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Connect two Win 7 computers directly using fiber and no switch

I want fast file transfers between two linux computers using fiber-optics, but I don't want the expense of buying a fiber switch.

Can I buy two fiber expansion cards and connect the computers with a fiber cable directly? Is there a crossover-type issue with fiber, and if so will the cards do the conversion?

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    This question is too vague to answer. How fast are we talking? Gigabit? 10 Gig? 40 Gig? And why fiber? Jun 20, 2012 at 6:02

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A fibre network card will do all the "magic"... to your computer, it will look like a normal network card, so, just assign manual IPs and you should be good to go.

That being said, unless you are using SSDs, a gig is probably more than enough and using good quality cat5e should get you a gig fine.

Unless you are going for 10 gig fibre (which can be very pricey for the cards and SFPs), you may as well just use cat5e as when under 100 meters and using a gig, there is no benefit to fibre.

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  • Yep: disk i/o will likely be the limiting factor. Jun 25, 2012 at 21:10

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