[CS-FSLUG] Networking failure
Frank Bax
fbax at sympatico.ca
Fri Dec 10 12:00:46 CST 2004
At 12:45 PM 12/10/04, Ed Hurst wrote:
> > A crossover cable would skip the switch. Would that help?
>
>Don't even know what that is. I tried connecting directly between the
>two NICs and got even worse results. I also tried three different brands
>of ether cards (someone sent me a mixed 10-pack).
If you look *very* closely inside the plastic connectors on your network
wires you should see one these two colour patterns: T568A or T568B - these
are the two "standards" for CAT5 cable. When a cable uses T568A at one end
and T568B at the other end, then it is a "crossover" cable which means 1x6
and 2x3 send/receive wires are crossed - send at one end is connected to
receive at the other, instead of "straight through" cable - which is used
in most cases.
Some novice cable makers think that as long as both ends of the cable use
the same scheme, they have made a "straight-though" cable and everything
should be fine. These people find out that there is a reason for
standards. I've seen cases where this setup causes a 100Mbit/sec network
actually only runs at 10Mbit/sec. Apparently the twisted pairs are then
twisted in such a way as to reduce interference when the right wire is used
for the right purpose (as determinied by pinouts at the end).
Frank
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