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10Gb/s Ethernet: switching to a Broadcom SFP+ module
- jauntywundrkind 3mo agoRecommendations for 25Gbit next please!
- userbinator 3mo agoDefinitely DAC or fiber. There is a 25GBASE-T standard, but no actual products exist.
- gpjt 3mo agoOP here -- yes indeed. I ever do a new series of posts on upgrading my network to anything faster, the first one will probably be titled something like "25Gb/s Ethernet: how much it costs to rip out your CAT-6A and replace it with fibre".
- goolz 3mo agoI am in the market for an SFP+ module and was looking at this exact model! The serendipity made me smile. Cheers mate.
- gh02t 3mo agoI've bought a good bit of 10Gtek stuff over the years. Not sure to what extent they actually are designing their products vs. just acting as a reseller (I think the latter), but either way everything I've bought from them has been quality kit that lasted for years, at a great price.
- wingmanjd 3mo agoSpeaking of modules that lie about themselves, unifi has an interesting little device called the "SFP Wizard" that can reprogram sfp modules. https://www.ui.com/us/en/integrations/accessory-tech/sfp-wizard https://www.ui.com/us/en/integrations/accessory-tech/sfp-wiz... Previously seen: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45732874 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45732874
- theMMaI 3mo agofiberstore has them as well, plus you can buy modules, DACS and everything programmed to the vendor of choice, including different vendors on each end Especially handy for specific Intel NICs where they refuse to link up if the module isn't in the driver-allowed list and those modules are hard to come by
- kohlschuetter 3mo agoYou can also use a BananaPi BPI-R3 for reprogramming. And you can “upgrade“ 10 Gbit/s DACs to 25 Gb/s. Details here https://kohlschuetter.github.io/blog/posts/2026/03/22/unlock25/ https://kohlschuetter.github.io/blog/posts/2026/03/22/unlock...
- hdgvhicv 3mo agoI tend to use fs.com optics, but I’ve heard in high rates (100g plus) that flex optic tend to be more reliable
- secabeen 3mo agoFS has a reprogrammer, called the FS Box. Works well.
- mittensc 3mo agowhy not use fiber directly and use whatever sfp for much cheaper without worry of heat
- drnick1 3mo agoAccess points, for example, expect PoE.
- Tuna-Fish 3mo agoFor a lot of people, because they already have copper in the walls. You are correct that 10GBASE-T really shouldn't be the default choice, fiber and DAC both have advantages over it. But compatibility is important, and there are a lot of situations where 10GBASE-T is just more convenient.
- protocolture 3mo ago>because they already have copper in the walls. Makes a decent draw wire.
- asteroidburger 3mo agoIf the cabling was installed before the drywall, good chance it's stapled.
- protocolture 3mo agoThats hideous.
- xxpor 3mo agoIIRC it's code :( Very silly IMO.
- protocolture 3mo agoI think the code probably allows for conduit.
- debayande 3mo agoDoes anyone have any recs for GPON/XGS-PON SFP/SFP+ ONTs-on-a-stick that run cooler than average (say 50-65 °C)?
- qurren 3mo agoI'm also using the WAS groupon stick with a huge fan on it. I really wish they would build a proper fan and cooling duct into the stick and power it with the stick itself. It very much seems like a half-assed solution.
- debayande 3mo agoI'm considering that and the Nokia G-010S-A on my Uni-Fi Dream Router 7 (my area is serviced by multiple wholesale network access providers who operate either over GPON or XGS-PON, hence the need for both). However, I've heard enough horror stories that I'm a bit concerned about temperature issues...
- colechristensen 3mo agofs.com displays wattage ratings on all of their products, pick low watts. https://www.fs.com/c/gpon-xgspon-sticks-5607 https://www.fs.com/c/gpon-xgspon-sticks-5607 (I think this is what you're looking for?)
- jmyeet 3mo agoSome time ago I was playing around with 10GbE using a Macbook Pro. At the time that meant a Thunderbolt adapter (and still does). Thing is, the one I got was essentially just a giant heatsink [1]. It was a beast and belied just how much of a problem heat distribution was. I'm not an EE so I'm not really sure why, other than by looking at what high bandwidth cables have done since. 10baseT (!0Mbps) came out in 1990 (there were non-twisted pair earlier versions). "Fast Ethernet" (100Mbps) came out in 1995. Copper 1GbE came out in 1999. Copper 10GbE came out in 2006. Ethernet seemed addicted to 10x'ing every version and 10GbE is really where everything fell apart. Or at least, it's where it got hard. We never really got mass market 10GbE. The controllers were too expensive. The cable requirements were quite high. And heat was an issue. 1GbE really was fast enough and 10GbE was a massive jump that I even remember thinking at the time that there should've been intermediate steps, which is what happened in 2016 with 2.5GbE and 5GbE. Now compare to Thunderbolt, introduced in 2011, which has completely surpassed Ethernet bandwidth, in part by putting chips in the cables, but of course the big difference is cable length. A copper cat 6/7 cable can get to ~100 meters, which is also why the power is so high: attenuation. but I guess my point is that 10GbE over copper was a mistake. We'd reached the point where you really had to swap over to fiber. [1]: https://www.ebay.com/itm/127178476193 https://www.ebay.com/itm/127178476193
- xenadu02 3mo agoI don't think that's quite true. Unifi 10GbE switches are cheap enough I have a 24 port PoE+++ one in my house and my 3 main WiFi APs are 10GbE connected. My MBP uses a 5Gbps Thunderbolt adapter that runs relatively cool as well. All of this is over the existing Cat5e wiring. I'd say 10GbE has arrived. It is relatively cheap, most of the time works over existing 1GbE cabling, and gracefully degrades to 5/2.5/1Gb based on conditions when it can't reach 10Gb. Yes to be 100% guaranteed of getting 10Gb even in bundles of 100 cables running over noisy fluorescent ballasts to a full 100m you need Cat6A but in many environments Cat5e or Cat6 is more than sufficient. It works so well if you fail to get the full 10Gb I humbly suggest you re-do the terminations on both ends before considering replacing the cable.
- userbinator 3mo agoWe never really got mass market 10GbE. The controllers were too expensive. The cable requirements were quite high. And heat was an issue. It's coming sooner than you think: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44071701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46423967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46423967
- tcdent 3mo agoIf you are implementing 10 GBE at distances less than 5-7 m, I highly recommend standardizing on DAC cabling. It removes the need for these kinds of conversions that create these kinds of heat signatures.
- iknowstuff 3mo agoWish apartments would come with those
- tuetuopay 3mo agoSo much this. The rule of thumb is: avoid SFP-RJ45 converters at all costs, you'll be burned by them (literally and figuratively). They all are little snowflakes. Compatibility is hit-or-miss. They run hot. They eat more power. They're finnicky. Heck, they plain out lie about what they are (I've got some that pretend to be fibre with 3m of copper, sure). So yeah, DAC it is for patch, fibre for anything more.
- tcdent 3mo agoI would also add that the high-quality ones are quite expensive, and that I found incorporating an RJ45 switch with an SFP uplink was more economical for the cases that needed RJ45 (or gigabit) connectivity.
- gpjt 3mo agoOP here -- yes, 100%! Within my study it's DACs all the way. I only use 10GBASE-T where it's the only option: through the wall cabling, and from the connector on my ISP's crappy router to the mini-PC that acts as the real router.
- poisonborz 3mo agoCheap, low-heat 10G copper is already here. RTL8127 NIC is under $50, $200 nets you a quality 4x switch (CRS304-4XG-IN).
- undersuit 3mo agoI have a RTL8127 NIC from Aliexpress that uses 1 PCIE 4.0 lane, finally a use for those 1x slots and it does pretty good on 10G speeds.
- Havoc 3mo agoI've got a mix of both running here and definitely prefer the SFP+ part of the world. Couple of neat tricks it enables like the new "invisible" fiber - looks the same like fishing line basically. Unless you're 30cm away and actively looking you can't see it. Replaced a wifi bridge that way...30m run across multiple rooms & hallway...zero drilling.
- drnick1 3mo agoI wish multiple-port 10G PCIe cards with this chip were available. I would immediately upgrade by Debian router from 2.5G to 10G. At the very least I would need a dual NIC.
- jeremywho 3mo agoI've been eyeing the "10G PCI-E Network Card with 10Gbps Dual RJ45" on Amazon. Does that not cover what you're asking for?
- boredatoms 3mo agoand the QSW-L3208-2C6T-US is a cheap 8port switch
- ciupicri 3mo agoWhat about performance and driver support for Linux? Any issues with suspending to memory or disk?
- cliftonk 3mo agoi have gfiber 8gb put in my house. a cost-effective high performance setup im using is unifi cloud gateway fiber + 2x microtik CRS305 SFP+ (for all my other 10G devices) + 2x unifi flex 2.5G. this setup gives me a lot of 10G ports for little cost. copper DAC cables are great (optical transceivers and cables also work for longer runs). another great hack for older houses is using goCoax MoCA 2.5 Adapter to run 2.5G around the house via coax cables to your wifi access points.
- happyPersonR 3mo agoI know everyone is going to say I’m crazy But for cabling, OS2 clear bend rated cable … pre-terminated is like the same price and currently have 25gb optics but I’m able to run over 100gb in my house without having to drill holes etc. (runs along the baseboards) The cables are super thin… and clear/transparent And I never have to replace the cable again I’m pretty sure haha The bidi sfp28s $25 are awesome :) And worst case if your service loop just … loops …. Eh haha Gonna try using it for other things like hdmi etc too with a cassette :)
- PaulKeeble 3mo agoI feel like we have moved into the era now where if you were putting cabling in the walls for networking you should be choosing fibre now. Not necessarily because we are definitely at the stage where the home needs it, but because the off ramp is clearly happening for ethernet at 10gbit/s and its really high consumption and heat. Switching to fibre after 2.5gbit/s seems like the thing to do now and plenty of us now have access to internet speeds that can exceed 2.5gbit/s.
- whalesalad 3mo agoYou cannot do PoE over fiber.
- CamperBob2 3mo agoHold my laser and watch this (with remaining eye)
- collabs 3mo agoI would be grateful and happy to have gigabit Ethernet with cat 6A in every room instead of this single landline phone jack and/or coaxial cable. The most important thing is a good conduit in place when the house is built.
- toast0 3mo agoDepending on when your landline phone jacks were put in, you might be able to reterminate with rj45 and run something-baseT, although you'll need four pair to hit gigE or better. Works better if your house was wired with home runs to somewhere useful, but even daisy chained runs can go room to room with a switch per room.
- collabs 3mo ago> Depending on when your landline phone jacks were put in, you might be able to reterminate with rj45 and run something-baseT, although you'll need four pair to hit gigE or better. Works better if your house was wired with home runs to somewhere useful, but even daisy chained runs can go room to room with a switch per room. This is very useful and actionable information. At the very least I think it will be useful to plug in the mesh WiFi access point thingy if I actually have four pair in there. I will check. Thank you!
- xxpor 3mo agoI think this is the first time one of my comments has ever gotten mentioned in a subsequent post, so that's cool :) Glad it was helpful and not me being an idiot. That's a shame about the temp read out. I just checked my MikroTik and can see the same thing. In fact, the only SFP module reporting a temperature at all is the real fiber one, all of the DACs/converters report nothing. No voltage either.
- gpjt 3mo agoThanks for making the comment! It saved me having to bolt a USB fan over the old, misbehaving SFP+ module or something similarly silly...
- bhouston 3mo agoMy lessons on 10G networking at home is here: https://ben3d.ca/blog/home-network-lessons https://ben3d.ca/blog/home-network-lessons
- userbinator 3mo agoComparative power consumption: https://www.moduletek.com/en/application_notes/an_00196.html https://www.moduletek.com/en/application_notes/an_00196.html
- jcelerier 3mo agoIt's crazy to me to think that I was hoping to move my home network to 10GbE in the next few years, around 2006-2007... Twenty years after most home networking is still at the 2005 level of a 30€Netgear GS108
- rayiner 3mo agoThe future is here. https://www.balticnetworks.com/products/mikrotik-crs304-4x-10g-ethernet-switch-crs304-4xg-in https://www.balticnetworks.com/products/mikrotik-crs304-4x-1...
- Gigachad 3mo agoWifi got insane upgrades over that time. Wifi 7 is usually faster than most ethernet setups now.
- jcelerier 3mo agoIn throughput but not in latency, and especially not in variability
- anonymousiam 3mo agoI tried some 10GBase-T 10GTek SFP+ modules about three years ago and they had a serious overheating problem, to the point where they just were not usable. Within the past year, I've tried a number of Chinese 10GBase-T SFP+ modules with the Broadcom chipset and they've all been great. The one's I've got now are WTTOGTEC and WTSFOPTC, which seem to be the same company. They're dirt cheap at less than $30 each, and they're solid. I've tried both the 30m and 80m variants, and have not had any problems at all. I've got six of them here that have been running fine full-time for several months. Two of those are in a garage with no climate controls, and summer temperatures lately often over 100℉. The six modules I'm using are installed in three Ubiquti USW Pro XG 8 PoE switches.
- DarrisMackelroy 3mo agotangentially related but useful: A while back I vibed up a script that can bit bang i2c on an x520 to reprogram SFP modules without a dedicated flasher. Hopefully this helps save someone a few $$ if they need to reflash something. https://github.com/dcmc/x520-sfp-flash https://github.com/dcmc/x520-sfp-flash
- ahepp 3mo agoThat's pretty nifty. Another affordable option I found was this "SFP Buddy" [0] for $50, which at least at the time seemed like it was about 10x less expensive than other market options. No affiliation, just bricked an ONT-on-a-stick once and had to figure out a way to reset it without breaking the bank. [0]: https://oopselectronics.com/product/SFPB https://oopselectronics.com/product/SFPB
- whatever1 3mo agoTo calibrate the discussion, you can get 10GB/s Wifi 7 these days spending less than $200 on a router. No need to drill a single hole in your house/apartment. Ethernet is dead for home usage. I wish companies gave a damn, but no, for the past 25 years we are stuck at 1GB/s. Only recently some laptops and motherboards started shipping with 2.5GB/s ethernet options.
- m348e912 3mo ago> Ethernet is dead for home usage. If you need internet for work related audio/video conferencing, and you share your screen, wired is the way to go. Over time you can tell which colleagues are on wireless and those that are wired in. Perhaps you're making the case that wifi7 is as good or better than wired but I would argue that depends on your physical setup and possible interference issues.
- fooblaster 3mo agoPlease tell me what your ISP is. I don't even have 300mb upload in the San Francisco Bay area.
- fooblaster 3mo agolol, I have 40 megabit upload
- tw04 3mo agoYou aren’t getting consistent 10gb out of wifi unless you’re sitting 2ft from the router and have nothing else on the network. You couldn’t pay me to rip out my fiber and run strictly on wifi. The correct solution to future proof has and probably always will be running some single mode fiber runs. The same cable would have taken you from 10mbit to 400gbit+.
- jimbojimbojimbo 3mo agoThe wireless standards you are using are ethernet my friend, ethernet is very alive :) and then there is backhaul, POE (30, 60, 90) 10gbps in wifi7 is great in theory but client hardware is normally 2 spacial streams, channel widths of 320 are impractical and cause me CCI even at home. Then a load of my stuff still uses 2.4. OT is a bit like that and isn't going to change. I have to share air time with my family other devicew, there are sometimes hidden nodes, DFS from the local airport. 500Mbps is more realistic.
- oofabz 3mo agoIf you want a 10GBASE-T SFP+ module that doesn't run hot, look for one with 802.3bz support. Any module that supports 2.5G and 5G speeds has newer silicon which runs cooler. There is an old but still good list of transceivers with this feature here: https://www.servethehome.com/sfp-to-10gbase-t-adapter-module-buyers-guide/ https://www.servethehome.com/sfp-to-10gbase-t-adapter-module...
- shmerl 3mo agoTo make it less hot, just use fiber optics.
- KaiserPro 3mo agoI strongly approve of the naming convention. Reggie and Nigel are _excellent_ names.
- eemil 3mo agoHomelabbers, please look past twisted pair. 10 GBit is way past the point of diminishing returns, it's why your NICs are so easily overheating. Fiber is affordable, and for short distances you can use direct attach copper cables. Basically two SFPs hardwired together. You can order a 3 meter 10 GBit DAC cable for like 20 bucks. And they can be had in lengths up to 10+ meters.