Do you buy optical transceivers from ebay?

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fmatthew5876

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Mar 20, 2017
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So now I'm trying to figure out SFP+ cabling for my new TP-Link 1700G-28TQ switch.

Obviously, buying all this fiber stuff new is expensive. Some people are selling the TXM431-SR transceiver new for more than I paid for the switch!

And then there's this, which if legit is a hell of a deal at $20 a pop:
TXM431-SR TP-LINK Compatible 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm 300m Transceiver | eBay

I'm a little nervous buying something like this so cheap from ebay, especially since in this case its coming from China. The seller does have over 1000 feedback 100% positive though..

Do you trust buying these things from ebay sellers? How often do they end up being counterfeit, poor quality, or otherwise bad?
 
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Drewy

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Apr 23, 2016
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Try Cisco compatible from fiberstore. I've had challenges with them over returns, so much I gave up :) but lots of folks on here swear by them.
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Except in the other thread it was said this switch complians about them although still works.
 
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fmatthew5876

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Mar 20, 2017
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It sounds like fs.com is the way to go. I just contacted their customer support. They have not tested this new TP-Link switch yet so they are going to try it out and make sure their stuff is compatible. I'll update you guys when I have more info.
 
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pc_doom

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Nov 2, 2016
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Places like fs.com are ridiculously cheap and have fully compatible cisco SFP's. Fast shipping from Seattle warehouse. To be honest, their sales agent is annoying, constantly email me, but not enough to stop me buying from them, as you say the actual service you get is fine and worth more than their prices. Haven't had any issues with their hardware either. But yeah, not a fan of super needy sales reps.
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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10G is also more sensitive than 1G in terms of quality... I usually can get 10G-SR from decommissioning equipment cheap (eBay also) so that's what I would always like to use.
 
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Victor Chen

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Dec 14, 2017
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fmatthew5876 said:
So now I'm trying to figure out SFP+ cabling for my new TP-Link 1700G-28TQ switch.

Obviously, buying all this fiber stuff new is expensive. Some people are selling the TXM431-SR transceiver new for more than I paid for the switch!

And then there's this, which if legit is a hell of a deal at $20 a pop:
TXM431-SR TP-LINK Compatible 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm 300m Transceiver | eBay

I'm a little nervous buying something like this so cheap from ebay, especially since in this case its coming from China. The seller does have over 1000 feedback 100% positive though..

Do you trust buying these things from ebay sellers? How often do they end up being counterfeit, poor quality, or otherwise bad?
Click to expand...
We are the optical supplier for the TP-Link. And we are the experienced optical transceiver. We can supply the free optical transceiver for the testing sample.
If you have requirement, you can contact me with this email victor_chen@hioptel.com.
I am sure price will be competitive. And the warranty will be 2 year.
However, if you have any question for the optical transceiver, you can also ask me.
I think maybe I can help.
 
neggles

neggles

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Sep 2, 2017
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FS.com or bust! They have amazing support, fast shipping, ridiculously low prices...

I've bought a couple dozen patch cables of various kinds, ~20 SFP+ modules of various compatibility, a couple of QSFP+ (40GBASE-SR4) modules & MTP-LC breakouts. Everything has worked flawlessly the first time, been packaged exceptionally well (almost overpackaged - order 2x SFPs and they come in a box that fits 10!) and I can't find any reason to go anywhere else. Reasonably sure that FS is owned by one of the SFP ODM companies, the internals are very similar to some Avago-made Cisco modules I have.

We use them in Cisco and Arista and Juniper switches at work too (small ISP) - we keep a few "genuine" modules of each type/brand in each rack so we can swap them out for testing/warranty purposes, but production is all FS.com modules. Even Cisco don't give us too much trouble as long as we swap in a "genuine" before we call them.
 
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I_D

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Aug 3, 2017
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@fmatthew5876: I use The TP-Link 1700G-28TQ as well.

I was originally ordering generic versions on there, but Julia from FS got in touch with me and recommended to change the order to Cisco flashed ones.
She (they?) told me that these would work best in conjunction with Chelsio cards.
I received the cables and they work fine so far with the Chelsio cards, I still have some Mellanox ConnectX-2 single port cards on order. (still looking for good deals on dual port models)
Once I get them in, I will test them as well and post back here.

It is worth nothing that when I went to checkout on FS, at first shipping was very high.
I mentioned this to Julia, and she said that they were still working on changing the shipping costs for EU people.
So if you are in the EU and see high shipping costs, don't just pay it but get in touch with them and ask if there is something they can do about it.
Julia told me they now have a big warehouse in Germany that they ship from too, so as a European you avoid import costs and save time.
I am not affiliated with FS, nor am I sponsored by them (I wish :p).
 
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Connorise

Connorise

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Mar 2, 2017
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I can recommend fs.com too! Have a couple of homelab servers at home, as well as my office in front of my house for a while, so managed to set couple of 10G and 1G links between then just to be able to test cluster things and bound my homelab to work servers. Bought Cisco tranceivers with fiber cables from FS, and created HA storage between the locations, everything works great so far.
 
_alex

_alex

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Jan 28, 2016
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@i386 have you found any reasonable cheap qsfp QDR or FDR transceivers that work with cx-3 and sx-series switches? was about to get some of the finisar before i found this post via google.
 
Nizmo

Nizmo

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Jan 24, 2018
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Finistar works great for 10Gb on Quanta Switches. Direct-Attach copper works too.
 
_alex

_alex

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I'm looking for modules that work with CX-3 and SX6018 with 40 or 56Gb. Not sure if the Finisar i386 mentioned would do, found them for < USD 15, what would be nice.
 
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i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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_alex said:
@i386 have you found any reasonable cheap qsfp QDR or FDR transceivers that work with cx-3 and sx-series switches?
Click to expand...
Not really.
Bought 2 mellanox coded trasnceivers from fs.com last week but couldn't get them to work. During troubleshooting I found out that I have probably the wrong fibers: I would need mtp fibers type b, but I have type a fibers.
_alex said:
Not sure if the Finisar i386 mentioned would do
Click to expand...
These transceivers are weird. The normal 40gbe transceivers have 8 of the optical thingies for fibers and the finisar ones have 6.
 
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i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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_alex said:
Oh, ok - i see ...
maybe a long DAC is the easier way then :(
Click to expand...
Finally good news: the mellanox coded qsfp+ transceivers from fs.com work with the proper fibers.

It's stupid that I can get used cisco qsfp+ transceivers from ebay to work on another branded switch (arista) , but not on the network adapters ._.

Edit: food -> good
 
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