On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Nigel Allen <[email protected]> wrote: > Given that the current wiring in the place is ahem, less than perfect, I > want to ensure that the comms between the two offices (only a matter of > 10 - 12 metres) are as good and fast as possible. Currently there are > around 30 piece of cable poked through a hole in the wall (data + phone) > all with a variety of really crappy connections some of which fail > intermittently. What I'm thinking of doing is to run a single cable from > office A to office B which will handle all of the replication demands > and also be a connection for wireless access points. > > So, the question becomes, rather than run one single network cable > through the wall for replication and access point traffic, what should I > consider that will provide me with sufficient bandwidth? I was thinking > optic fibre but my knowledge of networking is limited to copper wire and > switches and small LANs. I presume that to connect fibre to the existing > 10/100/1000 network will require additional switching gear etc?
Fibre optic cable will work, but requires some specialists to install and terminate it (you can buy pre-terminated cables, but they're pretty expensive), and more importantly you need fibre optic SFP's (or some form of fibre port) in your switches at each end. They cost. The advantage is if you put in the right grade of fibre, you can run 10 gig, and maybe 40/100 gig across it when they come about. this is nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, a good, properly terminated CAT6 shielded copper cable (F/UTP or Foil-wrapped UTP) will run 10 gig for up to 100 metres and carry 1 gig easily. A normal Cat6 or Cat6a cable will run 10 gig for up to 50 metres, or 1 gig for up to 100 metres. Depends how much you want to spend - fibre is more delicate, and needs to be installed properly. If you install fibre (and install a multi-core cable), you have additional capacity for other services (as well as vastly more bandwidth available), but you'll be up for more money. On the other hand, 4 Cat6 or 6a copper cables running an LACP amalgamated link will give you 4 gig of link speed and redundancy, but be much cheaper. It all comes down to money. Copper is cheaper, but usually slower/shorter ranged. Fibre is more expensive, but way faster, and much less prone to electrical interference. DaZZa -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
