--- Jeremy Portzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, 2004-10-21 at 06:59, Joseph Mack wrote: > > > So I called up Intrex about the switches that someone on > > this list had recommended to find that the Intrex switches > > didn't have an X - straight switch because they didn't need > > one - all the ports were autosense. I didn't know such things > > existed and it occured to me to test the wrt54g ports for > > autosense. > > Actually, this is pretty much standard on all new switches and routers > and such. The days of having to worry about cross-over cables or > straight-through are happily numbered. > That feature is called Auto-MDI/MDI-X. MDI stands for Media Dependent Interface and is an IEEE 802.3 standards term. In this case the MDI is an 8-pin RJ45 with 2 twisted pairs of wire. The X stands for crossover (Xover). So, Auto-MDIX = Automatic twisted pair crossover.
I believe, the way Auto-MDI/MDI-X works is that the Ethernet PHY (physical layer) devices switch between MDI and MDI-X at random time intervals until signal is detected at both ends. WRT54G user manual says, "All Ethernet Ports Support Auto-Crossover (MDI/MDI-X)�No Need for Crossover Cables". Victor -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
