[Ron_Jeremy]

A local store is tempting me with some dirt cheap ($40) Gigabit Nics. I was thinking 'bout picking up a pair & using a cross-over cable to connect them , since GigaE switches are still a little pricey for me. I was led to believe that GigaE networks will not run thru cross over cable.

Thoughts?

[zagadka]

I see no reason why gigabit ethernet shouldn't work with cross over cables, besides the speed and a few differences in the standard, e.g. frame size, it works exactly like earlier versions of ethernet over TP cables. Gigabit ethernet over copper cables works best with cat 7 cables but cat 5 should do the trick under many circumstances, main parameters being noise and distance.

[Four and Twenty]

I was under the impression that gigabit ethernet nics atomatically pick up a direct connection and a crossover cable is not neccisary. This does make sense because the gigabit does use all 8 wires unlike 100Mbit.

[Ron_Jeremy]

Quote:

I was under the impression that gigabit ethernet nics atomatically pick up a direct connection and a crossover cable is not neccisary. This does make sense because the gigabit does use all 8 wires unlike 100Mbit.

Hmmm, that would be great since I do have (regular straight-thru) CAT5e cable to spare. Can anyone confirm this?

[zagadka]

Quote:

I was under the impression that gigabit ethernet nics atomatically pick up a direct connection and a crossover cable is not neccisary. This does make sense because the gigabit does use all 8 wires unlike 100Mbit.

Maybe this is the case with gigabit ethernet, but I've only seen one piece of equipment that can actually cross-connect internally if needed most equipment I've seen is only capable of polarity change on the signal. What this adds up is that internal cross-connect is possible, it's just not common to see on non gigabit ethernet equipment.