Nitestick said:
Digerati, you might want to make sure you're right before correcting someone.
Actually, I do. And that's why I provided a link above, and more below.
Best practice probably to still use crossover, but not really needed for home application.
So again, I respectfully disagree. Again, crossover cables are special purpose cables. If you look in most SOHO network device manuals, I think you will see it will say to use a standard Ethernet.
I note
D-Link DGS1008G Manual says,
Hub/Switch to DGS-1008G
These connections can be accomplished in a number of ways using a standard Ethernet cable.
And BTW, that DGS-1008G is a switch, not a router as I think was mentioned earlier.
The Linksys E4200
user guide says, "Make sure that your DSL or cable modem is connected to your router's Internet port using an Ethernet cable."
I do agree most modern devices can detect and auto-configure their ports, crossover cables are more difficult to find, especially in longer lengths and are more expensive because they are less common. If you build your own cables, but don't do it every day, building crossover cables can be confusing, and require special labling and inventory/storage to avoid mixing up with standard Ethernet.
And also, there are still millions of XP era machines and older network devices that do not use auto-sensing ports.
Nitestick said:
if the switch and our router are auto cable sensing then the crossover will still work however if they're not a patch cable wouldn't.
Actually, that is incorrect. A patch cable is a standard Ethernet cable. Therefore, if they are not autosensing, they will be expecting to see a standard Ethernet, and a crossover would fail.