ZolomonJo

Q: 2006 Mac Pro connected with a fiber patch cord

I want to connect this fiber optics patch cord to my Mac Pro from 2006 , does a PEX1000MMSC would do the job or you recommend something else?

Mac Pro

Posted on Jan 28, 2016 12:24 PM

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Q: 2006 Mac Pro connected with a fiber patch cord

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  • by Duane,

    Duane Duane Jan 28, 2016 5:36 PM in response to ZolomonJo
    Level 10 (124,018 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 5:36 PM in response to ZolomonJo

    I'm not sure why you asked in the iMac discussion area. I have asked the moderators to move your post to the Mac Pro discussion area.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jan 28, 2016 7:35 PM in response to ZolomonJo
    Level 9 (60,976 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 28, 2016 7:35 PM in response to ZolomonJo

    Your Mac can do Gigabit Ethernet directly over 8-conductor Ethernet copper cables directly from either of the two Ethernet ports.

     

    It seems like there should be a cheaper solution that just does the conversion.

     

    Most PCIe cards MUST SPECIFY that they work in a Mac, and they especially need to work with 10.11 ElCapitan, or when you upgrade they will stop working.

     

    --------

     

    Have you considered this card?

     

    http://www.sonnettech.com/product/presto10gbe.html

     

    .

  • by John Lockwood,Solvedanswer

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jan 29, 2016 6:37 AM in response to ZolomonJo
    Level 6 (9,324 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jan 29, 2016 6:37 AM in response to ZolomonJo

    That card will work in your Mac Pro at least up to and including OS X version 10.9.5 (Mavericks). They do not say if it will work with later versions i.e. Yosemite and El Capitan.

     

    There have been quite a few similar products that have turned out not to be compatible with El Capitan but I would think there is a good chance it would work with Yosemite.

     

    For the benefit of others, there are four typical reasons for wanting to fit an Ethernet card to a Mac Pro.

     

    1. To add an additional network connection
    2. To add a faster network connection, e.g. 10Gbps
    3. To replace a faulty built-in connection
    4. To support fibre for the purposes of a longer distance connection

     

    The SonnetTech card listed by Grant is a 10Gbps card not a 1Gbps card and will therefore only work with a 10Gbps network switch connection. As it is possible to do 1Gbps Ethernet over copper cable for a distance of 100 metres it seems that no-one else bothers to make a 1Gbps card for Macs.

     

    An alternative approach would be to get a cheap network switch which supports a 1Gbps fibre connection and locate it next to the Mac, then run standard twisted pair (copper) from the Mac to the switch at 1Gbps, and run a fibre 1Gbps link from the switch back to the rest of the network.

  • by ZolomonJo,

    ZolomonJo ZolomonJo Jan 29, 2016 6:37 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 29, 2016 6:37 AM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks is exactly the point 4!