[nsp] Connecting over fibre two sites 5km

[jp at pour.midcoast.com]

> I want to connect two location over fibre, they are separated by about 5km.
> I need 100mbps and the ability to pass VLANs in a trunk between two 2924M
> switches.
> Based on my research of cisco web site a pair of 2924M(that I already
> have) with WS-X2931 and WS-G5486 should work.
> But that is at 1 gig and a bit of an overkill.
> 
> Any better ideas, and anything else I need to worry about?
> 
> TIA
> K

I would get some external media converter boxes from someone like
transition networks, patton, or others. I presume you have singlemode
fiber for that distance so make sure the converters are singlemode also.  
It should be like extending the cat-5 rj45 cable between the two location
as far as VLANs and such features go. You get more choices as far as
distance and media with external boxes compared to switch specific cards.

I'm in the midst of a project where I am linking two HP switches together
with redundancy and loadbalancing and VLANs - it's about a 12 mile link.  
My 100mbps fast ethernet fiber converters only use one fiber, so I intend
to get 200mbps from one pair of fiber and we are protected if a connector,
tranceiver, or patch cord goes bad as it will drop back to 100mbps.

-Jason

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