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Procurement for Copper Upgrades (10 Gbps)

Overview

Procurement of machines for 10 Gbps involves consideration of general computer quality, as well as a Network Interface Card (NIC) with RJ-45 connectivity that is capable of 10 Gbps, often times called 10GBaseT. A Cat6A cable or better will also be needed to connect from the wall to your device.

Network Interface Cards with RJ-45 connectivity are standard in most workstation PCs, with out-of-the-box cards typically supporting 1/2.5 Gbps. NICs are typically backward compatible as well, meaning if you upgrade to a 10 Gbps card to get maximum throughput via an HSRN Copper Upgrade but later decide to move the machine to a NYU-NET outlet, the NIC can operate at the lower speed. Most modern operating systems (Windows 7/8/10/11) as well as the vast majority of Linux distributions support 10 Gbps over Ethernet on the software side.

Note that if you have a 1/2.5/5 Gbps NIC, you will be able to connect to the HSRN and benefit from these speeds without issue.

Warning

Whether you connect via laptop or desktop to HSRN, please ensure you have at least a Cat6A cable between your computer and the wall outlet. Anything lower than Cat6A will bottleneck your speeds.

General Requirements

Machines targetted for Copper Upgrades up to 10 Gbps should be newer, standard or higher end desktops, workstations, laptops or IoT devices. While there is no hard rule, generally machines older than 6 years would not benefit from Copper Upgrades unless they are higher end. Machines that reach 10 Gbps over HSRN typically have more than 4 cores.

Desktops and Workstations

Desktops and workstations targeted for HSRN connectivity will generally use a PCIe Network Interface Card. Installing a PCIe card involves opening your computer and placing the card into an available PCIe slot. Each network card will have a different minimum requirement for PCIe, generation and number of lanes (x4, x8, x16). Please check your specific network card and what your equipment has available. Generally, a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot should suffice. This information can be seen right above the slot on your motherboard. If you require assistance, please feel free to reach out to your IT department or to us directly and we can assist in determining this for you.

If you have a Apple Studio or similar desktop, this may come with 10 Gbps capability already installed. Please check your equipment specifications. If your Apple hardware does not have 10 Gbps capability natively, it is NOT possible to install a PCIe card typically, and you will need to use a external adapter (See next section on Laptops).

Resources to install Network Interface Cards can be found online here (FS) and here (Youtube).

Laptops

Laptops targeted for HSRN connectivity should use a USB to 10 Gbps external adapter. These can be USB-C, Thunderbolt, etc. Simply plug in the external adapter, ensure that the adapter is recognized by your system, and you can begin using the HSRN. Note that the adapter itself may be hot while in use.

NIC Recommendations

For 10 Gbps Ethernet NICs, we recommend any of the following Network Cards:

For Desktops

For Laptops

Required Cables