Quick question about RJ45 cables

MY current setup: (read from top to bottom, I'm hopeless at ASCII drawing)

ISP Antenna on roof

10 meters of RGC cable Linux Box with lotsa nice filters 8 port switch My PC and a wireless router (netgear WGR614v9) The wireless router feeds my son's and my wife's PCs, which have USB and PCI wireless cards. My PC plugs into the switch.

I use a "straight cable" with all these connections. I once tried plugging the netgear directly into my Linux box,using the stock cable it came with, but it did not like that.

Could I use a cross-over cable between the linux box and the wireless router, and then just plug my PC into one of the RJ45 slots in the router ? That would eliminate the 8 port switch, which is starting to give me startup problems.

Or would that damage something ? TIA

Reply to
Shadow
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BTW - what does your rooftop antenna and RG cable plug into ? Where and how is the ISP being accessed - ie - logged onto ?

For the router - just wondering if, how, or where the Router WAN port is being used - in this scenario...

The normal Ethernet cable should have worked directly from router 4-ports to Linux box (PC) just like it works with any other PC connected to one of the Ethernet RJ45

4-port switch....

Cross-over cables are used when the Ethernet ports are not auto-sensing MDI ports to flip the Transmit & Receive pairs...when used to cascade inter-connecting switches/hubs. Therefore, unless something is weird - the Linux box Netgear Router should work with a normal cable...

---------- from the Netgear manual ----------

Autosensing Ethernet Connections with Auto Uplink

With its internal 4-port 10/100 switch, the WGR614 v6 can connect to either a 10 Mbps standard Ethernet network or a 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet network. Both the LAN and WAN interfaces are autosensing and capable of full-duplex or half-duplex operation. The router incorporates Auto UplinkTM technology. Each Ethernet port will automatically sense whether the Ethernet cable plugged into the port should have a 'normal' connection such as to a computer or an 'uplink' connection such as to a switch or hub. That port will then configure itself to the correct configuration. This feature also eliminates the need to worry about crossover cables, as Auto Uplink will accommodate either type of cable to make the right connection.

Reply to
ps56k

as I asked in the other posting - where does the cable go from the antenna ?

Is this what you are using - RGC Wireless ?

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a normal Ethernet cable is brought down from the "antenna" package ??

Reply to
ps56k

classic RJ45 Ethernet 8 pins - just for reference - and the Transmit/Receive are then "swapped" inside a switch/hub/router

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1,2 = Transmit 3.6 = Receive 4,5 = normal voice telephone center pins 7,8 = local power for "classic" telephones
Reply to
ps56k

The RG cable comes down from the antenna and plugs into a PCI card on the linux box antenna

formatting link
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on linux box:
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Not exactly the same as I have, but close enough. The linux box runs from a brazilfw/coyote based bootable CDrom, which I can putty into to see logs etc if need-be. And reboot if I think it's been hacked.

I had some trouble at the beginning configuring the router, maybe the cable was not the problem.

"Normal" in this case would be a crossover, and an "uplink" would be a straight cable ? So it should work with my crossover cable. I'll try it. Just as soon as my son logs off his online game :) []'s

Reply to
Shadow

Thanks for the link. I crimp my own cables, nice reference. BTW, it appears to be working. Mine and my son's anyway. My wife is watching a film and is in a bad mood .....check hers tomorrow. So minus a load of wires and switch and power supply from under my feet. :) []'s

Reply to
Shadow

BTW - I would never use a cross-over cable unless I was say trying to connect 2 computers back to back without a small hub... BUT - I have a couple of small 4 or 5 port hubs laying around just for that purchase.... or when my son gets together for some xbox linking.

In summary - there should never be a normal need for a cross-over cable.

Also - without proper and LARGE labels on the cross-over, you may one day grab it accidently - and have things really not work.

Reply to
ps56k

Well there is if you 'normally' connect pairs of devices that require such a cable. In my 15 or so years as a network engineer I have used hundreds and hundreds.

Less need now of course as many devices do auto MDI-X, and I believe that Gigabit Ethernet has auto-crossover built in to the standard (not 100% on that though).

Most common uses have been To connect two PCs - testing mostly To connect two switches - production and testing To connect two routers - production and testing Of course in the old days - to connect two hubs

If you need one you need one and there is nothing wrong with using them.

Reply to
bod43

Make a short Ethernet "Extension Cord", Male on one end, female on t'other, wired for crossover. Just plug it on the end of any standard cable when you need a crossover, and you'll never use it by mistake.

Isaac

Reply to
isw

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:13:34 -0800, isw wrote: About crossover cables:

It's a very good idea/hack. I don't have the tools though to make (crimp ?) the female connection. The male RJ45 crimper is hard enough to find where I live. So my crossover gets a big lump of surgical tape on it. []'s

Reply to
Shadow

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