What are these 2 ports?

ssnyderu2

This may be a stupid question, but what kind of ports are these? I have not worked with fiber, is that what these are?

OfWolfAndMan

Fiber optic cabling has three types of (modern) connectors. ST, SC and LC: LC would go into this slot. To get the fiber seated properly, you also need something called a GBIC.

clarson

looks like you have a: Cisco Catalyst 3560-24PS: 24 Ethernet 10/100 ports with PoE and 2 SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet ports
The SFP-based GE ports accommodate a range of SFP transceivers, including the Cisco 1000BASE-T, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX, 1000BASE-ZX, and CWDM SFP transceivers. These ports also support the Cisco Catalyst 3560 SFP Interconnect Cable for establishing a low-cost Gigabit Ethernet point-to-point connection.

ssnyderu2

I got this cheap, but did not notice that those 2 ports were not standard Ethernet ports. Will this switch still be useful for a CCENT/CCNA lab?

theodoxa

SFP Modules. There are various SFPs for different types of fiber and gigabit copper. You simply insert the SFP module into the port.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/interfaces-modules/cwdm-gbic-sfp/72370-sfp-trcvr-mods.html

theodoxa

ssnyderu2 wrote: »

I got this cheap, but did not notice that those 2 ports were not standard Ethernet ports. Will this switch still be useful for a CCENT/CCNA lab?

Absolutely. SFP are standard on 3560/3750 switches. Older (3550) switches used GBICs which were larger, but served the same purpose.

ssnyderu2

Thanks for the information. I found a few SFP RJ-45 modules on line. Makes my 20$ switch not so cheap now. So now that I know what they are and theodexa said that the switch will still be good for CCNA labs, do I need to populate one or both ports?

clarson

well, you don't need to populate either sfp for ccna labs. just leave them empty. you could populate one with a sfp rj 45 and you can play around with autonegoiating speed and duplex between gigabit and 10/100 ports. but i doubt that will be on the ccna test.

ssnyderu2

clarson wrote: »

well, you don't need to populate either sfp for ccna labs. just leave them empty. you could populate one with a sfp rj 45 and you can play around with autonegoiating speed and duplex between gigabit and 10/100 ports. but i doubt that will be on the ccna test.

Then I will leave them empty and worry about those another day.

Thanks again all for clearing this up.

MTciscoguy

Don't have to put a thing in them, I have a WS-C2950G-EI switch that has the larger version of the same thing in it, have never put anything in those ports as it is not needed to do studies.

theodoxa

For CCNP, they could be useful for testing UDLD (as UDLD is used on fiber optic interfaces), but otherwise there is no real need to place anything in those slots.

gorebrush

Mmmmmmmmmmm, nice switch.

A good buy, that.

Dark-Knight

Those SFPs are pretty expensive though...