind of VPN is it? OpenVPN?

[@JoneKone]

Impressive setup :)

[@okekekennedy2785]

Impressive setup

[@davecullen86]

Nice John, it seems you know ur stuff! Great watch, cheers!

[@scwfan08]

No speed test?

[@martinnash007]

Hi John. Just came across your video and I learnt a lot from it. Awesome setup. Just out of interest, how much do you charge your customers to be connected and I guess monthly fees?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Martin, free connection then £24.99 for 30/5mb broadband per month

[@QuaabQueb]

Very nice setup

[@cgcrghvtygjy5462]

Do you own the land the mast is built on?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

No, I have an agreement with the landowner

[@peterwarduk]

What is your incoming internet speed before you send it out

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

When this video was filmed I had a 80/20 FTTC line at the other end of the link. I now have an additional mast just like this one that links to a location where I have a 220/20 FTTP line. I keep the 80/20 link active as a failover backup. I limit the speeds end users can access to 30/5.

[@MikatekoChristopherNkanyani]

Hi John, I am really fascinated about you doing and I actually have the vision to develop such infrastructure but due to lack of the knowledge and not knowing where to start is abit difficult to equip yourself with knowledge. Would you mind to share the knowledge or which books or sites I can read n implement this System

[@Chris_Badger]

Hey John great set up you have there and your neighbours must love you. I saw in one comment all in all it came to around 6k for the setup. Did you out of interest get a quote for Ethernet? They've come in down in price dramatically since you made this video. Thanks Chris.

[@l0ckd0wn360]

how about a capacitor on the 24v rail to stop the converter reseting. ?

[@nanjay2006]

is this illegal or are you allowed to do this? and how long did it take you to do all that!

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Nanjay ali. Perfectly legal in the UK. There are some sensible things to bear in mind such as if somebody does something naughty, you need to be able to identify them, so having everyone behind a single NAT IP is a bad idea unless you have substantial logging. I give each connection a static public IP to get around this. It took about 6 months from planning to begin testing customers, but that was weekends only as my day job took me away 5 days a week.

[@nanjay2006]

John Watkins so do you pay for the electricity?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, it's a little complicated as I don't own the place the rack is installed and there is a grid-tied biofuel generator in the same premises. Needless to say, it gets paid for eventually. As for power consumption, the whole lot sits at about 200w.

[@nanjay2006]

John Watkins awesome!!

[@magnusll110]

Hi John. Are you going to post any updates on your project. ? :D

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, Yes. I've got a few projects lined up for this year that I'm looking to make videos of, now it hopefully has stopped raining. The building with the OLT rack in burnt down at 03:00 one January morning :o( which caused an outage until about 18:00 the same day. I had upgraded the OLT a couple of weeks beforehand, so luckily I had a ready configured spare! The building is still being rebuilt, the OLT is in a temporary street cabinet but will need all migrating back inside, so that might be a video. I have a few more properties to trench to and install.

[@magnusll110]

@@JohnWatkinsUK Sorry to heare about you losing the building with the OLT installed in had you upgradetet for speed before it got burned down. ? that sounds like som interesting videos coming up. :D I really love your project. But that is not bad downtime wise when you think of it compared to the mutch bicker ISPes when they some time has such problems. :)

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

@@magnusll110 Thanks, yes I was pretty shattered by the end of the day, but the building also did communal heating for 10 properties, and power supply for 6, which took longer to get back up and running! I'm doing a 60Mb package now too, but this summer I have a project to upgrade the backhaul for 50/100/300 packages. Will hope to get a video of that.

[@ukaszduda2238]

What is this red device on the door in about 1:15?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Lukasz, it's a 3-stage battery charger to keep the batteries topped up.

[@FaeLLe]

Question from me please, OpenReach will give me the ONT , BBU & Connecterised Cable (i presume that means just plain old fibre cable) what does the Developer need to do? Is it just drill a hole in the wall and bring the cable into the property and wall mount the ONT & BBU ? Will BT terminate the fibre connection for me? Appreciate your insights.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, I'm not 100% with how BT work with developers. From the installations I have seen in new builds, there is a Customer Splice Point (CSP / fibre joint box) on the outside of the property. At a guess, they are asking you to run the internal cable, mount the ONT/BBU, then route the cable out to somewhere near the end of their duct or where an overhead cable could drop down the wall. BT would then visit and bring a fibre from the local DP/CMJ and splice the two ends together in the CSP.

[@FaeLLe]

@@JohnWatkinsUK thanks John by a developer I meant just a residential developer who is contributing to the build as I have two house side by side I am reworking so it counts in their criteria to enable FTTP. Guess the connectorisation cable then is just a pull wire kind of thing ? Any idea if i could get away with running it inside a long duct to the other end of the property? Anyway fingers crossed they will do a site survey soon and we will agree these things. I was worried they would just give me the fibre and tell me to splice / terminate it with LC connectors or something and tell me to plug into ONT as a part of self lay.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

@@FaeLLe It'll be a length of fibre with a plug on one end (to go into the ONT). Yes, if they're coming round then best to check with them. Putting in duct is always a good idea!

[@FaeLLe]

@@JohnWatkinsUK appreciate your insights let's see how this goes. I am considering helping my neighbours down the road who are not in fibre rollout plan (1 mile away!) Share my Internet connection using Ubiquiti airmax.

[@pagles1]

You need to talk to Wessex Internet. They are doing this all over Dorset and other areas

[@nickharvey5149]

Hi John. I've got a customer near to you I think who might benefit from this sort of thing. How do I get in touch with you?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Nick, Click on my name above, then the About tab, there will be a Send Message button there. Thanks!

[@FrancaS_Cast0523]

Sua rede é excelente

[@paulstallard3868]

Hi I have just discovered your channel and am wondering where your knowledge to do the fttp came from? Are you an openreach engineer?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Paul, thanks for watching. I'm not an Openreach engineer. It's mostly self-taught from Google, KZbin, websites and observing bits in the wild when I got the chance. For the GPON kit, I'm familiar with general CLI config from routers and switches in my day job, so buying an OLT and ONUs, playing with them and reading the manufacturer documentation is the way to learn that stuff.

[@paulstallard3868]

@@JohnWatkinsUK Hi John, That is seriously cool stuff you have done so I watched you slice the fibre using a splicer it that something you have at work or were just lucky to pick up because you seem to have all the correct gear? Totally awesome by the way it is a thing of beauty watching that process. Also congrats on your work incredible to see and watch your tour also inspirational and motivational thank you.

[@nickhughes5777]

What brand are the fiber enclosures in the pits John? i need something like that! - Excellent job on the whole project!! :)

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Nick, thanks for your comment! The enclosures are Hellermann Tyton FML type with Hellipse NZDF SE-B trays. www.hellermanntyton.co.uk/products/fml-closures

[@nickhughes5777]

thank you

[@fotografm]

That was a great video to see ! How is the legality in the UK these days of running a public wifi network and supplying comms to neighbours ? I remember the days when BT wanted to prevent the two yogurt cartons connected with a string over the neighbours fence :-)

[@trollobite1629]

Yes, well, if I catch you talking to your neighbour via a yoghurt cartoon attached to some string you can rest assured there will be consequences, some very serious consequences. PS I tried that back in the early 70s with two Marvel dried powder milk tins and it was crap. 😁

[@fotografm]

@@trollobite1629 Better the Pringles WiFi antenna....

[@VioletDragonsProjects]

Where did you get your racks from? Im wanting to get a rack to put my pfSense machine in, Server and Backup Server.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi, Thanks for watching. They both came from sellers on eBay for under £50.

[@sbistr1019]

A village?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Yup, as Wikipedia perfectly describes it "larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town"

[@noahbaatz6115]

mini-wisp?

[@abscomm]

The cat is saying "Just shut up and feed me!"

[@Lanceb131]

Ay updates please?

[@KianaKaslana638]

666 subscribers as of May 20 Illuminati confirmed. How fast is that?

[@chetana9802]

add automatic subtitles

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Chetan, thanks for pointing this out. I can't add them for this video as the audio is too poor - but I will manually caption it soon. My other videos have auto captions, which I will edit shortly too.

[@____________________________.x]

Nooooo, buy a tripod first...

[@eastwardExpansion]

You could get an apc transfer switch

[@rantional8180]

@6:55 do the British actually think the internet is made up of a series of tubes?

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

This type of fibreoptic cable is called 'Loose tube'. It is a bundle of fibres contained within a gel-filled tube. So, yes, physically in places it is. How would the cats get through otherwise?

[@fmslickful]

How much do they pay you for this service? lol

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Monthly, I charge £24.99 for 20Mb/4Mb broadband and an extra £5 for a VOIP line with calls on top. I plan to offer a premium (50Mb?) package once I have a larger customer base.

[@fmslickful]

Nice and not a bad price for the setup.

[@____________________________.x]

That's fantastic for a rural location, any house near you would instantly be worth £xxxK more. I'd imagine your ability to provide tech support would outclass Virgin/BT too.

[@Paul_owie]

I didn't know we were allowed to set up Internet connections, without using the big Two (Virgin and Openreach)? Maybe you should've kept this to yourself? Or maybe, set up you own company. 'High speed country internet.' It goes right over my head. You boffin. 😊

[@peterthirteen9582]

very creative

[@X5abeerX]

very nice good job

[@johnm2012]

There are too many unexplained acronyms. I had to look up PON, for example.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi Johnm2012. Sorry about that, I'll bear it in mind for future videos. For anyone else wondering, GPON = Gigabit Passive Optical Network (Passive because the splitters do not require power)

[@LordGooben]

you donn't use ubiquiti?

[@trevormasterson8035]

Hi John.Great Videos and amazing work.Have you got an email where I can send you a few questions on what you did or are you on LinkedIn or Face book !!Trevor.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Thanks Trevor! I've sent you a private message.

[@SneakyFERRiS]

All for only 5mbps?? I'm so sorry, wonderfully done though :)

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi John, 5mbps is what I get on my ADSL line. On this system I get 150mbps.

[@androiduser4162]

nice work john i have a similar setup at home my neighbours are fucking bastards though so i would never help them get it .i get fibre speed they get dial up haha

[@sanjitakanjilal3331]

Awsomeee

[@trev9874]

getting dissy and not very work safe !! get a tripod of some sort but otherwise Great stuff

[@bitsofskin2088]

Its protected with a key??? One key?? That lock can be picked in seconds.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

True, but this is hidden away up a hill in rural Devon, not the mean streets of Yeovil :o)

[@bitsofskin2088]

Yes, i agree, it's in very remote location. However, (and im sure you know this) if someone really wanted too, its extremely easy to find. In fact, you've just given me a BIG clue on where it is :) 1:11 shows the key that WHOLE network is protected by. You realize how easy it is to take that picture and create a key? Its a 4/5 pin double pinned lock, VERY easy to overcome. Or, even easier, use a rake to pick the lock? Or hey, fuck it, just use a crow bar... I'm not trying to be an asshole, i'm just pointing out how easy it would be to take down that whole network. Or Even worse, monitor all the traffic going thru it. Its an amazing set up, i like it. The physical security sucks tho... You obviously have extremely naive customers. I wouldn't use your network the way it is ATM for anything!!!

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

I understand what you're getting at, a pair of cutters through the fibre would be equally effective to take down this link. There is a lower bandwidth backup for VOIP and limited Internet access to fail-over. All customer traffic at this point runs over an encrypted VPN.

[@bitsofskin2088]

Which can be sniffed at this very point we are talking about? Also, why are you using a VPN link at the MAIN point? Encryption means nothing on a VPN, especially when i can get physical access to the main link.

[@bitsofskin2088]

A quick question, your running NIX, right? What version os NIX are you running bro? EDIT : Ok, sorry, your running XEN for VM? and your NIX version is Debian?

[@markhodgson2348]

Pure fiĺth

[@blackgoldestates172]

this is not fttp

[@James76767]

What is it then? Because it looks like fttp to me.

[@williscooper7750]

Fibre for 5 Mbs internet lol

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Listen up at the back William! I said 5Mbps was the current ADSL speed in the village. I have >400Mbps backhaul available now.

[@williscooper7750]

Thats only to the pole. no way you are going to get that full amount to your house if you are sharing the pole with the village.....still fibre for anything under gigabit sustained is massive over kill and you will never see the results of it vs even cat 5e. ONLY will you see that is internal to your network. IE a laptop connecting to a media server localy otherwise you are still limited to the slowest connection. Just like I have an Wireless AC 1750 router capable of doing up to 1500 Mbs of wireless but wireless clients hitting the net will never beat my 150Mbs Broadband connection to my house.

[@JohnWatkinsUK]

Hi William, I think your comment is saying 'why use fibre for anything under a gigabit' - I may have misunderstood you, but here is my reply to that: Distance: You can't run an ethernet CAT5e cable 1.5Km and still get gigabit speed through it. Cost: £20/100m of outdoor rated CAT5e, £36/100m for 4 core fibre (though I used 12 core), it's only twice the cost. Versatility: Easy upgrade to 10Gbe today on fibre, WDM allows core re-use, multiple cores allow to service subscribers and branch off. Huge bandwidth. Futureproof. I do get that 400Mb to my equipment, most of the subscribers in the village are rate limited to 30Mbps packages (myself included). This allows for a very low contention ratio and happy customers.

[@williscooper7750]

certainly not without repeaters. Must have missed that part in your video saying the pole is that far. But also was meaning mostly internal

[@ketas]

noone mentioned that fiber doesn't conduct, so lightning isn't issue too...