[GUIDE] SFP+ 10Gb Optical Fiber macOS Ventura

[Andyapple]

I bought a random fiber cable from amazon to test the LC size. Double LC cant fit together @etorix

 

[etorix]

That's very clear… I thought there were larger (and smoother) conduits, with copper cables already in there for your 1G network (where are those?).
This is not quit IT-grade. From there, the easier solution would be to run the fibre around the walls.

 

[Andyapple]

Hi! This was an important day as I tried all the "route" that cable will have to do in those conduits and I made it almost smoothly!!!

I'm confident I will be able to do it.

1G network (where are those?).

You are right @etorix , those copper cables are in other conduits, with TV antenna and those conduits are totally full, It would be impossible to use them (they're not visible in pic). Luckily I have these other conduits that were never used and totally empty!

Now I show you and I try to explain what I did today to test if what we are trying to achieve is possible:

The black "cable" you see It's the cable probe, and I used it to run the wire in the walls and also to take measure!

I attatched to the cable probe the random LC cable I bought LC-LC:

I cut it in half, so i got "4" cables, and the "head" of this cable was splitted in two, so i got 4 LC connectors one after one as you can see in pic, as if they were 4 cables at the same time ( I will need cable with the head that can be "split" in two" like this).

I also was able using scotch tape on the cable probe, to take measure, of the wire that I'll need through walls and also measure of the short route the cable will do in the two room do get down from the wall to the computers.

I will need two cables of 33 meters about each.

I'm confident this is possible, and we will be able to achieve this!

I can't wait for the next month to get FTTH as soon as possible, and order all the cables and the rest I'll need.
x3 SFP Cards have also been shipped!

Thank you as always!

Andyapple

 

[Andyapple]

@etorix Hi! I got the SFN5122F Solarflare, It was easy to install, only one kext.
I can't test it since I haven't fiber yet, but it's detected on Ventura!!

 

[etorix]

Properly recognised as PCIe 2.0 device working at x4, with loaded driver. You should actually thank @Edhawk for the hardware tip. This was the easy part tough.

The hard part will be the infrastructure and running two duplex fibre cables as a "train" of four simplex through these narrow conduits. Mind the bend radius of the fibre (there two values: a static one, at rest, and a dynamic one, which will apply while pulling the fibre through the conduit).

 

[ramazarusx]

I'm debating if I should go back to SFP+ on new system or just stick with AQC with the new W790 system.

Did Solarflair removed macOS drivers? Can't find it anywhere.

 

[etorix]

Solarflare was bought in 2019 by Xilinx. And then Xilinx was bought by AMD. After at least two reorganisations following the mergers, it's fair to assume that no-one is interested in maintaining support for Solarflare old line-out of cards. Fortunately the driver has been archived.
Beside Solarflare and Intel X500 cards (with ixgbe in DriverKit), there's also Chelsio (drivers for T4, T5 and T6 series readily available). The latter is the only option I known of for 40 GbE (T580), 25 GbE (T6425, T6225) or even 100 GbE (T62100).

I've also seen Aquantia cards with SFP+, so it's not a choice between Aquantia-as-in-real-Macs and fibre, it's a choice between legacy copper network and fibre.

 

[Andyapple]

Properly recognised as PCIe 2.0 device working at x4, with loaded driver.

That's great!

You should actually thank @Edhawk for the hardware tip.

True, thank you @Edhawk !

The hard part will be the infrastructure and running two duplex fibre cables as a "train" of four simplex through these narrow conduits.

Yes you're right, but I think I'll be able to achieve that. I'm just waiting for ftth I hope soon.

I'm debating if I should go back to SFP+ on new system or just stick with AQC with the new W790 system.

I'm going for fiber, my first time, I think It'll be pretty good.

Did Solarflair removed macOS drivers? Can't find it anywhere.

That's true but those were saved, @etorix sent the link. If i can be more precise, you don't need all that stuff, just put Solarflare10GbE.kext (https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...driver-not-more-available.272619/post-2043852) in OC/Kexts (and add it in config.plist too!) and card will work!
(Windows drivers available on their new site)

 

[etorix]

Yes you're right, but I think I'll be able to achieve that. I'm just waiting for ftth I hope soon.

Take all the time you need for planning… But why wait for your ISP?
You can set up at any time and enjoy 10G on your intranet irrespective of the speed of the uplink to the Internet.

Tip: The RJ45 port on MikroTik CRS-305 and 309 switches is meant for management, but contrary to some other models which only have 100MBase-T, it is a full 1GBase-T and may be used as uplink to a 1G network or modem.

 

[Andyapple]

You can set up at any time and enjoy 10G on your intranet irrespective of the speed of the uplink to the Internet.

That’s true!

But why wait for your ISP?

I’m waiting for a friend of mine, that told me that could gift me some stuff for my new internal network

but contrary to some other models which only have 100MBase-T, it is a full 1GBase-T and may be used as uplink to a 1G network or modem.

That’s great! I was thinking of using that port for my local 1gb network cat5 or use the modem for that.