Antena in sky

The day your fiber installer shows up shouldn’t feel like a construction project you didn’t plan for. Cables through rooms, furniture dragged around, everyone asking where the modem should go. It’s stressful, and it doesn’t have to be.

A little prep work before the appointment makes a big difference. You get a faster install, fewer surprises, and a setup that actually matches how you live or work instead of whatever was easiest for the technician in the moment. That’s especially important if you run a small business where every hour of downtime shows up on your balance sheet.

Let’s walk through what to do before the truck pulls up, so your fiber install is clean, safe, and ready to perform from day one. 

1. Understand What Your Fiber Provider Will Install

Before you think about where to move furniture or how to route cables, it helps to know what’s actually coming into your home or office.

In a typical fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-premises setup, your provider brings a fiber drop from the street or alley to your building. That fiber terminates in an optical network terminal (ONT), usually mounted on an exterior wall, in a utility room, or in a low-traffic corner of your space. From there, an Ethernet connection runs to your router, which is what your devices ultimately connect to, either via Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet. FTTH uses bundled, hair-thin glass strands to transmit data via light, which allows very high speeds and low latency compared with copper-based technologies like DSL and many cable systems.

Your installer has some flexibility, but they’re constrained by realities like where they can safely drill, where existing conduits are, and how far they can reasonably run Ethernet without adding more hardware. Before installation day, review any pre-install email or order summary from your provider so you know what they’ve committed to: whether they’re running a new fiber drop, reusing an existing one, or expecting you to have internal cabling already in place. If you’re not sure, a quick call to their support line asking, “Where will the ONT likely go, and what do you expect me to have ready?” can save a lot of back-and-forth at the door.

2. Clear the Path: Physical Prep Inside and Outside

Once you understand roughly where fiber will enter and where the ONT and router might land, the next job is simple but critical: make it easy to work.

Technicians need clear access along the route from the outside entry point to the ONT and router location. That means moving furniture away from likely wall runs, clearing space around baseboards, and making sure closets, utility rooms, and hallways are not jammed with boxes. Many fiber providers specifically ask customers to clear paths and provide unobstructed access to wall outlets and baseboards because it cuts down installation time and avoids accidental damage to your belongings. 

If your home or office already has conduit or structured cabling routes in place, like surface raceways, ceiling trays, or patch panels, now’s the time to tidy them up and decide how you want new fiber to tie in. For small businesses or home offices with more than a couple of rooms to connect, it can be worth leaning on professional fiber optic cabling solutions to pre-wire key areas, connect separate suites, or ensure your backbone cabling is properly terminated and tested before the ISP arrives. That way, the installer only needs to bring fiber to a clean demarcation point, and you keep control over how your internal network is laid out.

Do a quick safety check too. If the installer needs to pass through an attic, crawl space, or tight storage area, remove loose items and make sure there’s a stable spot to stand or place a ladder. If you have pets, plan to keep them in a separate room or crate; many installation guides explicitly recommend this to protect both the animals and the technicians while they’re drilling or pulling cable. Make sure there’s a working power outlet near where you expect the ONT and router to live. Running extension cords as a permanent solution is asking for trouble. 

3. Design Your Inside Network, Not Just the Entry Point

Fiber gets the bandwidth into your building, but your internal network decides whether that bandwidth actually feels fast in the places you care about.

Think about your router placement first. Wi-Fi works best when the router is in a reasonably central, elevated, open location. Ideally not buried behind metal racks, inside a cabinet, or right next to a thick concrete wall. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) specifically encourages users to consider router placement and home layout when designing their home networks, since physical obstructions and interference can significantly reduce speeds and reliability inside the premises.

Walk through your space and map your key zones. For a home, that might be a home office, living room, and kids’ rooms. For a small business, it could be a front counter, back office, and warehouse or workshop. Ask yourself:

  • Where do we actually need strong, consistent Wi-Fi?
     

  • Are there any areas where a wired Ethernet drop would be smarter than Wi-Fi. For example, a desktop used for video calls all day, a point-of-sale terminal, or a network printer?

If you know you’ll need Ethernet in specific places, decide before install whether you’re comfortable running cables along baseboards or through walls, or whether you’d rather have those runs done neatly with proper jacks and patch panels. Fiber coming into the building doesn’t automatically solve internal wiring; it just gives you more capacity to distribute. Being clear about “router here, wired drop there, Wi-Fi coverage over here” lets you have a more productive conversation with the installer instead of deciding everything on the fly.

You’ll also want to check whether your current router can take advantage of the speeds you’re paying for. Older Wi-Fi gear may become your new bottleneck. If your provider isn’t supplying a modern router, consider upgrading to a Wi-Fi 6 or better device that supports your new fiber speed tier, especially if you have a lot of concurrent users or IoT devices. That’s doubly important for small businesses that rely on cloud apps, VoIP calls, and video conferencing, where jitter and latency are just as painful as low download speeds.

4. For Small Businesses: Minimize Downtime and Protect Operations

If you’re running a shop, clinic, or small office, the difference between a smooth install and a messy one is often how well you plan the day around it.

Start with timing. Book the installation window outside your busiest hours wherever possible, and let staff know exactly when to expect Internet interruptions. If you use cloud-based point-of-sale or booking systems, have a backup play: a mobile hotspot, a secondary low-speed connection, or a clear offline workflow (for example, writing down card details or logging orders manually to enter later). Even a short fiber cutover can feel longer when customers are waiting at the front counter.

Next, think about how this new connection supports the rest of your digital presence. If your business depends on its website to generate leads or orders, the quality of your connection isn’t just about streaming and email. Research from HubSpot shows that page load time directly influences user experience, conversion rates, and ultimately revenue. Every extra second of delay can cost you visitors. A reliable, high-bandwidth fiber line doesn’t fix poor site code, but it does remove “our own connection” as a bottleneck when you’re updating content, hosting internal tools, or serving on-site digital experiences.

Finally, document what gets installed. Once the technician is done, note:

  • Where the ONT is physically located.

  • What each piece of equipment does (ONT vs router vs any switches).

  • Which circuits, outlets, or surge protectors they’re plugged into.

  • Any passwords or admin URLs set during the visit.

Even a simple one-page diagram in your operations folder will save you time when you need to troubleshoot, move desks, or onboard a new employee who suddenly becomes “the IT person.”

5. Don’t Forget Power, Protection, and Future Changes

Fiber itself isn’t sensitive to electrical interference the way copper is, but the electronics that make it useful very much are.

If your ONT and router are in a basement, closet, or back room, consider plugging them into a small uninterruptible power supply (UPS). That way, a brief power blip doesn’t immediately knock your Internet offline, which can disrupt calls, payments, and remote sessions. For home users, this may just keep a video call alive through a quick flicker; for a business, it can mean finishing transactions instead of turning customers away.

Surge protection is just as important. An inexpensive surge protector is better than plugging sensitive gear directly into the wall, especially in older buildings. If you’re located in an area with frequent storms or unstable power, you may want a higher-grade surge unit or whole-building protection. Something to discuss with a licensed electrician rather than the fiber installer.

Think ahead about changes too. Maybe today you only need fiber into a single office and a Wi-Fi network. But if you expect to add more staff, open another room, or convert a garage or back area into usable space, keep your ONT and router in a spot that can scale with you. It’s much easier to extend your network from a central, accessible location than to work around equipment hidden behind stacked storage or built-ins.

Conclusion: A Smooth Install Starts Before the Truck Arrives

If you understand what’s being installed, clear the physical path, design your internal network, and plan for your business operations around the appointment, your fiber install stops being a stressful unknown and turns into a straightforward upgrade, and that preparation is what lets you actually feel the benefits of fiber from day one.