Fibre to Thunderbolt.

My new apartment is wired throughout with fibre optic cable. The Internet connection to the apartment is also fibre optic and there is a switch built in to the system. The apartment is also wired with Cat 6 Ethernet alongside the fibre but ideally, I want to just use the fibre connection directly without going through a fibre to ethernet conversion. I will be replacing my current Macs with new during the coming year. The first is likely to be a Mac mini. At this stage, is it possible to connect fibre directly to Thunderbolt and if so how? Thanks.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 29, 2014 8:59 PM

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4 replies

Jan 30, 2014 6:28 AM in response to autophile7

For speeds of 1Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet) or slower there is absolutely no point using Fibre-Optic connections, the cost would be unjustifiable. If your apartment is so large that the distance the cable needs to run is more than 100 metres then the network should be designed so each floor is linked by Fibre-Optic cables, but within a floor you would need to have an apartment more than 100 metres wide or deep to exceed the limit.


I have found some Thunderbolt adapters which do use Fibre-Optic have for their purpose are justifiable. However I still think for even the richest apartment owner there is still no reason why they should be needed.


First a 10Gbps (10 Gigabit Ethernet) adapter, this is therefore ten times as fast as the built-in Ethernet port.


See https://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?scat=32&sku=TLNS-1101-D00


You should note it might actually cost more than a Mac mini!


Secondly an FDDI San adapter again using Fibre-Optic.


See http://www.promise.com/promotion_page/promotion_page.aspx?region=en-global&rsn=1 03

or https://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?cat=16&scat=29&prod=100&sku=TLFC-1 082-D00


These are not network adapters and will therefore not let you access the Internet etc. they are specialised adapters for connecting to a storage area network and hence to a shared storage system.


It should be noted that even for speeds of 10Gbps you can still use copper wires.


See https://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?scat=32&prod=103&sku=TLNT-1102-D00

Jan 31, 2014 5:42 PM in response to woodmeister50

Thank you for your advice.


When I asked for the fibre to be installed it was with the objective of "future-proofing" (I hate that phrase) the apartment. Having ommitted to install Ethernet (17 years ago) in a previous property when I had the opportunity but did not recognise the need, I wanted to avoid a similar mistake this time. As "Lightpeak" aka "Thunderbolt" is projected to go to 100GB rather than the current 10GB I wanted to make sure that as technology develops we are not limited by copper cable.


The fibre has been laid in parallel with the Ethernet cable and in the context of the apartment's cost was peanuts, about NZ$500 or £250.


Your comments explain my difficulty in trying to find the appropriate interface. Thank you for taking the trouble to provide an answer. I greatly appreciate the advice.

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Fibre to Thunderbolt.

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