30ft (10 Meters) Uniboot LC to LC Outdoor Armored Fiber Patch Cable, Single Mode Duplex Fiber Optic Cable Jumper Optical Patch Cord, 9/125um, (OS1/OS2 Compatible), Low Friction LSZH Black

I bought this cable to replace a 100 foot, outdoor, aerial copper Ethernet cable between two buildings. The problem with the copper line was lightning strikes in the area sometimes charged the copper Ethernet wires and blew out my networking equipment. This would happen to me every 3 or 4 years. That got expensive. Since fiber is now cheap enough to run as a homeowner, I took the opportunity to replace the copper so I can relax during lightning storms. This cable needs a carrier wire to suspend it so as not to damage the fiber line itself. I already had that installed, as I was merely replacing the copper Cat6 line with a fiber line. To suspend this fiber cable, I wrapped it around my suspension cable every foot or so. I did find that the loops of the fiber line around my suspension cable tended to bunch up -- either the coating on this fiber line is "slippery" or the suspension cable is slippery, or both. Either way, I had to find a way to keep the fiber line from sliding down my suspension cable, so I used a bunch of smaller wires to physically wrap around both the fiber line and my carrier line to fix the two cables together every 10 feet or so. I bought this specific cable to match the media converters used to convert from electrical to optical on one end and then back to electrical signal on the other end. The description for the media converts I used was: "A Pair of Gigabit Single-Mode LC Fiber to Ethernet Media Converter (SFP LX Modules Included),1.25G Fiber Media Converter, 1000Base-LX to 10/100/1000Base-TX, 1310nm, SMF, Transmission up to 20-KM" You can read my review of those converters to see my experience with them.

Installation was straightforward and easy. I’ve been using it for about a week now and the speed has been excellent. The cable is very durable, with a tighter bend radius than I expected. Fiber optics have clearly improved a lot over time, both in performance and cost. My setup was simple. I ran the cable through PVC conduit buried underground and used wide sweep bends where the pipe comes up out of the ground. One important tip is to make sure you choose the correct connector ends for your equipment, there are several options, so it’s worth double-checking before you buy. I ended up with some extra cable coiled in my utility room, which hasn’t affected performance at all. Even over a distance of about 200 meters, speed remains strong. Overall, I would definitely recommend it and would buy it again.

I got the cable, had to sit on it for a couple months. Finally very carefully pulled it. Gave it a test after pulling it and all was well. Fast forward when I actually go to use it inexplicably one of the two fibers is broken. I figure hey, maybe it was me. Maybe I was too rough with it even though I was ultra ultra careful to not bend or pull hard on it. So I find this SFP that can do bidirectional comm on a single fiber. I these SFP and have to disassemble the uniboot connector on one side to fit it. Imagine my surprise to open the uniboot and find the fibers looped over themselves with an obvious break on the one line. I used my phone camera and sure enough I could see IR light coming from the break. You see the video above where they show how to reverse the polarity? See how the fibers are perfectly straight and cut to the right length. Not for me. Left too long, looped over and broken as a result. It would be really hard for me at this point to pull a new fiber. What a crap situation caused by some poor attention to detail. Open your uniboot connectors to make sure things are good.

I got 500 feet of this fiber cable and it works flawlessly. I use a pair of TP-Link SPF's to terminate it and I get full end-to-end gigabit service. This is to run from my home to an adjacent building. As the water line is run from the house to the new building, I will drop this and an RG-6 cable into the same trench before closing it up. I am confident that there will be no issue with direct-burial under these conditions. 11/07/2023 I wanted to amend this review now that I have installed this fiber. I buried it as mention above and it held up even when the trench was filled in. I have terminated it in the new building and tested again today. Even after abuse the fiber received (kinks, curling, etc.) as it was installed, it still works error-free with full speed. I highly recommend this fiberoptic cable.

Uniboot connector jammed in every bend. The LC latch came loose . $90 for this? Poor design and quality.