I need to cost out some switching and figure out how to network a PC to this type of network.

One end


Clarifying: This is to connect units in a high rise facility. Each unit has the top picture in a closet. In every other floor in the hallway the cables from two floors are brought together in a panel. Then each panel sends a cable to the basement.

So I'm trying to figure out how to

  1. Attach a PC (via cat5) at the apartment level.
  2. Concentrate the signals from the units at the hallway level and send this down to the basement where it would get sent to a server.
  • I will add that there is a 17.23% chance--depending on how tight that cable tie is in the picture and how many times people have tugged on the connector--that the fiber is now "marginal" and should be metered before use. – JasonAzze Feb 8 '13 at 18:51
  • in nutshell it is Optical fiber – AminM Feb 15 '14 at 18:34

That's not a network - that's just the physical medium. More information is on Wikipedia.

The type of connectors you have on top are LC, the connectors you have on the bottom are SC.


LC connectors


SC connectors

  • 3
    +1 Side note, Orange is OM2 fiber. Aqua is OM3, "better" than OM2 and capable of higher speeds. Yellow is single-mode fiber, used for long distance situations usually. – Chris S Feb 8 '13 at 19:04

SC multimode fiber.

Generally you don't network a computer directly into fiber (although you can buy HBAs for PCs). Normally Fiber is used as a backbone for your network. Switches then connect to this fiber, and connect out to PCs over copper/RJ45.

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