[zrm]

The problem with fibre isn't the sensitivity. It's that most endpoints have a 1Gbps copper port on them and then Cat6A ports can be used with the common devices but also allow you to add or relocate 10Gbps devices without rewiring the building again.

[HappMacDonald]

However — unlike copper twisted pair — the bandwidth current fiber media can carry is nearly limited by nothing but the optics at each end.

[zrm]

That doesn't solve the chicken and egg problem.

What probably would is something like having PCIe and USB to 1Gbps fiber adapters that cost $5.

[simoncion]

You've been able to get Intel X520 NICs [0], with transceivers included for ~40USD on Newegg for a long time. This is a little more than double the price of Newegg's cheapest single-port 10/100/1000 copper card, but even the cheapest available such card is three times your "chicken and egg"-solving price point.

I suspect the combination of the absence of cheap-o all-in-one AP/router combo boxes with any SFP+ cages and fiber cabling's reputation of being extremely fragile have much more to do with its scarcity at the extremely low end of networking gear than anything else.

[0] This is a two-port SFP+ PCI Express card

[zrm]

You can get copper ones for $5.99 (quality may vary):

https://www.amazon.com/1000Mbps-Network-Performance-Gigabit-...

https://www.amazon.com/SALAN-Ethernet-Portable-Internet-Conv...

But it's not competing with those, it's competing with the copper port which is already built into most devices.

Another thing that would work is something like this (also $5.99), but with one of the ports as fibre:

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Ethernet-Splitter-1000Mbps-In...

The point being you need some cheap way to plug in existing copper devices if you run fibre to the endpoints.

This plus $5 for a transceiver is pretty close at $15:

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Ethernet-Converter-Auto-Negot...

But +$15 and an extra wall outlet per endpoint is still an inconvenience, and if a two-port device with its own power supply can be made for $15 then where is the PCIe/USB to fibre adapter for <$10?

[simoncion]

> (quality may vary):

Yep. Good NICs last for approximately forever, life's way too short to deal with maybe-flaky NICs, and the price difference between the Amazon Special and something that's going to be reliable is -what- two big boxes of Cheerios? Two dozen eggs? Not. Worth it.

> But it's not competing with those, it's competing with the copper port which is already built into most devices.

Correct! That's part of why I was so very surprised to see you suggesting that extremely cheap PCI Express and USB adapters would "solve the chicken and egg problem".

> The point being you need some cheap way to plug in existing copper devices if you run fibre to the endpoints.

That's called a multi-port switch. Netgear sells five-port gigabit ones for like 20 USD. Switches that have two SFP+ cages and eight copper gigabit ports [0] are six times the price of a cheap-o Netgear switch, but are something that's going to last at least a decade. It's also pretty uncommon to find SOHO switches that have SFP+ cages and don't have at least one fixed copper port.

> This plus $5 for a transceiver is pretty close at $15:

If you're connecting a single device, why the hell would you use that when you could slap a copper SFP or SFP+ module in the switch's cage and run a cable? If you're connecting multiple devices, then either install multiple copper modules and run multiple cables, run multiple copper cables from fixed copper ports on the switch, or put a switch where the existing copper devices are.

[0] <https://mikrotik.com/product/css610_8g_2s_in>

[zrm]

> If you're connecting a single device, why the hell would you use that when you could slap a copper SFP or SFP+ module in the switch's cage and run a cable?

The problem to be solved is that you want to be able to put fibre inside the walls of the building instead of copper. Running a new cable to the switch closet is the thing to be prevented.

But if the wall jacks are fibre then you need some economical way of hooking them up to every printer and single-purpose device with a network port. If you have to buy another $100+ switch just to get from fibre to copper even when there is only one device near that jack, people aren't going to go for that.

[mschuster91]

In practice though 10G via copper requires pretty perfect terminations. The slightest error leads to crosstalk issues.

[JonChesterfield]

Ymmv. I've got a mix of cheap premade patch cables and some I crimped from solid core, all cat5e, all holding 10gbe totally happily. I suspect that only works because they're a meter or two long but that reaches across the rack.

[userbinator]

NICs have DSPs to cancel out crosstalk.