First time fiber(er)

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

Gumby

New Member
Jul 29, 2016
5
0
1
47
Hello all. I currently have my servers in my home office and I am getting a bit tired of the noise so I am thinking of moving them out to my detached garage. The route to the garage will be just shy of 100m (300ft) and I will probably do two runs of fiber if possible. Since this is my first time contemplating fiber I am worried about getting the correct products. I already own two Netgear GS724T switches which each have two sfp ports available. The manual for the GS724T states the following

The GBIC module bays accommodate standard SFP GBIC modules, such as the AGM731F, AGM732F, or AGM733 from NETGEAR, allowing fiber connections on the network. ... The SFP GBIC bay accommodates a standard SFP GBIC module.

I have already purchased 4 AGM731F modules so that leaves me with purchasing the actual fiber. The brief specs on the Netgear website for these modules is as follows
  • Gigabit Ethernet “short-reach” fiber connectivity
  • LC duplex connector
  • Fits into SFP interfaces of all Fully Managed Switches
  • Fits into SFP interfaces of all Smart Switches
  • Fits into SFP interfaces of JGS524F
  • Drives Gigabit Ethernet up to 1,000 m distances with 50/125µm laser-optimized OM4 multimode fiber cables
  • Drives Gigabit Ethernet up to 550 m distances with 50/125µm laser-optimized OM3 multimode fiber cables
  • Drives Gigabit Ethernet up to 275 m distances with 62.5/125ìm OM1 multimode fiber cables
  • Ordering part number: AGM731F

If I read this correctly, I need at a minumim "62.5/125ìm OM1 multimode fiber cable" and the fiber cable ends must be LC type

For the portion of the run that will go inside the house I will run the bare cable through the atic. For ourdoors I plan on using 1" electrical conduit.

My questions are as follows

  • Is there anything to watch for when purchasing the cable or as it, long as I get 62.5/125µm multimode fiber that is LC/LC I'll be fine
  • Am I missing any potential hardware?
  • Will the LC ends have any issues fitting through 1" pvc electrical conduit?
  • Any issues to be aware of in this setup?
  • Anything else I have forgotten

Thanks for your responses.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
A couple of LC will easily enough fit through 1" but how ill you manage this ? Careful not to strain the Fiber too much when pulling.
OM3 is probably minimum you will find on the market anywhere. OM3/OM4 multimode is all the same.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pc_doom

Gumby

New Member
Jul 29, 2016
5
0
1
47
Thanks for the response Evan. As mentioned, I had planned on using 1" pvc electrical conduit outdoors. I plan on using 10ft lengths with built-in bell ends (that makes me giggle a bit) and not sealing them. I'll push the fiber through one 10ft length at a time, then press fit the conduit and wrap the outside with some sort of UV resistant rubber tubing and zip tie the ends of that tubing onto the conduit, then move onto the next piece of conduit. I'll stap the conduit about a foot off of the ground onto a fence for the majority of the outdoor run so that it is off of the ground.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
Hehe cheap and cheerful :)
How close to 100m is it, ethernet will in theory also run 100m (but not great solution)

I know I always get OM3 LC-LC 31m long cables with IBM tape drives, I wonder if somebody in your local area can gift you 4 of those and you spend $10-15 on a few keystone joiners. Far from ideal but cheap cheap.

(I would gift you the cables but postage to the USA would be silly expensive for the cables)
 

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
1,140
594
113
New York City
www.glaver.org
Is there anything to watch for when purchasing the cable or as it, long as I get 62.5/125µm multimode fiber that is LC/LC I'll be fine
You really want 50/125. It will be aqua-colored (pale blue/green) while 62.5 is orange. 50 will get you to 10GbE with no problem in the future.
Will the LC ends have any issues fitting through 1" pvc electrical conduit?
No. But a good rule of thumb is "don't put anything in a conduit that you can't get out". Otherwise you will have to do the whole thing over again when there's the inevitable upgrade. You can get a piece of expandable-sleeve braided jacket to protect the connectors on the ends of the fiber and also pull them (and anything else you run at the same time - see below) as a bundle at the same time.
Anything else I have forgotten
If you don't already have a phone in the garage, you might want to run some phone cable as well. CAT 5 cable is good for this as you get 4 pairs, so you can also hook up your doorbell. Handy for talking to tech support on the phone when UPS rings your doorbell to deliver the parts you're waiting for.
 

Gumby

New Member
Jul 29, 2016
5
0
1
47

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
1,140
594
113
New York City
www.glaver.org
I am looking at the following on ebay, does below look correct. I was going to get 4 of them and create 2 100m runs using a lc/lc duplex coupler (LC/LC Duplex Multimode Fiber Optic Coupler (TAA Compliant) | C2G)
You don't want couplers inside a conduit. Either use 100m cables or put a pull box with a removable cover in the middle of your conduit run and have the couplers in there (preferably anchored so they don't move into the conduit if someone pulls on the cable). I'd go with the 100m cables. The items you listed are $44.67 * 2 for the 2 50m cables and $15.99 for the coupler, for a total of $105.33. For less than $5 more you can get a single 100m cable from Amazon: Amazon.com: 100M Multimode Duplex 10 Gigabit 10Gb Fiber Optic Cable (50/125) - LC to LC: Electronics
Note: this was just the first cable I found when searching for "100m lc-lc". There may be better deals out there.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
I said couplers since I was suggesting maybe he could get some long cables for free so it made sense. Of course if you have to pay for the cable then may as well buy the length required.
 

tullnd

Member
Apr 19, 2016
59
7
8
USA
Either add another few pull strings or just overkill the fiber. I decided to overkill the fiber. I bought mine from www.fs.com, since I didn't mind waiting a month for it to get here. They now stock a lot in the US, so it may be faster for you.

I only needed 35m, but I ran two sets of OM3 duplex and also two simplex single mode fibers...just for the hell of it. Figured that way, if I had issues getting one type of sfp vs another, I had options. It really wasn't all that expensive.

Look at your SFP costs. You can get cheap ones from fs.com. The duplex ones were like $8 for my switches and the simplex were only $12(this was for SFP+, regular SFP 1Gb was cheaper). If it's that close, I'd honestly just go single mode and get two strands. I bought armored, just in case. The tight bend radius option was hardly any more...so I figured "why not?". Both of those may be unnecessary for you, but were only modest increases in price.