TiBook and powered ethernet

[Dennis Fazio]

I've noticed a problem when plugging into a powered ethernet jack (which should more properly be called a powered Cat5 twisted pair jack.)

We have IP phones in our office which are powered from the ethernet switch. There is a second auxiliary Cat5 jack in the phone in which you can plug your computer. It is not powered.

If I plug the TiBook into the phone, I get a DHCP address just fine and it works great. If I plug the TiBook directly into the powered wall jack, the TiBook either gets no address or self-generates its own class B 169.254 address and I cannot send/receive on the network. I've tried this in several jacks with the same results.

I've also had a lot of trouble with drop cables, finding that many do not work in my TiBook but do fine in others. I am suspecting I might have a problem with alignment or pin deformation in my ethernet jack, and need to look into this with a magnifying glass, but it may or may not be related to the powered jack problem.

Anyone else notice problems or difficulties making a good connection via a powered ethernet jack or have any ideas to help diagnose what might be the cause?

I have the only PowerBook in an all Wintel shop, so I really, really want to avoid having any kind of connection trouble in front of others :-)
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Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com