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Ol' reliable (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [M] to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (3 children)

OK so I just learned, like, last week that there are two standards. Why are there two standards? WTF?

(The context is I was turning an Ethernet cable into an EtherCAT cable, which is a stupid industrial standard where you only wire up pins 1, 2, 3, and 6, and then charge the end user 200 times more for the cable.)

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (2 children)

    There are two standards as it allows one to make a crossover cable. (Do B on one side and A on the other)

    I also find crossover cables completely useless and refuse to own one less it gets mixed into the pile. Everyone has a router/switch, which negates the need completely.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Back at the beginning of times ethernet, you needed the crossover cables to connect routers to routers, switches to switches or end devices to end devices. They wouldn't work with the straight cables.

    The standard still needs those cables to be crossover, but nowadays the port itself can detect what type of cable you connected, what type of cable it needs, and rewire itself to accept whatever you throw at it.

    The same thing happens when you directly connect 2 PCs together without a switch in the middle. But the ports also adapt themselves and work it out.

    You could also use a crossover cable, and your devices would figure it out too.

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