David A. Sinck wrote:

>
>\_ SMTP quoth Brian Cluff on 10/5/2001 09:16 as having spake thusly:
>\_
>\_ It doesn't matter which one you use, as long as you use the same one for
>\_ both sides.  Ethernet actaully only uses 1,2,3,6 and if you look at the
>\_ colors that are left over after you take out the unused ones you
>
>'unused'?  So if I were being pointlessly cheap, I could use one
>strand of cat5 to populate two jacks?  Or are they carrying important
>grounding information?
>

The "Use any combo" approach can get you into trouble on a long run of 
cable.  I have run into problems in the past using this approach.  You 
should follow the spec to be safe.

    The spec is here - 
http://webmail.cotse.com/helpdesk/documents/networking/cat5.html

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--  Jay Kalafus ------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--  They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary  --
--  safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin             --
----------------------------------------------------------------------------