The following is a collection of important advice and things to be aware of.
🚑 Safety #
- Never look directly into a fibre connector or the end of a fibre cable. It can carry invisible laser light that can damage your eyes.
- Never open your fibre termination box.
- Before any drilling, point out hidden water pipes and electrical cables to the installation team so they aren’t struck by accident.
- Keep your router and fibre box away from water and damp.
- Make sure an adult is present whenever an installation or repair team is working in your home.
⚠️ Warnings and important tips #
- Don’t reset your router to factory defaults unless you’re sure it’s needed – you’ll lose your custom settings (WiFi name, password, port forwards, etc.).
- Don’t paint over, cover, or stack things on the fibre box – it needs ventilation and clear access for repairs. Make sure you can easily reach it to reboot it or take a photo of the status lights.
- Don’t remove the fibre box (ONT/CPE) – it remains the property of the FNO.
- Don’t put your router into “Bridge” mode.
- Don’t bend or coil your fibre patch cable too tightly – fibre is glass, and a sharp bend can cause major signal loss.
- Match the power supply to the device. Check the voltage and current (amps) the router, ONT or CPE needs, and only use a PSU with the correct voltage and connector. A higher-voltage PSU can permanently damage the device.
- Don’t hide your WiFi router in an enclosed space (cupboard, drawer, box) – routers generate heat and need ventilation to work reliably.
- Loadshedding and power spikes can damage your fibre box and router – ideally power these devices with a DC-UPS or use a surge-protected multi-plug.
- Make sure you have a laptop or PC with a Gigabit Ethernet port, so you can do a cabled speed test.