[Ti] Ethernet strangeness

[Robert Ameeti]

>Well, the mystery is solved. Somehow the jacks have been wired so only 10baseT works and not 100baseT. That explains why the older Macs that have 10base cards worked and not the TiBook with 100base (with no apparent way to slow it down. Looks like the installer will be getting a call from me on Monday.

There is no 'wiring' difference between 10Base-T and 100Base-T.  The most likely cause for the problem that you are experiencing is that the contractor used Cat3 cable instead of Cat5 cable. Cat3 is cheaper but will only support 10Base-T.

If the contractor ends up replacing the cable with Cat5, then do make sure that he wires the four pairs instead of just the standard two pairs that 100Base-T needs. With the four pairs terminated, you will be able to later make use of 1000Base-T's higher speeds.

And then again, if he has to replace the wire, you might be better off with Cat5e or Cat 6 so as to truly be where you want to be for 1000Base-T which will be prevalent in a year or two.

BTW, Are your hubs or switches all capable of automatically switching the 10/100 Mbps traffic? Not all of the cheaper stuff does this. You might want to look at this before calling the contractor.
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Robert Ameeti
mailto:robert at ameeti.net

Putting an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of keyboards will *not* result in the greatest work of all time. Just look at Windows.
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