In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

I cannot find a media converter that supports higher than 1000Mbps. I have found this https://www.startech.com/en-gb/networking-io/et91000sc2 while it claims to support Maximum Data Transfer Rate 2000 Mbps (full duplex mode) the title and the name still shows as 1000 Mbps and it costs £197.99 GBP incl. VAT!

The one I bought was this one:
"6COMGIGA 10G Ethernet Network Media Converter, Unmanaged 1x 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10GBase-T RJ45 to 1x 10GBase-X SFP+ Slot 10Gigabit Ethernet Media Converter, AC 100V~240V or DC 5~12V Optional "
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CRYXZTPL

It's not available right now but I paid £80 for it so definitely cheaper than buying a 10-gig router or switch, although maybe you could find a 2.5 gig switch for that price. This presupposes you already have 10-gig (or 2.5 gig or 5 gig, etc) Ethernet available though which of course most people don't have anyway. In my case I did already have the NICs for this but was just switching from those awful copper SFP-to-Ethernet transceivers that overheat and stop working to something I hope will be a bit more reliable.

If all you need is gigabit then you can find these media converters cheap from someone like TP-Link for £30.

I think the real takeaway from faster Internet plans becoming more commonplace is that routers nowadays really should be coming with multiple 10G-BaseT ports and SFP ports but this is expensive.

ASUS has done well to include both 10G-BaseT ports and SFP ports on their 10-gig capable routers because not every ISP is going to use the same technology and not everyone's LAN is going to use the same technology and by not providing both you're only going to confuse less knowledgeable buyers that might buy it and think it's compatible only to later find out that's not the case and have to deal with returns and support costs, etc.

In reply to a post by aidanh:

I think the real takeaway from faster Internet plans becoming more commonplace is that routers nowadays really should be coming with multiple 10G-BaseT ports and SFP ports but this is expensive.

On the first point I would agree. On the second, ISP's should be providing ONTs and SFPs should be unnecessary for the incoming fibre. SFP's should be optional according to whether the customer wants to run any of their internal kit as fibre.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

SFP's should be optional according to whether the customer wants to run any of their internal kit as fibre.

Which is essentially what Virgin are doing. They give you a CPE, it's up to you if you want to run your own gear.

What would be nice is if ISPs gave you a choice whether you want an ONT or to use SFP, etc. I know business customers usually get a choice with some ISPs but you take what you're given with consumer Internet connections.

For the Nexfibre to terminate into your own equipment is may be a little more complicated.

This is an interesting read here:
WAS-110 SFP+ Module on Virgin Media’s XGS PON broadband

15 steps well explained, albeit it by the time it gets to step 9 its beyond me.

Thank you very much for your response.
I see, £80 may not be all that bad but it is still expensive for only a converter. I've found a few others that claim to be 10GBase-T https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007391933720.html This one costs only £23, not sure if it can be trusted. AliExpress isn't always reliable as they sell scammed products that don't represent their specs.

I've also found this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Port-Umanaged-SFP-Compatibl... It's a network switch with 2 x 10G SFP and that's only £49.98. I'm wondering if just plugging the fibre into the switch and then the LAN cable into the router will work.

But if like the guide that suggests all 3 requirements...
A WAS-110 XGSPON ONU SFP+ Module
LC/APC to SC/APC cable or adaptor
A device with a spare SFP+ slot (ie switch, router etc)

This also ends up becoming expensive and hectic as you also have to flash a firmware update. Now I understand why you spent £80 to avoid all of these troubles...

But even if we want to use our own router that also costs money. I have an old NETGEAR DGN 2000 and 2200 routers but these are very much outdated now and not suitable for Full Fibre.

For the most part I use the ISP supplied routers like in the case with BT so I never needed to use my own. But if the Hub 5X is problematic and needs replacing then I guess I'll either go for the media converter or buy a router for around £200 that has an SFP+ port included..

This is the hesitation that I was worried about when I heard of Virgin Media coming to my area. I would've liked to avoid these troubles. If the network was matured or had more ISPs joining the network then this would've been something I could've considered.

I'd probably still go with Community Fibre as my first choice even if VM became available here at least it comes with an ONT. Only headache is of-course the CGNAT issue. But some have said that they've found a way round this with tailscale or VPN.

But the picture here shows that it has a WAN port as well alongside the 10G-BaseT ports and SFP ports. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qa9IUSwWS._AC_...
Are you sure the PC Network card must also be upgraded? I know it will need to be upgraded to harness 10Gbps. But no ISP yet offers those speeds in the UK for home users.

I thought you could simply plug the LAN cable into one of the 8 LAN ports into the router and at least have gigabit speeds. Actually more info found here https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20210529-asus-rt-ax...

"From left to right, WAN port, LAN port that supports communication at 10 Gbps, and SFP + port that supports communication at 10 Gbps."

While the WAN port only supports 1Gbps the RJ45 for 10Gbps BaseT for WAN/LAN x 1 works for 10Gbps provided that the network card on the computer also supports that. But we will need to upgrade the NIC anyway if we want 2Gbps for VM. Most computers only support 1Gbps. The problem is that even if we chose only 500Mbps or 1Gbps on VM you are still stuck with the Hub 5X. We will need to make these upgrades just to overcome the lack of ONT barrier.

Edited by BLaZiNgSPEED (Fri 21-Mar-25 04:31:14)

In reply to a post by aidanh:

You could buy a media converter. I did that recently in my home because I decided to run a fibre cable from my switch downstairs to the bedroom upstairs. I'll add an SFP card to my desktop eventually but the media converter does the job for now.

An ONT does a completely different job to a media converter.

In simplest terms: a media converter talks ethernet on both sides (e.g. 1000baseLX on fibre and 1000baseT on copper).

An ONT talks the GPON/XGS-PON protocol on one side, and ethernet on the other.

If you connect a media converter to the Virgin fibre, it simply won't work.

(*Some* altnets do use point-to-point ethernet rather than PON, but VM is not one)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by aidanh:

You could buy a media converter. I did that recently in my home because I decided to run a fibre cable from my switch downstairs to the bedroom upstairs. I'll add an SFP card to my desktop eventually but the media converter does the job for now.

An ONT does a completely different job to a media converter.

In simplest terms: a media converter talks ethernet on both sides (e.g. 1000baseLX on fibre and 1000baseT on copper).

An ONT talks the GPON/XGS-PON protocol on one side, and ethernet on the other.

If you connect a media converter to the Virgin fibre, it simply won't work.

(*Some* altnets do use point-to-point ethernet rather than PON, but VM is not one)

Isn't that what the SFP module that you have to flash firmware to does though? In my head I was thinking you could get one of those modules, flash the firmware, plug it into a media converter, plug a desktop or router, or whatever to the Ethernet on the other side and get a WAN address out of it via DHCP but maybe this is too simplistic?

What's the difference between the media converter and plugging the module into an SFP network card or port in a router then?

In reply to a post by aidanh:

What's the difference between the media converter and plugging the module into an SFP network card or port in a router then?

SFP+ is quite different to SFP.

media convertors likely have no operating system, or intelligence, they are passive. A network card in a server or a port in a router has an operating system to configure the port and communiate with the software in the SFP+ ONT. The module ONT will need this to work.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by aidanh:

What's the difference between the media converter and plugging the module into an SFP network card or port in a router then?

SFP+ is quite different to SFP.

Ah, that makes sense. I keep forgetting there's a ton of different SFP standards and not all of them are the same. I guess I would have to buy a NIC if I ever do sign up for Next Fibre then, but they're not in my area right now anyway.

In reply to a post by aidanh:

Ah, that makes sense. I keep forgetting there's a ton of different SFP standards and not all of them are the same. I guess I would have to buy a NIC if I ever do sign up for Next Fibre then, but they're not in my area right now anyway.

nexfibre(no t) is the wholesale network builder that are working with VM as the ISP, and will eventually have other ISPs on the network. My area is older VM cable so we won't see nexfibre here.

The SFP and SFP+ technologies both allow for passive and active options, in this specific case the ONT module is active running software to manage the GPON/XGS-PON network connection. In enterprise data centres you can find passive media convertor style SFP/SFP+ modules as well.

More here:
https://www.cablematters.com/Blog/Networking/SFP-vs-...