Do I still need to stock a crossover (Ethernet) cable anymore?

Today I tried to hook up a Rocket M2 as a super powerful (miles) Wi-Fi extension for my home router, when the POE light went out whenever I plugged in the power cable. Huh?

Turns out it's a crossover cable, mixed up with the bunch of my other spare Ethernet cables.

Do we even need crossover cables anymore? Or did they go the way of 8-track players?

Reply to
Jonas Schneider
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Most devices do not need cross over cables anymore, but there may still be the odd one floating around out there.

Reply to
FrozenNorth

I found myself with a box of them and I just cut the "crossed" plug off and crimped a straight one back on. Be sure you swap that with one on a live 1gb connection and run it for a while, wiggle it around and shake it to be sure the connection is good. Nothing is worse that stocking a bad cable.

Reply to
gfretwell

There are plenty of straight through yellow cables. I screen them with my tester.

Reply to
gfretwell

And there are crossover cables that are NOT yellow, yoo

Reply to
clare

I have at least a half dozen of them and I keep using them by mistake since they don't look any different unless you put their ends side by side and check color patterns.

Your idea of cutting off one end and just wiring on a straight color match would make sense. I need to buy a crimper to do that first.

Why did we use these cables anyway? I seem to remember computer to computer or computer to wifi transceiver???

Reply to
Jonas Schneider

I have a bag of crossover cables. They're any color they want to be.

I used to use them for.... I forget. I think I used to use them either for computer to computer file transfer before USB existed, or, maybe when I was connecting a WiFi transceiver to my laptop RJ45 port.

I don't actually remember why we used these cables long ago. Do you?

Reply to
Jonas Schneider

Some old hubs and routers wanted a crossover on the input port and you could use them to connect a couple of machines without using a hub. Most are yellow but there is no reason they have to be. If you do buy a crimper, don't cheap out. The $10 ones suck. A good one is $60-100 depending on where you buy it but it has dies for 4, 6 and 8 wire connectors. There are also 2 kinds of connector, one for stranded wire and one for solid.

Reply to
gfretwell

Technically only* gigabit devices are required to support auto MDI/MDI-X switching, but in practice most 10/100 devices have also supported it for many years.

[*] not sure about 10Gbe and faster, I've only used it over fibre, and with a switch between devices, but I would expect it to be auto over copper too.
Reply to
Andy Burns

You're never gonna need one...until about a week after you dispose of it. Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Reply to
mike

I wasn't aware they were color coded to differentiate. :P

A crossover/standard cable could be any color. You can tell if it's crossover or 'normal' by placing the ends together and looking at them. If it's crossover, the wiring won't match up for both ends. If it's straight thru (normal), it will.

Reply to
Diesel

I just put a piece of tape over the crossovers to mark them.

I used to crimp most of my cables, but unless you don't have wireless, it's pointless having more than half a dozen. A good pair of crimping pliers was a good investment way back when, not anymore.

I used them for computer-to-computer gaming (Diablo 1). That was back in the day when hubs were expensive and wifi was very unusual. []'s

Reply to
Shadow

That is the way it is for everything. I worked at a plant that was built about 1965. At that time there was a spare part that looked like a big auger. It was about 10 feet long and a foot in diameter. It laid around in the way up to about 2005. We got a new plant manager that had us get rid of all things we had not had to replace in the last 5 years. Out went the auger. Wouldn't you know it , a month later it was needed to replace a bad one. Same as with another piece of equipment . I forgot what it was, something like a 20 HP motor and gear box. It was sold as scrap. Before it left the plant site it was needed and we had to buy it back for a lot more than it was sold for.

I have not seen it, but heard that some new cars do not even have a spare tire now,but come with a can of Fix a Flat. Might be fine for a nail hole, but if there is a large cut in the tire,itwill be useless.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

In the early days of computer data communication, equipment was divided in to 2 groups. Terminals aka DTEs ( Teletypes, ASCII CRTs, PCs, etc) and Communications DCEs (modems, multiplexers, routers, etc).

Cables connecting a DCE to a DTE were wired straight-thru, (in RS-232;

2-2 for TxD, 3-3 for RxD, etc) (in early Ethernet 10Base-T, it was similar )

So what happened when the need arose to connect a DCE to a DCE ?, or a DTE to a DTE ? You used a crossover cable. (2-3, 3-2 etc)

Later on, Ethernet ports became auto-sensing, and the need has all but disappeared.

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explains it better.

Reply to
Retired
[snip]

I have some yellow cables - all straight through.

The crossover cable I have is beige (dirty white) with a paper tag at one end. I haven't used it in years.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

I believe it was used to connect any 2 "active devices" or any two "passive devices" before autonegotiating (Auto MDI-X) switches became common. So, computer to modem was a crossed cable. Computer to computer was a crossed cable, and switch to switch was a crossed cable. Only used straight through fom computer to switch or switch to router or router to computer With an Auto MDI-X switch it doesn't really care if you use a straight or crossed cable between the PC and the switcg, or modem and PC.

Reply to
clare

With spares, if it has NOT been needed in over 5 years is the time to KEEP it, not throw it, unless the machine the spare is for is no longer in use.

Reply to
clare

Yes. I had to buy a real spare wheel for my car because it didn't come with one. I take it with me on long journeys and have needed it several times. Around town, I leave the wheel at home because a friend can bring it to me if required. It is a nuisance that there is no storage space for the wheel other than the luggage space. There seems to be a well for a "space saver" wheel, that they used for storing the bottle of goop and air compressor, but I bought a real full-size wheel so that won't fit.

I've read that the goop that they supply instead of a spare wheel will ruin the tyre every time, and that seemed an unacceptable waste to me. Also as you point out, the goop won't fix a really big hole.

Reply to
Chris Jones

I hated it when they went to the small tire. If you are very far away from home you either have to poke along or find a place that is open to fix or replace the flat tire.

Some cases not too big of a deal unless it is at night or maybe a weekend. If like the tires I bought I have a guarntee with them, but have to go to the chain store I bought them from. There may not be one for many miles and if out of town hard to find one.

I did see a small car driving around town and I am sure they had 4 of the 'small spaires' on it.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

I've advised friends to carry an inner tube and various tools of the tire trade if they don't have a real spare tire.

When I was doing service calls in the middle of nowhere, I rescued various 4-wheelers from a long walk by installing an inner tube, and inflating it with a battery operated compressor.

The key tool is a bead breaker. I used two crow bars, which required

2 people to work effectively. This would probably have been better: or one of these:

I also carried, baby powder, air compressor, valves, valve tools, valve covers, double ended tire hose, patches, extra rubber cement, plug kit, etc. If you've replaced the inner tube on a bicycle or motorcycle, without removing the tire from the rim, you know how it's done on an automobile tire. Incidentally, the small battery operated tire inflator compressors take only a little less than forever to inflate a tire.

Oddly, I've only used the plug kit on my various vehicles after driving over a nail or screw. However, the other stuff is useful for fixing other people's tires. My palatial office is close to where a major highway dumps into town. I'm forever plagued by visitors dropping in after the eventing commute with variations on a tire puncture. They would then ask to "borrow" the tire kit, which usually means me doing the work and dragging the shop air compressor into the parking lot. Fortunately, such irritations have ceased in the last few years, when I've made it a point of going home at a more reasonable hour.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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