The EtherREGEN thread for various network, cable, power experiences and experiments

[ericuco]

1 hour ago, thotdoc said:

Are there better optical cages and optical interconnects than those sent with the Optical Module (OM)? 

 

I've taken the cage and wires from my OM and put them into the ER.

 

The interconnects are way too long and messy at the length they are sent. Will shorter or shorter/better help?

 

Thank you

 

There is whole thread on all things optical at:

 

 

I use these Finisar SFP's. Reportedly, Finisar makes SFP's for lots of the other suppliers like Intel and Cisco. Generally, ebay is a good source for buying SFP's.

 

As for cables, they are cheap compared to Ethernet cables. I get mine from Fibertronics. Fiber

[ericuco]

22 minutes ago, lpost said:

Anyone know of a reasonably priced/cheap PCIe card with a single open SFP that Archlinux has a driver included?  A model that is a few years old will do fine.  

 

I use an Intel X520-DA1 NIC in my Ubuntu Studio music servers. Never had an issue with drivers. Lots of these available on ebay.

[ericuco]

48 minutes ago, Encore said:

Do I need more than an fiber cable to connect the two eR's?

You will need a pair of SFP modules (transceivers) that plug into the SFP ports.

[ericuco]

50 minutes ago, kostas6a3 said:

In the topic of After Dark "Finisar SFP+ Modules for Audio Grade Network Switch" and elsewhere I read that in order to install or remove the SFP modules you must first disconnect all the cables from the switches.

 
This sounds crazy to me. SFP’s are commercial (vs consumer) products primarily used in industrial applications (e.g. data centers, telecom). Hard to believe that when SFP’s are swapped out in industrial applications that the equipment is shutdown or other cables are removed, in order words, they can be hot swapped. I have hot swapped my SFP’s without issue and never remove other cables.

 

That said, perhaps some of the industry experts could chime in.

[ericuco]

15 minutes ago, tdx said:

Never dealt with fiber before, so does mixing and matching SFP with SFP+ work? 

In general, yes this works. I have a Mikrotik 10Gbe switch with both SFP and SFP+ modules.

 

17 minutes ago, tdx said:

PCI-E fiber out card for the PC

I use an Intel X520-DA1 NIC which is 10Gbe (SFP+) but works with SFP as well.

[ericuco]

1 minute ago, tdx said:

Thanks. My concern is going from SFP+ on my switch to SFP on the ER. Not sure if i should get matching SFP+ transceivers, or matching SFP ones, or one SFP at one end and one SFP+ at the other end...

The safe bet is to get matching SFP transceivers. That said, some here have reported other combinations works but that is a bit of a crap shoot. Then there are transceivers that are dual rate (10Gbe & 1Gbe) which I wouldn’t recommend but they do exist.

[ericuco]

19 minutes ago, tdx said:

Thanks. In that case I'll just get a pair of FTLF1318P3BTL since these seem to be the ones most people recommend for SQ. What about the fiber cable between them? Should I opt for a dual mode cable or single mode? Any particular brand to recommend?

 

Thanks for all the info!

I believe those are single mode transceivers so you have you use single mode cable.

[ericuco]

18 minutes ago, JohnSwenson said:

Just some more info on SFP+ ports and modules. As far as I know ALL switches with SFP+ ports will automatically run the port at 1Gb when an SFP module is plugged it. There are a few switches (they HAVE to be managed switches) let you program the port to a fixed 1Gb , so it will run at 1Gb even with an SFP+ module plugged in. The opposite does not make sense since an SFP module will not run at 10Gb. BUT an SFP+ module WILL run at 1Gb! So you CAN actually put an SFP+ module into an ER! So IF you have one of those switches that lets you program the speed of a port you could actually use SFP+ modules at both ends.

 

Note that for all of these switches that let you program the port speed, the default behavior is to look at the module type to determine the speed. If you want to use an SFP+ module with an SFP+ port with an ER you HAVE to have a switch that supports manual speed selection and you HAVE to go in an program it. You have to be comfortable with programming your switch.

 

John S.

 

I have a 10 Gbe Mikrotik managed switch that appears to let you manually adjust the speed. In the attached screen shot, SFP2 (same as SFP1) has a 10 Gbe transceiver installed.

 

[ericuco]

5 minutes ago, SQFIRST said:

Just trying to get your feedback and not meaning to question as such. If you were saying this as a guidance for tdx, I completely get your thinking but if you meant in general then I am curios on why not? Thanks

I just don’t see the point of dual rate transceivers for our purposes where you only have a few connections. I suppose in large corporate applications where you might need to mix and match transceivers on a large scale, then ok. This discussion seems to getting off track given it is for EtherRegen issues, perhaps best to continue in the Optical Network thread if needed.