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Do I need a crossover ethernet cable?

Last post 10-30-2009, 2:40 AM by Sidicas. 1 replies.
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  •  10-30-2009, 1:55 AM 580696

    Do I need a crossover ethernet cable?

    Hi, so I'm taking intro to networking at a community college and my teacher said that if you go router to router, switch to switch, pc to pc etc with an ethernet cable that it needs to be a crossover rather then a straight cable.

    So right now my pc is in my room and the router is clear on the other side of the house, I have a 100 foot straight ethernet cable going from the router under the house and up to my computer.

    I will be buying a netbook pretty soon so I can take notes in class and just have access to a computer when I don't want to be sitting in my room. The router downstairs is a Linksys wrt54g and the signal upstairs is pretty weak and I'm wanting something stronger.

    I was thinking about getting another router (and if I do get another one will it need to be the same one? linksys wrt54g) and putting it in my room for a stronger connection. Since I found out that if you do do router to router you need a crossover ethernet does that mean it would not work if I did that since it is a straight ethernet cable? If I need to I can borrow some RJ-45 crimpers from my teacher and make it a crossover but is that really necessary? Or will it just work as it is? Thanks a bunch :)
  •  10-30-2009, 2:40 AM 580698 in reply to 580696

    Re: Do I need a crossover ethernet cable?

    JakeMS91:
    Hi, so I'm taking intro to networking at a community college and my teacher said that if you go router to router, switch to switch, pc to pc etc with an ethernet cable that it needs to be a crossover rather then a straight cable.
    Does your teacher walk with a cane and wear dentures?  People haven't needed Crossover cables in years..  Every router and switch on the market that I've ever heard of in the last 6 years or so will electronically make the crossover if it's necessary.  I've been able to mix straight and crossover cables anywhere I want to and the switch or router will detect which cable is used and correct or make the crossover internally.


    JakeMS91:

    So right now my pc is in my room and the router is clear on the other side of the house, I have a 100 foot straight ethernet cable going from the router under the house and up to my computer.
    Unless the routers are 6+ years old, it should work.



    JakeMS91:

    I was thinking about getting another router (and if I do get another one will it need to be the same one?
    No.

    JakeMS91:
    linksys wrt54g)
    That's such a great router that you probably should just buy another one, for no other reason than  just because it's one of the best wireless routers ever made.

     

    JakeMS91:

    and putting it in my room for a stronger connection. Since I found out that if you do do router to router you need a crossover ethernet does that mean it would not work if I did that since it is a straight ethernet cable? If I need to I can borrow some RJ-45 crimpers from my teacher and make it a crossover but is that really necessary?

    No, I don't believe it is..  The WRT54g is pretty old, but I'm pretty sure that it was one of the first that don't care whether or not you use a crossover cable..  Could be wrong there, I mean, the best thing to do if you already have the cable is just test it out if you can. Simply looking up the specs on the WRT54g with google should also prove similar results.. I'm not seeing an "uplink" port on the WRT54g, the only things that you really need a Crossover cable these days are for really cheap hubs with "uplink" ports on them and no button on them to do the crossover in hardware..  Most hubs, even $5 hubs, have an "uplink" button that just does the crossover in hardware.  The hub that I have is close to 10 years old, no Crossover cable needed when plugging it into an autosensing switch..

     Edit: BTW, if you can place your wireless routers close enough that they can communicate, but far enough apart that they both combined cover the area you need to serve,  you can put one of them in "wireless repeater" mode and you shouldn't need to connect them at all with a cable.. It creats kind of like a daisy chain effect where the one router will just forward it's traffic to the other router and your data will just hop along from wireless router to wireless router until it reaches it's destination, or the Internet.


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