[jmacd]

I just had this experience. I had a 200ft run between my house and barn. The original builder put a direct bury ethernet between the two and it failed. I dug a trench, put in a conduit, pulled 2 fibre lines and left a pull string in.

I recently had the primary fibre fail and am now on the backup. If I need to pull new ones in the future I can do that pretty easily through the conduit.

[bityard]

Yep. Direct-burial ethernet is surprisingly vulnerable to nearby lightning strikes. It's not a matter of IF the cable or devices get damaged, it's a matter of when. Nearby (not even direct) lightning induces ground voltage potentials between buildings to the tune of hundreds of volts or more.

[c0nsumer]

Do you have experience or information on direct burial ethernet for something like a POE camera? I'd like to put one on the back fence to watch the back of the house and yard. Direct burial in the back yard would be a plenty easy thing to do, but the cable is pricey enough that I've held off for now.

[LgWoodenBadger]

Whatever you do make sure you put a fiber media converter between the “ethernet” cable and your network to prevent your entire network getting fried.

[protocolture]

I used to consult for an ISP that put direct bury in a region where it snows 1/3rd of the year.

It was profit generating. They would offer to put conduit in for an extra fee, the customers always said no, then they would be back to install conduit and cable in the spring after the ice had killed the cable.

[throwaway2037]

    > I recently had the primary fibre fail

Woah, this is surprising. Do you know the root cause? I could imagine copper cabling is much more sensitive to the outdoors, that is why I am so surprised about your fibre failure.