The Transition to Fiber

[ewhac]

Some miscellany:

I was concerned that reconfiguring the gateway from static IP over Fusion X2 to DHCP over fiber was going to be a big hassle. It turns out pfSense handles this really well:

• Edit the WAN interface. Disable it and save the changes.
• Edit the WAN interface again, changing the configuration type from Static to DHCP. Save the changes.
• Go to System/Routing. A new gateway entry may have appeared (it did for me) representing the newly DHCP'd WAN interface. Select the DHCP gateway as the default. Disable the old static gateway. Save the changes.
• Go to System/General Setup. Enable the box for "DNS Server Override." Save the changes.
• Edit the WAN interface a third time and enable it. This may take a few seconds.

Your WAN interface should now have a dynamically assigned IP and gateway address, and your LAN should be back on the air.

Earlier I wondered aloud:

It turns out that there's already an unused hole in the side of the house through which copper phone service used to pass. It'd be awful convenient to use, if the fiber cable fits.

It fit; no new holes needed. Without the end connector, the cable is on the small side -- smaller than a typical Ethernet cable.

I also asked:

...is there a template available for siting the [ONT's] mounting screws?

Apparently not, and your field tech needed a couple of tries before placing the screws just right so the ONT would slide on (not slagging on your field tech; he was really good). May I suggest you 3D-print a little template allowing the tech to perfectly place the screws on the first try, then slide the template off and install the ONT.

I still need to perfect the inside wiring (wish me luck on custom-crimping Cat.6A cables), but so far everything's worked out fine.