Link connected question

Jan 31, 2007 2 Replies

Hi,



I know this is probably an amazingly dumb question, but what *exactly* does it mean when an Ethernet link is connected? Does that mean it can sense the media, and it does some kind of test to make sure it can send and hear uncorrupted frames on the segment?



It sounds like a really silly question, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer to it anywhere, everything just says "if the link light is on, you're connected"... ok, but what *exactly* does that mean? I ask more out of curiosity than any practical reason :)



Thanks!



If you refer to the status LEDs commonly found on NICs and Ethernet Switches then your answer would be "it does receive Link Pulse sequences (10 Mbps Ethernet) or IDLE symbols (100 Mbps Ethernet and faster)".

It does *not* imply any information on the quality of your link, there is no checking for correct transmission and and reception of frames.

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