Need converter for fiber and copper

[SocrPlyr]

ok here is the deal... each of the dorms in the university has a 1000Mbit fiber installed. now my friend got himself a new laptop. The ethernet in the laptop is of course 10/100 copper. Now how do we connect the two...
all the fiber to copper converters require that the copper side also be running at 1Gbps... so then the laptop would also need some type of gigabit card or a hub/switch to convert it down to 100. so far the cheapest solution i have found is the netgeart GC102 fiber to copper and then a Linksys EG0801W (8port 10/100 switch w/ 1000 uplink). total with tax and shipping around $380.
any other ideas about how to go about this (right now i am not trying to find the cheapest price right now but the least expensive hardware route...
thanks guys

Josh

PS right now all the other laptops on campus have a 100 fiber to copper adapter, but the school will no longer drop the fiber lines to 100, it will only allow 1000 connections. and i don't see how they can do this b/c the students spent 140 on hardware this year and next year they won't be able to use it and will have to spend a bunch more.

 

[spidey07]

Your universitity has WAY TOO MUCH MONEY TO SPEND!

There is simply no need to run gigabit fiber to a laptop. That being said it sounds like you need some kind of 1000 Base-SX to 1000 Base-T transceiver.

I've never heard of such a device but they must be out there, and they won't be cheap.

I'm at a loss on this one. Simply because 1000 Base-SX doesn't have any kind of negotiation, I've never heard of a 10/100/1000 Base fiber port...in fact I don't think they exist.

So what I'm hearing is you have a 1000 Base-SX port, fiber. And you want to communicate using that port?

 

[SocrPlyr]

yeah i am well aware that they like to waste money... here are some links that might be helpful...
School Site That info is no longer up to date, that is for the fall 2002, policies and equipment have changed for laptops
More Info More out of date school stuff

Here is a link to the suggested card for desktops Netgear GA621

Links for the equipment i am considering to get the job done
media converter (fiber to copper gigabit) Netgear GC102
switch to get down to 100Mbit Linksys EG0801W

thanks again
Josh

 

[N11]

There's a device for this and I've purchased a few a while back but can't remember the brand name, started with an A I believe. I'll check around and see if I can find it.
1000 base SX to 100 base T, I believe it was around $250.

 

[alrox]

Whoever proposed and approved the fiber to the desktop plan at your school is an idiot.

The cheapest route to get your notebook online is probably the netgear gc102/linksys eg0801w pair, if there are no autosensing copper drops anywhere for you to use. I'm not aware of any gigabit or fiber PCMCIA cards.

 

[cmetz]

SocrPlyr, another idea, kinda wacky: go to compgeeks.com or your favorite used hardware dealer and buy a cheapo used PC, buy the PCI gig-over-fibre board and a reasonable Ethernet board, and run software bridging between the two.

(excuse me if the web/HTML makes this table not look like a table)

compgeeks refurb IBM P400 PC: $80
eBay used Netgear GA620 PCI NIC(*): $50
cheapo Ethernet board: $10
OpenBSD or Linux: free!

Total: $140

As a college student, you probably want to do the cheapest thing possible, labor's cheap, and learning experiences are a good use of your time. You might be able to get a used PC or just basic PC guts used from someone around who wants to upgrade and do even better than the compgeeks deal.

* - the GA620 is based on the Tigon II chip and very good and well supported by the free *IX OSs, it's a much better board than the GA621 IMO.

 

[SocrPlyr]

N11
That is exactly what i need, if you can find that i would be most grateful, but i think the reason why they are rare is there has to be some kind of processor on them in order to drop the 1000 to 100 without messing with the fiber side...

alrox
actually the fiber to the desktops has been around for 6 or 7 years already, the old network was based on an ATM system that ran at 144Mbps i believe. so basically all they had to do was upgrade the hardware at the ends to run the gigabit
i am not aware of any gigabit cards for laptops either, but i know that dell ships notebooks with it build in... the help desk's thoughts on the subject were to buy a desktop card and a box that connects through a pcmcia slot that provides a pci bus and slot... i found that pretty unacceptable IMO.

cmetz
good idea and if i were in his situation i would definately consider it but he is basically computer illiterate, i mean who takes this long into a semester to get a machine. he doesn't have anything right now, so i would also need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc... also space is a conscern in the dorm room. the comment about the netgear cards is take, i was just throwing out what everyone on campus has b/c the school gave us pretty good deals on them (supposedly cost) at 181 for the GA621 and the GA620 i don't think is in production anymore and i doubt there is a warehouse full of them somewhere. also we have a partnership with netgear, basically we are their test site for probably one of the largest gigabit networks...
and another guy in the dorm is getting a notebook as well but he already has a desktop (which is ancient) so i might suggest ditching win98 and going w/ a nix variant, but he isn't so tech savy either, but i don't think he would be using the system much.
you sound like you know a bit about the fiber cards... if this is true i have a couple of questions that you might help me answer about my card (bought used on ebay... but i don't have the right drivers...)

Josh

 

[cmetz]

>"there has to be some kind of processor on them"

This is a bridge. (a switch is a flavor of bridge)

>the help desk's thoughts on the subject were to buy a desktop card and a box that connects through a
>pcmcia slot that provides a pci bus and slot... i found that pretty unacceptable IMO.

I don't know of such a box, I think they're really grasping at straws there.

>but he is basically computer illiterate

Somebody else can set this up for him to be pretty fire and forget. Plus it can be set up as a firewall too, which might be useful for your computer illiterate friend...

>school gave us pretty good deals on them (supposedly cost) at 181 for the GA621 and the GA620 i
>don't think is in production anymore

181 might be cost but used parts are even cheaper. You do need to watch out on fibre equipment for dirty optics (stored incorrectly = dusty = not good for performance), but a little bit of testing will tell you if it's okay or not.

>also we have a partnership with netgear, basically we are their test site for probably one of the largest
>gigabit networks...

Netgear does not make big enough gig switches to do 1000BaseSX to every dorm room. A quick web search says your campus is built on Cisco Catalyst 4000 and 6000 switches (my condolences).

>if this is true i have a couple of questions that you might help me answer about my card

Don't say you have questions, ask em!

 

[cmetz]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403010770&category=3706

Buy this. Now. Or anyway, do an eBay search for switches with 1000BaseSX uplink ports.

(obDisclaimer: I don't know a thing about that eBay seller, huge YMMV and please exercise caution. I just saw that it fit your requirements and was very cheap)

 

[SocrPlyr]

I don't know of such a box, I think they're really grasping at straws there.

neither did i but i saw one while searching, but i wouldn't ever go that route...
also i have more info from the school saying that next year there is supposed to be a bridge from th gig fiber to the 100 copper... we'll wait and see.

181 might be cost but used parts are even cheaper. You do need to watch out on fibre equipment for dirty optics (stored incorrectly = dusty = not good for performance), but a little bit of testing will tell you if it's okay or not.

oh i know used ones are cheaper (thus the reference to mine which i got off of ebay for $40, i was just saying that is why most people have that here

Netgear does not make big enough gig switches to do 1000BaseSX to every dorm room. A quick web search says your campus is built on Cisco Catalyst 4000 and 6000 switches (my condolences).

i didn't mean that netgear built everything i just meant that a lot of the equipment is supposedly netgear and that is why the school tries to push it. condolences? (something wrong w/ cisco or just that i was wrong?)

ok here is the question i have about my card... altho i don't feel like opening up the case to look at it and find the exact numbers on it.
the card was sold to me as a Stallion GE-II from ebay, but i get the card and the drivers on the website do not work at all, luckily tho one of the drivers built into windows works which the driver is listed as "3com Gigabit Ethernet Server NIC (SX/TX)" now should i even care that the right driver isn't installed, b/c it seems to have worked fine for the last 7 months

* - the GA620 is based on the Tigon II chip and very good and well supported by the free *IX OSs, it's a much better board than the GA621 IMO.

on a side note here i get better pings the all the ones w/ GA621s, so i don't have a very high opinion of it either.

as for the link that you sent to the ebay thing that should work and the price on it is great... i called the guy up and the reason it is so cheap is he bought a bunch of them when addtron went out of business, thus the no warranty on it, but he seemed to understand my wariness about the product, and we might still get this b/c it really isn't that expensive and worth a try. the one problem that i do see with it is size but i'm sure he can find some place to put it...

thanks for you help again,

Josh

 

[SocrPlyr]

^^^^^

 

[cmetz]

>now should i even care that the right driver isn't installed, b/c it seems to have worked fine for the last 7
>months

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.