TOSLINK part 2

Who says "RJ45" is incorrect? I'm guessing you misread Wikipedia "Although commonly referred to as RJ45 in the context of Ethernet and category 5 cables, this is incorrect in the context of a generic 8P8C connector". You only ever see 8P8C, in the wild, referring to OLD phone connectors that needed the four pairs for four analog lines. Top-of-the-line cabling tools are labelled RJ45 or RJ-45. Fluke calls it RJ45. Are you willing to argue with the people that sell $800 testers by the pallet that they are wrong? Ethernet is a generic term nowadays for twisted pair network cables, but you are right that it's technically incorrect. "Cat5" is old and most people don't use it anymore. In the retail networking space, we generally use Cat5E and Cat6 and occasionally Cat6A for longer runs (like DMARC extensions).

Andrew Sloniger

as a fellow troll i really appreciate the digs at our more strict colleagues who prefer things a specific way.

Biking With Panda

or RJ45?

Biking With Panda

What about Cat 5e and Cat 6 and Cat 6a?

Wolf

Brilliant video Alec, was chuckling the whole time, whilst being informed too! Many thanks 😁

Scott Rowland

Man, this one was good. Supper witty and informative. I’m upping my tier because of it. Edit: oh no, it is sold out! :(

My major, back in the early 90's, was Optical Engineering. The new program was sold to us on the basis that optics were taking over the world, and surely by 2020 even the CPU would've been long replaced with an optical variant. Alas. I appreciate the effort you put into your videos. Have you considered doing one on tankless water heaters? I've moved into my first house with one, and I couldn't be happier.

Darren Pierce

Every time you post a video I can’t imagine them getting any better, but every time you manage to out-do yourself.

You leveled up

kn0tsin

This is one of your best videos.

kn0tsin

Fiber optics... Now you are talking my language! I build and use fiber optic test systems for a living, so I can tell you a thing or two about EDFAs (the fiber amplifiers you mentioned). If there is real interest, I can try to put a "few" paragraphs together to try and explain in layman's terms what they are and how they work...

BrianL

Fiber-to-the-premises is not very common here. I couldn't tell you what the exact percentages are, but I'd wager it's in less than 10% of homes.

Technology Connections

In our apartment in São Paulo and pretty much all my family in Denmark is getting Internet in to the house through a fiber optic cable - This cable is not somewhere out on the street, it is an actual fiber optic all the way inside the house. A box then splits it into TV and internet, so all TV (and internet of course) is delivered on a fiber optic data connection. I doubt it is only Brazil and Denmark that is like that, but from watching the video it seems to me that this is not normal in the US?

Lars Kuur

fyi: i’ve had plenty of issues with projectors and hdmi and ground loops so the problem definitely still exists... ;)

Next week: YOU'VE ANGERED THE FIBER OPTIC CABLE LIGHT PATH DIAGRAM GODS!

Ketafuki

Hey, I’m no amateur klutz. I’m a professional, dammit.

Sean Hearrell

It does no harm for the testing equipment to have a true RJ45 jack -- the jack will accommodate both 8P8C and RJ45 plugs/cables. We don't actually see the business end of the cable tester in the video, so we can't quite for-shame it just on that basis. :)

Travis Snoozy

I almost want you to make a THIRD channel where you make short and sweet videos really making fun of the "Um, Actually..." and/or pedantic comments... Where the sarcasm and sass start to get to critical levels... Maybe even super critical levels... But I fear this may, in fact, backfire and anger the Internet Gods...

You're having a lot of fun with the humor parts. And it's working well. Keep it up!

Big Car

Speaking of Linus, he's had a couple videos recently about his weird optical Thunderbolt 2 set-up and the limitations of that. He also implied in his WAN Show stream yesterday that Corning might be close on optical Thunderbolt 3 and sent him samples.

Kevin Kostka

Are you aware of SMPTE 304? I appreciate its completely out of the scope of the domestic market. In broadcast we use what is referred to locally as simp-tee (SMPTE) It's used to connect broadcast cameras such as the type used at live multi camera live sports events back to the TV truck. It's a single cable with two lines of single mode fiber, with some decent gauge copper which typically supplies around 110/230 AC (or DC!, yes, 100v DC!) and a two smaller conductors which are used for (as far as I'm aware) a form of communications line to check the status of the camera before the main power supply is turned on. Which, as far as I'm aware is a fairly advanced fault intolerant power supply for the purposes of safety etc. I believe there's RCD/GFI circuit that is checked before the cameras base station will allow power to go to the camera head. There is significant voltage drop off on long runs but I think in many cases it's good for around to 1.5km-ish before the need to start powering the camera head locally arises. The fiber itself isn't a problem. On big setups such as race tracks or golf, with cable runs around 5km breakout units are used to run the fiber out separately and the camera is just powered locally. I suspect will be the CCTV and/or IT market that is most likely to see a 'consumer' level fiber hybrid, cable and connector setup in the future, some form of optical/power ethernet standard for convenience and tidiness. If you want SMPTE 304, be prepared to pay (UK prices) £10 per meter of cable, and £250 per each connector. The camera heads alone (no lens or base station or remote control for racking iris), even with these it's still largely useless) are around £40k

I learned some things about optical fibers, thanks! But more critically: Please don't make a habit of including yelly parts. It's such a contrast with your usual calm style that I had to lunge for the volume control and the fast forward.

Kevin Reid

At work we use Cisco QSFP-40/100-SRBD optics. They're only $700ea (much less with discounts) and move full duplex ethernet at 100Gbps over a single pair of cheap ($1/ft with ends) OM3 MMF. And it'll go 70M, 100M if you use slightly more expensive OM4. Blows my mind!

James Sutherland

Fiber breaks much easier than copper, which is probably a good reason not to put it into the clumsy little hands of ordinary people.

Simon Mikkelsen

OMG I was eating when the "Ethernet" with the green light part came up. I laughed so hard I inhaled my food. Choking, eyes watering, laughing. Nice job, made my morning!

James Sutherland

2 Fast 2 TOSLINK

Aw, peas!

Technology Connections

I appreciated the little jab at “purists” when discussing how the etherne- I mean, Cat 5 cable connector is not actually RJ-45, even though testing equipment calls it that.

Sean Hearrell

Periodic Videos touched on light re-amplification in their Erbium episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-DY_RT4fJ4

lohphat

Another pedantic correction: it's not FireWire, it's IEEE 1394 ;)

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

It's flashing at a rate of only 3 Hz so I don't think this would trigger any individuals with photosensitive epilepsy. I'll check to see if there are any guidelines surrounding that just to be safe

Technology Connections

Probably need an epilepsy warning@ 7:38.

Nathaniel Andrews

Very interesting indeed!

Technology Connections

Interestingly, all of my deployments for AT&T and Cenutrylink use Single Mode Fiber no matter how short - or long - the run is. This mostly is to get rid of the issue of 62.5μm or 50μm multimode fiber if we don't know what type it is in the riser fiber of buildings. Yes, jacket color is often a good indicator, but not always. Both companies have just contracted us to do SMF so there is no guesswork.

Jason McMillon

If you haven't made it to the end yet I put a little jab at that pedanticism with a bit of a revelation. Also, showing the yellow Cat5 cable with a tag saying "Ethernet Cable" was *very* deliberate

Technology Connections

As someone who used to work in IT (specifically the helpdesk, dealing with the 'users' and 'admins' both on a daily/hourly basis) anyone who gets angry over the 'Ethernet/CAT5' usage can please go back to the dark server room they crawled out of to make that comment. Audiophiles can be pedantic, but they certainly don't have a monopoly on it...

I hope to see Furious Internet Comment Alec reporting in from the 5th circle of hell on a regular basis. :D

Travis Snoozy

Yessss

The fact that there is a Part 2 shows why i love this channel