Compatible Transceivers

[sonofsanta]

Morning all! Trust your holidys have been productive and that your schools this morning are not too full of crying teenage girls (or boys).

I've been entertaining myself the last couple of days by trying to hook the new fibre up to the switches, and giving myself a headache by staring down cables working out with cable is transmitting etc., and rather frustratingly, after using 11 transceivers, I'm one short. This wouldn't normally be a problem - 'cept for how bloody expensive they are - except that in their infinite wisdom 3COM appear to have EOLed the transceiver I've always used, as it is the compatible part listed on their website. For reference: this transceiver is what I've used, and in this instance I need to plug one into this switch.

Seeing as I can't source one anywhere - and nor can my suppliers - I come begging to you all, cap in hand, to shine light on the shadows of my ignorance. Will any 1000BASE-SX SFP Transceiver do the job, such as this Cisco model?

All my network equipment is otherwise 3COM, the fibre is 50/125 OM3 multi-mode running no more than around 130m, as far as I can tell that Cisco module should work - but I've learnt the hard way about making assumptions on this stuff before.

Thanks in advance for any advice, you are eternally my saviours and heroes, one and all.

[Soulfish]

It will really depend on how picky the switch is. HP switches won't work with anything other than HP SFPs, and if you do happen to find a compatible SFP that works now it'll likely get nuked in a future firmware upgrade. I'm not sure on 3coms policies, but given they're now owned by HP it wouldn't surprise me if they start to implement the restriction of only 3com SFPs.

I'd check to see what 3com have replaced the part with however. It may be that they've discontinued the 3com versions in favour of H3C or HP branded versions.

[caffrey]

ebay ? theres a few on there now cheap enough

[sonofsanta]

I'd check to see what 3com have replaced the part with however. It may be that they've discontinued the 3com versions in favour of H3C or HP branded versions.

I'd forgotten that HP had taken 3COM over, and hadn't realised they were rebranding. HP website reckons that this expensive replacement is what I need now, lucky me. I've stuck with 3COM before because they were a cost-effective solution, being owned by HP is likely to change that now I fear :/

Cheers!

[CyberNerd]

I bought some recently (month ago ish) from switchshop Switchshop Ltd for your networking needs

There very good and I'm sure they can get a compatible module.

[sonofsanta]

I bought some recently (month ago ish) from switchshop Switchshop Ltd for your networking needs

There very good and I'm sure they can get a compatible module.

Looks like they have some in stock, according to their site - asked for a quick quote anyway so we'll see how that works out.

Cheers!

[m25man]

I use generic sfp modules everywhere. HP type C compatibles only cost $20 in the quantities I buy them in they all have 2Year warranty and I have never had a dud in 3years.
I installed some 3coms the other week with genuine 3com modules and the first one was DOA....

Cisco Switches will normally take most other vendors units as long as you override the IOS with the correct commands

Issuing the following commands will allow for unsupported SFPs and wont disable the port.

switch(config)#service unsupported-transciever
switch(config)#no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid

You will be presented with a warning after the first command with something to the effect that if you experience any problems with the switch, Cisco may deny support if the cause is determined to be the ‘unsupported’ SFP.

The moral of course is to always have a genuine one around just for testing.

[sonofsanta]

Managed to get that 3COM part from switchshop - thanks again CyberNerd.

If Cisco will work with everything I may have to switch to them now that 3COM is slowly being consumed by the overpriced behemoth that is Hewlett-Packard - although I would have to spend some considerable time with my CCNA book again to be able to configure a switch through the console port and not the web front end :S

[wesleyw]

Extreme work with any brand without having to change anything (Using Dlink SFPs in mine).

Wes

[TransceiverGURU]

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