Hi William,
You wrote to Bernhard Kuemel:
WH> BK> I have never heard of or seen optical fiber networks in small
WH> BK> environments where usually something like ethernet is used. Why? Is 
t
WH> BK> that expensive? I wouldn't think so. And it could be as flexible as
WH> BK> 10base2 if there were 2 connectors on each card and this way there
WH> BK> would be no distance limit.
WH> BK> Or are there already cheap solutions? How much do they cost, where 
an
WH> BK> I get them and how good are they?
WH>100mbits FDDI is good - but it's expensive. 2km max length,
WH>but it's just not cheap. Mainly used for backbones, or
WH>supercomputing applications. You wouldn't get much change
WH>out of 25ukp for a connector for the end of the fibre...
Ready made duplex fibre cable assemblies start at around 30 pounds for a
1 meter length with connectors both ends (no major difference betweem
connector types). The expense of fibre is partly in the cable and
partly the connectors, they vary from 3.60 pounds to 6 pounds or so,
but mainly in makeing the connectors up. The tools (and oven for the
ones using epoxy) will typically cost around 1000 pounds and up. It also
takes much longer to make up the connector (polishing the end of the
fibre, curing the epoxy).
The guy I know who runs a network cabling installation business will
pull fibre cable, but gets specialists in to do the termination, the
cost of owning his own tools and learning to make good terminations
isn't worth it.
WH>It still works out fine for normal copper for most small
WH>Lans, with FDDI for backbones.
I can't see fibre connection being used for anything except a small
number of very high peformance workstations or for places where rfi or
security is a problem, even in the long term. With Belden and other
cable manufacturers pushing twisted pair up to 350 MHz already for most
of us I would expect fibre to stay primarily as backbone being used for
its segment length or its rfi immunity with TP copper to the desktop for
its simpler connection and greater ruggedness.
George
 * SLMR 2.1a * A mainframe: The biggest PC peripheral available.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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