Re: [seul-edu] Fiber Cable help

[jeff williams <cfiaime@mpks.net>]

On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, you wrote:

> I need to connect two buildings before the school year starts, and I
> know that fiber is the way to go because of distance (600 ft or so).
> The thing is, I've never worked with it and we've gotten different
> suggestions from distributors as to what we need.  My biggest questions
> is, how do you connect the cable into the regular network (what's the
> converter called) and even more basic I guess, how many ends does the
> cable need to have?  We're now being told eight, but the fiber I've seen
> only has a possible four ends (two at each end of cable).  Sorry if this
> is basic, it's just that this is a good deal of money and I don't want
> to buy stuff I don't need, but want to make sure it's going to work.

Hi Ryan,

At 600 feet you can get away with coax (assuming a 10 mb network).  If you
insist on fiber optic, you can get the media converters from Black Box (the
catalog is at the church, so I can't help with order numbers or prices).  You
should have two connectors per end of the cable - one transmit and one receive.
 You've got to be careful not to kink the cable, and installing the ends can be
a bear.

My take, use coax if you can.  Let's face it, coax is good for double your
length between repeaters.  (If you are running a 100 mb network, coax is not an
option.)

I hope this helps.

-- 
jeff williams - cfiaime@mpks.net
                    jbw9586@ksu.edu