Trick question on a practise exam

Deathmage

Guys,

without looking in my books but...

but crossover are kind of a thing of the past for most modern switches right? - if memory serves me correctly without looking in a book. port have something I think called auto-mdx that can sense the need for a crossover and alter the signal?

meaning you don't technically need a crossover a normal ethernet would work...

tomtom1

Yes, Auto MDIX is available on most switches. It became popular with the gigabit standard, so for 100 megabit and older switches, you might be best off to stick to the cabling requirements.

rcsoar4fun

Yes and no. Auto-MDX didn't come become common until I believe the 3550 series of switches. There is still a lot of older stuff out there that does not support it.

Jon_Cisco

What you need to understand is what a crossover is and why it is used. Once you understand the send and receive signals you can then worry about choosing a physical crossover cable or logical MDIX configuration.

I believe at the CCNA level everything will assume you are not using MDIX. They want you to demonstrate the knowledge of crossing the send and receive connections on like devices. Don't assume my opinion is right on this because we are taught about MDIX and they may be testing that knowledge with the question.

Good Luck

eten

important to note that mdix requires the port to be in auto/auto for it to work properly.

Deathmage

Thanks for the feedback. I see now why this question was presented.

Admiral Akmir

It seems kind of simple, but for some reason, the cabling has never stuck in my head, even through several years of doing hands on labs in school. This kind of information gap won't be acceptable for CCNA, so does anyone have a way they remember what cable is used between any two devices?

theodoxa

Admiral Akmir wrote: »

It seems kind of simple, but for some reason, the cabling has never stuck in my head, even through several years of doing hands on labs in school. This kind of information gap won't be acceptable for CCNA, so does anyone have a way they remember what cable is used between any two devices?

Like devices use crossover

Router to Router
Router to PC
Switch to Switch
Switch to Hub
Hub to Hub
PC to PC

Unlike Devices use Straight Through

Router to Switch
Router to Hub
Switch to PC
Hub to PC

One way to remember that a PC and Router are like devices is to imagine a PC connected to a Switch which is connected to a Router. Each connection would be straight through, but remove the switch and you would need a crossover.

mjnk77