Or are you just banging the stones together....."
Isn't very helpful.
Posh switches, fibre bridges, Cat5e and SFPs.
Posted by: ChrisSU on 11 February 2018
There has been some discussion of the use of fibre optic cables for network isolation, and of Cisco switches, most of which have SFP ports, recently, so I thought I would post my findings on this.
I’ve been running a fibre optic network for a couple of years now, prompted by the fact that out phone line has been hit by lightning twice now, and on the first occasion it destroyed everything with a wired connection to the router, including a Unitiserve. Using optical connections seemed like a sensible precaution, and I did it for the whole network rather than just a single fibre bridge. It was a bit messy, as it required the use of several media converters, with the inevitable SMPS’s cluttering up the house, but it did work well.
A recent house refurb prompted me to rethink all this, and I decided to try what I think is a neater solution, using switches with SFP ports instead of media converters. This has been running for a couple of months now, and I’m pretty happy with the result. Buying used Catalyst 2960 switches, and Cisco SFPs, on eBay, makes this a cheap thing to do - which is just as well, as it’s expensive stuff if you buy it new.
Here’s a pic of my router cupboard (still a bit of tidying up to do!)
And this is the 'posh' media converter that now feeds my NDX - prior to cable dressing and hiding under the sofa:
I suppose the real question is - does it sound any good? Well I was using an Airport Express as a temporary wireless connection while I set this up, and compared to that, I do think there's an improvement. Maybe that was just down to the removal of the electrically noisy AE, though. Is it better than a simple Cat5e network? I don't know, if you want to find out, you'll have to try it for yourself!
Finally, thanks to [@mention:1566878603876589] for various bits of advice, and for his tolerance of us amateurs blindly dabbling in his professional world.
Do you have the faintest idea of what you are doing??? 
Or are you just banging the stones together.....
Simon - your knowledge appears to be exemplary, however, most will not have the slightest clue what you are talking about. So this:
"Do you have the faintest idea of what you are doing???