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Comment by FuriouslyAdrift | Hacker News Reader

FiberStore (fs.com) have offered vendor neutral and reprogrammable SFPs and other modules for years (they're also dramatically less expensive).

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> (they're also dramatically less expensive)

It depends, but for typical networking I'd say Ubiquti is actually offering better pricing here (outside of 10G LR) - and I'm saying that as someone who has sold 10s of thousands of FS modules to customers.

             |  FS  | Ubiquiti
  -----------+------+-----------
  Programmer | $369 | $49
  10G SR     | $25  | $12 ($20)
  10G LR     | $34  | $59 ($85)
  25G SR     | $49  | $29 ($49)
  25G LR     | $74  | $69 ($119)
  100G SR4   | $99  | $39 ($69)

Note: Prices in () are the costs outside of the limited time mark-down period.

Side note for the HN crowd: For ridiculous homelab 100G shenanigans look for Intel 100G-CWDM4 on sites like Ebay. They go for $4 and work with SM LC fiber from 0-2000 meter runs, making great DAC replacements (cheaper+thinner replaceable cabling). They run great, I've had 8 going for a year. Even if all 8 failed tomorrow and I bought 8 more that's still cheaper than a single 100G SR4 from FS. You can pair these with used 100G NICs for ~$100, making a 100G direct connection between 2 machines ~$250 after shipping+tax.

Fun fact: each one also consumes approximately $4 in electricity per year.

Assuming 2.5W typical consumption, $0.18/kWh rate. More like $8/year if you are in a high rate area!

For high speed home stuff, I usually pick up some old Mellanox infiniband cards and cables. They're usually dirt cheap and insanely quick. Difficult to work with if you do not know what your are doing.

OMG, mlx fw upgrades.

I'm so happy my current employer chose sfc :)

Lol.. yeah. Was fun having a 32Gb (QDR) storage network at home for next to nothing for a while (except the huge electric bill).

> Ubiquti is actually offering better pricing here (outside of 10G LR)

Ubiquiti's 10GB LR of $59 is for a 2-pack, not per-module. So that still comes out cheaper than FS for the sale duration at least. Not by a lot, granted, but still cheaper.

Nice prices from Ubiquiti. I think fs mostly competes against Cisco which have much higher prices. IIRC we hade like a 95% discount off Ciscos list price for optics.

Whats the best solution for short runs (rack) between Mikrotik switches and Dell servers. Will a DAC still work between different vendors or is it always best to buy individual transceivers?

DAC is always the best option for short runs in terms of cost and compatibility.

Agreed. I have a 10 Gb DAC connecting my workstation and a small server to a Mikrotik. They are way cheaper, use less electric, and run cooler compared to a UTP SFP. I don't like UTP for 10Gb as its both costly and less efficient though that is going to get better with time.

It won’t get much better because that’s just a limitation of how 10GBASE-T works. There’s never a good reason to use it. Always just use a DAC or fibre.

They're dramatically less expensive than original OEM, but UB clearly is targeting them with this release/aggressive pricing.

It remains to be seen if UB's pricing (particularly $50 on the "Wizard") is just temp to get their foot in the door. I suspect it is; and we'll see the price increase later.

> I suspect it is; and we'll see the price increase later.

I used to use Ubiquiti gear a number of years ago, but left when they started moving into an Apple-esque "prosumer" direction with corresponding price increases. That, and the constant bugs.

Just to add context:

Ubiquiti's G3 Instant entry level camera was launched at $30 in 2021; which is $55 adjusted for inflation, but they're actually selling it for $80. The G4 Instant is $99 and G6 Instant is $180(!). Keep in mind this is their cheapest, entry level, offering in the camera space.

Whereas if you contrast these prices with a Reolink E1 Pro which is $55 (with free shipping) and superior to the G4 Instant in every metric (lens quality, pixel count, PTZ, ONVIF support, et al). This essentially makes this a space that Ubiquiti is no longer interested in competing in.

One of the more egregious examples in my opinion is their rack mounted cable modem. I would love to get it but -- $279? No thanks.

on thingverse and some other sites there are adapters for different cable modems to make them rack mounted

And if you shove the wrong (i.e. non-FS) optic in an FS Box you accidentally softlock your account for a week at a time as a punishment :)

That app also sends ser# and other info to FS forcing you to help them build out the DB.

As does Flexoptixs (much better quality than fs.com in my experience)

https://www.flexoptix.net/en/fo-fb-5.html?option875=1

If you're buying at scale you can get a Flexoptixs box for free, long as you promise to write a review. At least, you used to be able to.

Now if only the fiberstore SFP programmer didn't require an app that is basically malware as far as I'm concerned.

It is pretty bad...I use a crap laptop to run it (same thing I do for all my PLC software that is just horrible)

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