If you’re struggling with slow speeds, an unreliable network link, or if you’re about
to install a brand new cable run between two rooms in your house or even between buildings,
before you go and order some more copper CAT6 cable it might be worth considering putting
in a fiber optic link instead to get the best possible network speeds with maximum bandwidth.
Running fiber optic cables as part of your home or office network is less expensive and
easier than you might think, even if it’s already using copper cables like CAT6 or
CAT5e elsewhere. All you need is some network switches with SFP ports and some fiber optic
cables! Alternatively you can use a small media converter like this at each end of a
simple cable run and you can even extend fiber optic cables all the way into your devices if
you add an inexpensive SFP PCIE network card or a USB adaptor to your computer.
For this demo I’ll be using these 2 QSFPTEK switches,
2 SFP modules and an LC to LC fiber optic patch lead - and
special thanks to QSFPTEK for sending over all these free of charge for this video.
These are managed switches with no DHCP so first I’ll need to set a static local
IP on my laptop and then connect directly to each one in turn and give them their own IP
address on my local network, as these ones were both at 192.168.0.1 out of
the box which just happened to be the IP address of my Netgear Orbi router.
On these QSFPTEK models the Login credentials are admin & admin and then I had to guess which
button to click as it defaults to Chinese which I don’t speak, but it’s the one on the left. Then I
switched to English, went to L3 config then VLAN interfaces and IP addresses and changed
the IP address of each switch to be different from each other and anything else on my local network.
This switch has 8 standard gigabit RJ45 ports but you’ll see it also has two SFP ports,
protected by these little dust covers which just
pull out. Those are where you can connect your fiber optic cables.
And this here is a fiber optic patch cable - like the fiber equivalent of a patch lead like
this. You’ll immediately notice how thin it is compared to your bog standard ethernet cable,
which is another advantage of using fiber; for example if you’ve got limited space for cabling
in wiring conduits. Light can only be sent in one direction at a time, so that’s why the
fiber optic cable is actually two cables in one - one for transmitting data and one for receiving.
Using fiber optic cables is also great for future-proofing because the fact
that signals travel down them at the speed of light means that the only limiting factor for
data transfer speed is that of the modules and switches used at either end of the cable, so you
can upgrade those in years to come but the cable itself can just be installed once and forgotten
about; you’ll never need to replace it to get better speeds in the future because the speed of
light is already the maximum speed of anything permitted by the fundamental laws of physics!
There are a few types of connector that you might find at the end,
these are called LC ends but you can’t just plug them straight into the SFP port on the switch,
you first need a compatible SFP module like these.
SFP stands for “small form-factor pluggable” and they’re small, modular transceivers,
used at both ends of the cable run, to convert the data into light pulses, and back again.
Pull out the dust covers on both the switch and the SFP module and slide
the SFP module into the SFP port on the switch with the black clip facing upwards like this.
Before you plug the fiber cable into the SFP module you need to remove the little
dust covers and it’s very important not to get the ends of the cables dirty. Any specs of dust,
dirt, moisture, sweat, or grease can block the signal and stop it working
so only take the dust caps off when you’re ready to slide the cable into the module,
and keep them safe for if you need to unplug the cable again in the future!
There is a cleaning pen linked in the video description if you do have problems with a dirty
cable, and if you’ve got extremely deep pockets there’s also a full-blown testing kit as well.
Plug the cable into the SFP module until it gently clicks and then do the same on
the other end of the cable, and there you are, it’s effectively the same as an ethernet cable
now - just plug it in and it’ll work so the two switches could be placed in different rooms or
even in different buildings, with the fiber cable connecting them. Since this switch also
has standard RJ45 plugs I can connect it to my wider network and have a mix of copper and fiber,
but who knows - maybe in 10 years’ time it’ll all be fiber? Let me know in the comments if
you think fiber optics will completely replace copper cables like CAT6 one day.
I can verify that the optical cable is working by connecting the first switch to the rest of
my network with a copper patch lead, and then connecting my laptop to the second switch with
a second patch cable and pinging Google.com or running an internal speed test to my Synology NAS.
To unplug the cable, just press down on the clip and gently pull out - then replace the
two dust covers immediately as well as the dust cover for the SFP module. You
can remove the SFP module from the switch too (for example to upgrade it to a faster
one in the future) by pulling the black clip like this. If you’re not putting another SFP
module in its place right away, replace that dust cover too to prevent ingress.
Fiber optic is great but if you do need to stick to copper, or you have some existing
cable runs that need repairing either with an RJ45 plug or keystone termination,
you can learn how to do both those tasks by watching the videos on-screen now.