[SOLVED] Can 4 wire (100baset) ethernet work with gigabit switch?

[uatme]

I have a project where due to specialized connectors we only have access to 4 wires (2 pairs) for our ethernet connection. It works fine with 100mbit switches and our laptops but won't work with gigabit switches. We are specifically using pair 1,2 and pair 3,6. We don't need the gigabit speed but gigabit switches are starting to be everywhere and this cable should at least connect withh 100mbit. Is there something I'm missing, why won't it negotiate, should I be using a different pair?

 

[bill001g]

It should work. If you plug it into a actual 100mbit port many times the other wires have no connections so I can't see how a switch would be able to tell if there was wire in the cable or if there was nothing connected on those pins on the far end.

Can you force the speed to 100m on the switch.

That is still the correct pair combination for any port that runs 100mbit.

Now if these are some very old cisco switches they did for a while make switches that could run gigabit over 2 pair. Everyone else ran gigabit on 4 pair and those switches tended to have lots of issues connecting to other stuff. They didn't sell very many luckily

 

[uatme]

It should work. If you plug it into a actual 100mbit port many times the other wires have no connections so I can't see how a switch would be able to tell if there was wire in the cable or if there was nothing connected on those pins on the far end.

Can you force the speed to 100m on the switch.

That is still the correct pair combination for any port that runs 100mbit.

Now if these are some very old cisco switches they did for a while make switches that could run gigabit over 2 pair. Everyone else ran gigabit on 4 pair and those switches tended to have lots of issues connecting to other stuff. They didn't sell very many luckily

We've seen the issue on multiple gigabit switches and we/whoever is using it doesn't always have that ability but I will see I can force the switch to 100mbit to see if that sheds any light on the issue. The particular switch I'm reproducing the problem with is DGS-1210-10. The product is occasionally plugged into different networks around the office so it would be nice if just worked with every switch.

 

[SamirD]

The only thing I can think of is that the signals are not strong enough. I have some marginal cables that will connect on some things but not others. I think the proprietary setup you have is causing some signal issues.