Netgear FVS318v1 – Prosafe Wireless N VPN Firewall Reference Manual

Page of 222
Reference Manual for the Model FVS318 Broadband  ProSafe VPN Firewall 
B-14
Networks, Routing, and Firewall Basics
M-10146-01
Figure B-6:  Category 5 UTP Cable with Male RJ-45 Plug at Each End
Note: Flat “silver satin” telephone cable may have the same RJ-45 plug. However, using telephone 
cable results in excessive collisions, causing the attached port to be partitioned or disconnected 
from the network.
Uplink Switches, Crossover Cables, and MDI/MDIX Switching
In the wiring table above, the concept of transmit and receive are from the perspective of the PC, 
which is wired as Media Dependant Interface (MDI). In this wiring, the PC transmits on pins 1 and 
2. At the hub, the perspective is reversed, and the hub receives on pins 1 and 2. This wiring is 
referred to as Media Dependant Interface - Crossover (MDI-X). 
When connecting a PC to a PC, or a hub port to another hub port, the transmit pair must be 
exchanged with the receive pair. This exchange is done by one of two mechanisms. Most hubs 
provide an Uplink switch which will exchange the pairs on one port, allowing that port to be 
connected to another hub using a normal Ethernet cable. The second method is to use a crossover 
cable, which is a special cable in which the transmit and receive pairs are exchanged at one of the 
two cable connectors. Crossover cables are often unmarked as such, and must be identified by 
comparing the two connectors. Since the cable connectors are clear plastic, it is easy to place them 
side by side and view the order of the wire colors on each. On a straight-through cable, the color 
order will be the same on both connectors. On a crossover cable, the orange and blue pairs will be 
exchanged from one connector to the other.