WAN Link - Fiber to Copper Changing to Fiber Only
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I am upgrading our existing 50/50Mbps fiber circuit to 150/150Mbps. Currently, there is a fiber to copper hand-off in my MPOE and I just have CAT6 running to my server room, where my router is located. For some reason, Frontier won't do fiber to copper for anything over 100Mbps and was told by my ISP (3rd party) that they will be using SC connectors so I would need an MMF jumper with dual SC on one end, to connect to Frontier's equipment, and the corresponding connectors for my equipment.
I was thinking about doing this -
In the server room, I have a Sophos SG 210 (yeah, I know... I know) that I would need to add a flexiport module (~$649) to add some SFP ports and get an SFP SX transceiver that has LC connectors (~$35). I would run some multimode fiber from my server room to the MPOE and use a patch panel/adapter to convert my multimode LC to their multimode SC.
Doing this would be a pain for a couple of reasons. First, I would have to modify the NAT and ACLs for everything WAN-related. Second, I would have to run the fiber between the two locations and address the fiber jumper and patching/connectivity.
But then I saw these media converters-
This would potentially save me tons of time and some money. No router/firewall reconfiguration or running of new cables. Potentially, I would just connect their SCs into the media converter and connect this to my existing CAT6 that corresponds with my current WAN interface.
My questions are -
Would the media converter even work in this scenario?
If not, how should I do it? -
I believe we used something extremely similar at my last place, I wish I had a picture/model# for you. Worked good.
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I am in a similar boat. My ISP will only hand-off single mode LC at our co-location facility. I'm looking at Allied Telesis myself:
https://www.alliedtelesis.com/products/gs2002sp -
Seams like it should work just fine.
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I was going to suggest an ER-L with SFP ports to handle the conversion for you - but it seems like you found a better solution.
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After presenting the idea to my ISP, they said that I could use a media converter but they add additional points of failure and can cause "strange failure modes" because they have a fiber jumper then copper jumper and a low-quality power supply (at least the ones I was looking at). They recommended I consider using a small managed switch in the MPOE, like an Adtran Netvanta 1531 with an SFP transceiver (total cost of about $250) or use an existing switch and create a VLAN.
The problem with the VLAN on an existing switch idea is that I would still have to run fiber from the MPOE to the server room. I like the small switch idea. Depending on the switch, would it be better quality/less problematic than a media converter? What do you think?
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I am doing something very close. To solve this problem I purchased a ER-X SFP.
in my case I have private fiber between two buildings, and my connection comes in copper - I need that connect to only be available on the far side of the fiber - and I didn't want it on my same network.
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Thanks for the Ubiquiti idea. I have an ERX and Unifi AP AC lite at home. I will check out their small switches.
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Does anyone know if you have to use the Unifi controller with the Unifi Switch 8 (model US‑8‑150W) or can you access it directly?
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@wrx7m If it is the unifi line, it will need the controller.
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@brianlittlejohn said in WAN Link - Fiber to Copper Changing to Fiber Only:
@wrx7m If it is the unifi line, it will need the controller.
Correct you'll need a controller - OK technically it can be done, but it's really a pain and not what's intended.
If you want no controller, then look at a EdgeSwitch instead.
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Are you needing a switch or a router. I think you need to stop and think about design again.
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@JaredBusch said in WAN Link - Fiber to Copper Changing to Fiber Only:
Are you needing a switch or a router. I think you need to stop and think about design again.
If you're talking to me - I want a router because I want to keep the remote people out of my network for things they don't need access to.
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@Dashrender to the OP
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@JaredBusch - I have a router so I don't need a second one. The question was more in how deal with the ISP's change from a fiber to copper hand-off to fiber only. I could add a module with SFP ports to allow my router to deal with the fiber directly, but this would be more expensive and require the most work in terms of running fiber and NAT/ACL reconfiguration. The media converter was proposed by me but it seems that a switch with SFP and RJ45 ports makes the most sense.
I just install a small switch with a transceiver in the MPOE for the SC connectors coming from the ISP and use my existing cabling to and router interface in the server room.
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@wrx7m said in WAN Link - Fiber to Copper Changing to Fiber Only:
switch with SFP and RJ45 ports makes the most sense.
This is a media convertor
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@Dashrender True, but a media converter is specifically for this purpose, whereas a switch would have more ports and functionality.
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And if you need those things, great - but you didn't before, not sure if you do now?
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@Dashrender - I don't think so. I can just do a small switch and be done with it. The edge switch line are a little big but I could probably squeeze it on the board in the MPOE if they don't change much of anything in there but I might be better off with that Adtran Netvanta 1531 or similar size and feature set.
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Does the feature set matter? You're only using this device as a media convertor. No translations or anything.. just convert fiber to copper.
If not for the cheapness of the dedicated convertors you looked at earlier, they should do the job just fine - and really probably would be fine. Depending on cost, you might just buy 2-3 of them and have them on the self for when/if it fails, swap a new one in and be done in 2 mins or less.
