Please can you clarify what Broadband service you have. Do you have a normal copper phone line and an Openreach FTTC modem?

A lot of the responses in this thread seem to assume you have a Full Fibre FTTP service with an Openreach ONT (Optical Network Terminator). BT retail FTTP Phone provision is now generally a VOIP service, it is this that requires the BT Smarthub to provide the phone service.

If you have a copper line and FTTC then you can use any router.

I have, purely as an interesting exercise used a couple of Lancom routers with SFP ports to create a Fibre Optic link using TP-Link Bidirectional SFP modules.

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

Please can you clarify what Broadband service you have. Do you have a normal copper phone line and an Openreach FTTC modem?

A lot of the responses in this thread seem to assume you have a Full Fibre FTTP service with an Openreach ONT (Optical Network Terminator). BT retail FTTP Phone provision is now generally a VOIP service, it is this that requires the BT Smarthub to provide the phone service.

If you have a copper line and FTTC then you can use any router.

I have, purely as an interesting exercise used a couple of Lancom routers with SFP ports to create a Fibre Optic link using TP-Link Bidirectional SFP modules.

Yes it's based on the BT FTTP service with ONT as I wanted to extend my network to a seperate building with fibre; I originally thought replacing the Smart Hub with a router with an inbuilt SFP was the best way to go. I know most people who extend to an outbuilding with fibre use media converters but wanted to avoid that.

Edited by RAY21 (Sun 02-Jan-22 18:15:37)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by RAY21:

This sounds quite complicated to be honest. I'll probably just stick with whatever phone connection BT will provide. So I guess their Smart Hub is mandatory due to this?

Yes. Ditto if you take service from Sky, Zen or Vodafone, who are the other main players who'll sell you FTTP with voice.

In reply to a post by RAY21:

Which SFP module will work the the Netgear switch and OS2 cables?

The one I linked to before: 1000baseLX (sometimes known as 1000baseLH)

In reply to a post by RAY21:

Also I found this via Google:
https://networkengineering.stackexchange.com/questio...

Can 3 ethernet cables actually connect to the Netgear switch, and create separate VLANs as a result?

Ergh. This question is too complicated for a simple answer.

Separate cables can indeed carry separate VLANs - which would be separate IP subnets. You can also carry multiple VLANs on a single cable, using VLAN tagging where each packet is marked with the VLAN it belongs to.

Connecting three cables directly between two switches can make bad things happen: normally two of them will be shut down by spanning tree to avoid loops, unless you configure a link aggregation group.

However all this is irrelevant if the BT router doesn't let you create multiple LAN subnets and route between them. I would suspect not, as it will be dumbed down for a consumer connection, but I don't have one to check against.

If you want multiple subnets, you're out of the "Average Joe" category and you need to start learning about IP routing. And that's where having a more powerful and flexible router comes into play.

Gotcha, thanks.

I'll set up the network as you suggested (with some devices directly from the BT Smart Hub, and then an added switch which will relay to another switch via SFP).

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

I have, purely as an interesting exercise used a couple of Lancom routers with SFP ports to create a Fibre Optic link using TP-Link Bidirectional SFP modules.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Armoured cables are great for keeping the rats out. However if it has a metal shield, do make sure it's properly bonded to earth at each end. I'd still run it within trunking anyway.

With a standard SFP (e.g. this) you need two fibres: one for transmit and one for receive - so there's no "redundancy" as such by having a cable with two fibres.

You can buy "BiDi" (bidirectional) SFPs which transmit and receive on the same fibre: they have built-in filters for separating the signals, and because they transmit and receive on different wavelengths, you need different ones at each end that are mirror images of each other. I wouldn't bother unless you are trying to use a single spare fibre somewhere.

Just to follow on the Normal SFP vs BiDi SFP, is there any advantages or disadvantages between the Simplex or Duplex Fibre cable?

Using a single fibre core is much cheaper. I could get 4 strands for £62 from FS.com

What would be considered a more reliable/faster connection?

Edited by RAY21 (Sun 02-Jan-22 20:05:48)

Get some spare cores chap. I’d recommend a minimum of a 4 core cable. The difference is cost is feck all squared. You’ll be glad of it in future.

In reply to a post by RAY21:

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

I have, purely as an interesting exercise used a couple of Lancom routers with SFP ports to create a Fibre Optic link using TP-Link Bidirectional SFP modules.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Armoured cables are great for keeping the rats out. However if it has a metal shield, do make sure it's properly bonded to earth at each end. I'd still run it within trunking anyway.

With a standard SFP (e.g. this) you need two fibres: one for transmit and one for receive - so there's no "redundancy" as such by having a cable with two fibres.

You can buy "BiDi" (bidirectional) SFPs which transmit and receive on the same fibre: they have built-in filters for separating the signals, and because they transmit and receive on different wavelengths, you need different ones at each end that are mirror images of each other. I wouldn't bother unless you are trying to use a single spare fibre somewhere.

Just to follow on the Normal SFP vs BiDi SFP, is there any advantages or disadvantages between the Simplex or Duplex Fibre cable?

Using a single fibre core is much cheaper. I could get 4 strands for £62 from FS.com

What would be considered a more reliable/faster connection?

Catching up with this thread. You’ve had some good advice above. Forget multimode fibre. Always single-mode.

The main advantage that you have with BiDi’s here is more spare capacity available on the cable for other uses - why use 2 cores when you could use 1. For example you could use a spare fibre core for fibre integrated reception for satellite + terrestrial TV, radio etc. which is what I use. Quite neat especially for building to building rather than lossy coax.

BiDi SFP really aren’t any more expensive than traditional separate Tx/Rx SFPs especially at gigabit rates. Bit more at 10 or 25 Gbit but that’s neither here nor there.

UI do a pretty inexpensive plug and go BiDi bundle around £23. These will work with the Mikrotik or Netgear kit mentioned above. They are pretty compatible beasts.

My other recommendation would be to get a fibre cleaning pen to clean the ferrules before use. Get one in the size you need for either 1.25mm or 2.5mm size ferrules. Will save you a ton a grief.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

In reply to a post by RAY21:

In reply to a post by Realalemadrid:

I have, purely as an interesting exercise used a couple of Lancom routers with SFP ports to create a Fibre Optic link using TP-Link Bidirectional SFP modules.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Armoured cables are great for keeping the rats out. However if it has a metal shield, do make sure it's properly bonded to earth at each end. I'd still run it within trunking anyway.

With a standard SFP (e.g. this) you need two fibres: one for transmit and one for receive - so there's no "redundancy" as such by having a cable with two fibres.

You can buy "BiDi" (bidirectional) SFPs which transmit and receive on the same fibre: they have built-in filters for separating the signals, and because they transmit and receive on different wavelengths, you need different ones at each end that are mirror images of each other. I wouldn't bother unless you are trying to use a single spare fibre somewhere.

Just to follow on the Normal SFP vs BiDi SFP, is there any advantages or disadvantages between the Simplex or Duplex Fibre cable?

Using a single fibre core is much cheaper. I could get 4 strands for £62 from FS.com

What would be considered a more reliable/faster connection?

Catching up with this thread. You’ve had some good advice above. Forget multimode fibre. Always single-mode.

The main advantage that you have with BiDi’s here is more spare capacity available on the cable for other uses - why use 2 cores when you could use 1. For example you could use a spare fibre core for fibre integrated reception for satellite + terrestrial TV, radio etc. which is what I use. Quite neat especially for building to building rather than lossy coax.

BiDi SFP really aren’t any more expensive than traditional separate Tx/Rx SFPs especially at gigabit rates. Bit more at 10 or 25 Gbit but that’s neither here nor there.

UI do a pretty inexpensive plug and go BiDi bundle around £23. These will work with the Mikrotik or Netgear kit mentioned above. They are pretty compatible beasts.

My other recommendation would be to get a fibre cleaning pen to clean the ferrules before use. Get one in the size you need for either 1.25mm or 2.5mm size ferrules. Will save you a ton a grief.

I don't suppose there is any difference in speed/quality/reliability between using BiDi (1 core) versus traditional Duplex?

The former does sound more tempting as I'll be able to have more cables as redundancy (4 'single' fibre cores).

Does anyone know if the BT Smart Hub router is capable of link aggregation? The idea of using two Ethernet cables directed to my switch sounds nice to increase bandwidth.

In reply to a post by RAY21:

Does anyone know if the BT Smart Hub router is capable of link aggregation? The idea of using two Ethernet cables directed to my switch sounds nice to increase bandwidth.

Definitely not.

In reply to a post by RAY21:

I don't suppose there is any difference in speed/quality/reliability between using BiDi (1 core) versus traditional Duplex?

The former does sound more tempting as I'll be able to have more cables as redundancy (4 'single' fibre cores).

No there is no difference in speed and/or quality. BiDi’s have been used on leased line circuits for years. They are completely reliable.

Edit: your GPON service from Openreach is effectively a BiDi circuit.

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 03-Jan-22 15:20:20)

In reply to a post by RAY21:

I don't suppose there is any difference in speed/quality/reliability between using BiDi (1 core) versus traditional Duplex?

The difference for me is convenience and ease of troubleshooting, a BiDi is much more likely to either 'work or not' due to the fibre path being either sufficient or insufficient. No reverse patching, far fewer permutations to try when there is poor labelling etc.

If they were much more expensive I'd reserve them for specialist cases, but in small quantities the price difference is negligible.

Duplex is perfectly serviceable stuff though, nothing wrong with it. Once installed and working there is no functional difference.