Duplex Fiber Optic

Duplex Fiber Optic

Good reference sites for extending LAN over fibre optic?

Hi.

I need to link the LAN in my local church to the LAN in the office building a few hundred yards away. I can't use copper as the church tower sometimes gets lightening strikes which have previously taken out kit in the office. We currently use WiFi but it is not terribly reliable and we need to start to ship audio and video over IP.

I want to learn about fibre but not sure where to start. I've found places that sell pre-terminated fibre but I don't know whether I need single or multimode, what wavelenght etc.

I also don't know where to find out about media converters from RJ45 to fibre and back. Is fibre full or half duplex...i.e. do I need one or two strands (hence one or two converters are each end). If I need two converters do I need to make up RJ45 splitters to bring the Tx & Rx out on different plugs.

All very confusing. If you can answer any of these or point me at good web resources that would be fantastic.
Many thanks

Jonathan

For the distance you are talking about you would be able to use singlemode or multimode fiber. When buying a media converter you must make sure that you buy the corresponding transceiver to the type of fibre you will be using. Check Blackbox.com for different types of media converters. You can run fiber full or half duplex but you will still need a pair of cables. You should only need one converter for each end of the cable. Fiber optic cable is very fragile and if you plan on running it outside I recommend buying a well shielded cable and NOT the indoor fiber optic cables.