But lets say I did want to go down the route of using a fiber card in my media server, what would you recommend - I'm open to used parts found on eBay.
Fiber cards for PC-type servers are still going to be a lot more expensive than regular copper ones. This is mainly due to far fewer of them being built (economies of scale) and people who need then generally REALLY need them for some reason, and are willing to pay whatever the vendor wants for them.
I haven't used any PC fiber NICs in a long time. I'd suggest Intel, as they actually make the chips used on their cards and their driver support is generally excellent. Broadcom also makes chips, but their boards are usually re-branded by others (for example, HP) and up-to-date drivers are harder to find.
Fiber (and the hardware at each end) comes in two different "modes", single-mode (generally a yellow jacket) and multimode (orange or sometimes a pale blue jacket). You can't connect one to the other and have it work - you need all of one kind or all of the other.
[This is a simplification for the purpose of this discussion - I know you can connect single-mode transceivers with multimode cable if you use mode conditioning, and there's also the issue of CWDM / DWDM hardware.]
You'll then need a cable with the appropriate type of connectors. The ones you're likely to find are LC (that's the one your SFP will use, and possibly the PC card) and SC (the one with two Square Connectors - that's not what it stands for, but it is a useful way to remember it). Make sure you get one that's the right length - like most cables you can't easily make for yourself, they're usually either just a LITTLE too short or WAY too long.
If you plug everything in and are pretty sure your ports are configured properly and it still doesn't work, you may need to swap the connectors on one end. Light comes out of one and goes back in the other, and it won't work if they're reversed. Most duplex (2-fiber) connectors are actually a pair of single connectors held together in a removable shell, so you can separate them, exchange them, and clip the shell back on. If you have a choice, use the SC end and not the LC end for this.
