Can you connect two gigabit fibre NICs together?
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Posted by Rick Jones on August 9, 2006, 1:06 pm
Please log in for more thread options >> What happens if you connect a card in loopback?
> If you mean connecting the TX port to the RX port on the same card, then
> no, nothing happens. Tried it with both cards and both fibres. I have to wonder if the cards are actually still good then. rick jones -- oxymoron n, Hummer H2 with California Save Our Coasts and Oceans plates these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway... :) feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Adam Nielsen on August 10, 2006, 7:27 am
Please log in for more thread options > I have to wonder if the cards are actually still good then.
That's what I was wondering. Until about an hour ago. Just by chance I bent one of the fibres while I was plugging them in, and the link light came on, just for a split second. It turns out that one of the fibres isn't quite at 100% - if I bend it a little just behind the plug the link lights will come on - but as soon as I let go and the cable flexes back again the link is lost. Looking through the camera the brightness increases quite a lot when I bend the fibre, and then drops back when I let go. So it looks like not enough light is getting through one of the fibres normally. Not sure of the best way to fix that though. Or even whether it would be considered a faulty cable, as plenty of light is getting through normally. Hmmmm... Cheers, Adam. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by M.C. van den Bovenkamp on August 10, 2006, 7:48 am
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Adam Nielsen wrote: > Not sure of the best way to fix that though. Or even whether it would
> be considered a faulty cable, as plenty of light is getting through > normally. Hmmmm... Always think layer 1 first, eh? Yes, that cable is busted. Time to get another one. Regards, Marco. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by BernieM on August 13, 2006, 12:32 am
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> Hi everyone,
> > I've recently gotten hold of a couple of gigabit network cards, and as > they're both fibre cards and I have no experience with fibre, I could > use some advice! > > The cards are both Intel PRO/1000 (82542 chipset) and I'd like to use > the cards to connect two servers directly together. They'll be less > than a metre apart, and the cable I'm using is about two metres long, > with "SC" connectors on both ends (which according to intel.com is what > the cards use.) > > I figured connecting the TX port on each card to the RX port on the > other would be enough to get a link, but the OS reports no link detected > and the link LED on the cards doesn't light up. > > Carefully checking the cards reveals a faint point of red laser light > shining out of one of the ports (I assume the TX port, as they're > unmarked) so the cards seem to be okay. Shining a light into one end of > the fibre shows bright light coming out the other end, so the fibre > cable seems fine. Despite this I still can't get a link. > > A suggestion on this newsgroup in the past was to connect the TX port of > one card back to its own RX port, as that should cause a link to be > established - but unfortunately this doesn't make a difference. > > Drivers should be fine (widely used "e1000" module under Linux 2.6.16) > so I'm running out of ideas. Does anyone have any idea what the problem > could be, or anything I could try to narrow down the problem? > > Thanks, > Adam. Just remember the golden rule of data comms Adam ... never look into a fibre optic cable with your one good eye. BernieM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by on August 15, 2006, 12:11 pm
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BernieM wrote: > > Hi everyone,
> > > > I've recently gotten hold of a couple of gigabit network cards, and as > > they're both fibre cards and I have no experience with fibre, I could > > use some advice! > > > > The cards are both Intel PRO/1000 (82542 chipset) and I'd like to use > > the cards to connect two servers directly together. They'll be less > > than a metre apart, and the cable I'm using is about two metres long, > > with "SC" connectors on both ends (which according to intel.com is what > > the cards use.) > > > > I figured connecting the TX port on each card to the RX port on the > > other would be enough to get a link, but the OS reports no link detected > > and the link LED on the cards doesn't light up. > > > > Carefully checking the cards reveals a faint point of red laser light > > shining out of one of the ports (I assume the TX port, as they're > > unmarked) so the cards seem to be okay. Shining a light into one end of > > the fibre shows bright light coming out the other end, so the fibre > > cable seems fine. Despite this I still can't get a link. > > > > A suggestion on this newsgroup in the past was to connect the TX port of > > one card back to its own RX port, as that should cause a link to be > > established - but unfortunately this doesn't make a difference. > > > > Drivers should be fine (widely used "e1000" module under Linux 2.6.16) > > so I'm running out of ideas. Does anyone have any idea what the problem > > could be, or anything I could try to narrow down the problem? > > > > Thanks, > > Adam. >
> Just remember the golden rule of data comms Adam ... never look into a fibre > optic cable with your one good eye. Hi, One thing not mentioned is that I seem to recall that you can loop a single interface with one piece of fiber. If you have limited testing resources this may expand the options that you have. Also I cannot recall /ever/ having receiver saturation with multimode. FDDI single mode yes, but nowadays I think that quite a few single mode receivers have sufficient dynamic range to deal with the transmitter even when it is quite close. I think that most SC connectors come apart easily enough into seperate single connectors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
