I have a cat5 run that goes from a router to a control room. I need to run cat5 from that control room to the location of a single PC. My question is this: How can I join the two cat 5 wires together? Do I have to use a powered switch? I tried using a connector that joins two RJ45 plugs together but it didn't appear that the signal was getting through. It seems like one of those connectors would switch the order of the wires around necessitating a crossover cable. Is that the problem? For testing purposes, I then put a switch at that location and I was able to pull up the Internet at the PC location. I really hate to add another piece of hardware needlessly and would appreciate knowing what the proper way to do this is. I really don't want to physically connect the two wires together permanently in case I need to feed additional PCs from that location in which case I will be forced to use a switch. If the only solution is a switch, is there such a thing as an unpowered switch?
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge about this simple question.