[cyberax]

The Mikrotik switch is awesome, and it's still the most compact 10G switch available.

You can fix the thermal issue either by adding a small fan (Noctua is great) or by adding more radiators: https://pics.ealex.net/share/UxeSf_AWHLIuc-qzK5zl7JIgQvQDAZh...

I've been running it like this in a closed comm box for the last 3 years without any issues. SFP+ modules actually do not use that much power, it's just that it's concentrated into a small package, resulting in high temps.

[bot403]

Cripes. When possible just do fiber and DACs. Faster and much cooler than 10Gbit. 10Gbit uses an absurd amount of power per port thus the need for all that cooling.

[m463]

yeah, the article though says...

"The apartment has structured cabling -- each room has one or more RJ45 sockets in the wall," ...

Which is the main problem most folks face.

wish the standard was "conduit" instead of "bake-this-years-tech-into-the-wall" which doesn't always last...

[ssl-3]

Folks have been saying that conduit is the way, and the fiber is the future, and all kinds of things like that for decades so far.

But the simple truth for all those decades is this: When there's already cat-whatever cable in the wall, it generally still works.

Decently-installed conduit (ie, actually-usable conduit) adds a ton of time and expense, which is why it is very seldom used for data circuits in residential structures.

The cable that exists is a lot better than the conduit that doesn't. And copper ethernet is bog-standard like MP3 is: It isn't the best in any technical sense at all, but everything supports it. Universal compatibility is pretty nice.

---

So the ongoing cost of copper 10gbe is electricity. Someone else here in the comments says that a copper 10GBe SFP+ module can use ~3 Watts, or that a newer one can use about 1.5 Watts.

We can be generous by using the larger figure of 3 Watts, and 8 devices..

With 4 ports, eight 10-gig endpoints @ 3 Watts each, and $0.19 per kWh [delivered]: That's $3.28 per month, or about $400 per decade.

If we assume 1.5 Watt endpoints, then that number halves.

If we subtract the power consumption of fiber SFP+ modules (or media converters or whatever) to make the number a relative comparison instead of an absolute, then that figure goes down further.

Not so bad, compared to conduit.

[m463]

houses I lived in never had cat-x wiring. They had electrical cable and sometimes phone lines.

but maybe statistically speaking cat-x is more prevalent now in housing built after maybe 2000.

[ssl-3]

Most folks don't care about network cabling these days. For many/most common consumer uses, wifi (with mesh nodes or whatevr) is quite good for streaming video and playing online games.

These people aren't seeing the whole picture, but that's not new: They simply don't care, just as most folks have never cared.

And they care less and less as our (rather amazing) portable pocket supercomputers continue to supplant desktop computing in normal Internet-connected life.

Some folks are even actively against wired home networks as a premise: When I'd hang out on Reddit, sometimes I'd see photos of well-orchestrated and fairly intense home network infrastructure, but the new buyer of the home just wants it all gone from their sight and is seeking advise about getting that accomplished.

---

The house I live in right now has zero phone jacks (though the overhead wires still connect to the house before disappearing completely), and it only has 1 run of functional coax (which connects to the docsis modem).

I've added some decently-installed Cat 5e, which is completely adequate for what I'm doing. (That's been a trend for me for decades: When I live in a place, I tend to hardwire my stuff.)

But the next person probably won't care about that at all. If I move out and come back to visit in 5 years, the cabling I've added will probably have been erased.

And in the next place I live, I'll probably have to add more wire again. That's normal to me; again, I've been doing that for decades now.

---

And that's OK. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to computers and networking.

Most people are not that way at all, and most people never have been that way. Most people don't give a fuck about this stuff at all.

And this is all completely acceptable.

(I guess I could choose to hate it instead, but life is too short to hate this kind of thing. Acceptance is both simpler and better-productive.)

[cyberax]

DACs are terrible, they are unwieldy and are always either too short or too long.

Fiber is much better, but in my case the house already had Cat5 Ethernet wiring (originally used just for phones!) everywhere.

Another use case for 10G Ethernet is PoE for the WiFi access points. Although you can't use SFP+ modules for that, of course.

[lostlogin]

Just needs a guitar shooting fire and it’s a Mad Max prop.