[RoninPedroshin]

Hello,

I've recently looked closely to an ethernet cable that came with an used modem+router (an AirLive WL-8064ARM) to replace my old one that had died and I can't make out what type of cable it is even after looking at wikipedia.

After comparing it with my old router's cable it seems to be a cross-over cable, but it only has 4 types of colors: blue, orange, white/blue stripe and white/orange stripe. Also it says on its cover - E188601 TYPE CM 24AWG/2PRS UTP VERIFIED (UL) CAT 5 PATCH CABLE TO TIA/EIA 568A LL84201 CSA TYPE CMG FT4 COPARTNER. I bolded what I think is most important in identifying the type of cable. But shouldn't it say crossover cable instead of patch cable? Here's why:

Here's an image edit I've done to explain what each end of the cable looks like:


As you can see it's different from what is shown here: http://en.wikipedia....Crossover_cable

However this router would go down in the middle of the night, so it wasn't good for me...

I bought a WL-600g with 1.0.3.5.A firmware and have had no problems ever since. However yesterday I decided to do a test to each router individually just to see if they gave me any different latencies and came to the conclusion they didn't.

However at the end I noticed I had mixed the ethernet cables from each, but I thought it wasn't a big deal, as they had both worked. It seems they both have Auto MDI/MDIX function, so that's why they worked even with a seemingly cross-over cable.

Currently I'm using the WL-600g with the normal Cat5 cable that came with it but, I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, it seems that ever since my WL-600g has been acting strangely. Sometimes it seems like I lose my connection and when I look at the log I see this at the time the connection dropped:

Jan 1 20:49:55 user warn dnsprobe[814]: dns query failed
Jan 1 20:49:57 user warn dnsprobe[814]: dns query failed
Jan 1 20:49:57 user notice dnsprobe[814]: Primary DNS server Is Down... Switching To Secondary DNS server
Jan 1 20:50:28 user notice dnsprobe[814]: Switching Back To Primary DNS server
Jan 1 21:01:20 user warn dnsprobe[814]: dns query failed
Jan 1 21:01:22 user warn dnsprobe[814]: dns query failed
Jan 1 21:01:24 user warn dnsprobe[814]: dns query failed
Jan 1 21:01:24 user notice dnsprobe[814]: Primary DNS server Is Down... Switching To Secondary DNS server
Jan 1 21:01:56 user notice dnsprobe[814]: Switching Back To Primary DNS server

The only connection drops I had until then were just ISP IP-assigning related, that happened about in a 12-24h period. This DNS problem seems to happen randomly, but especially when I'm navigating through several pages or waiting for something to load.

And just today the router stopped answering to the PC on its own for the very first time since I bought it, with the icon on the bottom right corner saying the connection was down. 192.168.1.1 in the browser wouldn't access to anything. But it eventually reconnected on its own somehow...

Can anyone explain why is this happening? Did connecting the cable I mentioned at the start could have damaged/screwed something or is this something else entirely, ie a coincidence and it's my ISP's fault (the DNS not answering etc)?

Thanks!

Edited by RoninPedroshin, 10 May 2009 - 07:02 AM.

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A cross-over cable is so called because two pairs of wires "cross over" from one end to the other. A patch cable is straight through without crossing over.

with regards to what you have, a similar picture is here:
http://en.wikipedia....i/TIA/EIA-568-B

With supplementary text " Because pair 1 connects to the center pins (4 and 5) of the 8P8C connector in both T568A and T568B, both standards are compatible with the first line of RJ11, RJ14, RJ25, and RJ61 connectors that all have the first pair in the center pins of these connectors."

Therefore it doesn't appear to be a standard ethernet cable at all. An RJ11 cable is used from the router to the phone line. A network cable is also known as an RJ45 cable. You seem to have some obscure cable that could be best described as RJ45 to RJ11. While it's possible it was custom made for a specific purpose (what that is you'll probably never know).

[Neil Jones]

A cross-over cable is so called because two pairs of wires "cross over" from one end to the other. A patch cable is straight through without crossing over.

with regards to what you have, a similar picture is here:
http://en.wikipedia....i/TIA/EIA-568-B

With supplementary text " Because pair 1 connects to the center pins (4 and 5) of the 8P8C connector in both T568A and T568B, both standards are compatible with the first line of RJ11, RJ14, RJ25, and RJ61 connectors that all have the first pair in the center pins of these connectors."

Therefore it doesn't appear to be a standard ethernet cable at all. An RJ11 cable is used from the router to the phone line. A network cable is also known as an RJ45 cable. You seem to have some obscure cable that could be best described as RJ45 to RJ11. While it's possible it was custom made for a specific purpose (what that is you'll probably never know).

[RoninPedroshin]

But this cable, even though it says it's a "Patch cable", seems to be a crossover cable, because when I look at both ends of it the Blue/Orange and White-Blue Stripped/White-Orange Stripped swap places, while in other cables I have they are all in same positions.

Here's something interesting in the crossover cable wikipedia page:

"Certain equipment or installations, including those in which phone and/or power are mixed with data in the same cable, may require that the "non-data" pairs 1 and 4 (pins 4, 5, 7 and 8) remain un-crossed."

These pins are the same that have no pairs in my cable. However it's strange how it's the blue color that stayed, and not the green one. Maybe the blue pair is acting like the green pair? I know nothing of this.

How does a cable like this one I have still functions normally anyway? Doesn't the PC-Router connection require the missing pairs?

I guess only an Ethernet/RJ specialist could answer the question?

Thanks!

Edited by RoninPedroshin, 10 May 2009 - 02:04 PM.