[olug] MDI/MDIX autodetection (was nonnetwork)

[Neal Rauhauser]

  Some switches on the low end of the food chain will autodetect if the 
remote is a PC (MDI) or another hub(MDIX). This is done to ease daisy 
chaining of these devices without the need for a patch cable that swaps 
pin 1 to 3 and 2 to 6 - the layout required for an ethernet crossover.

  I've never seen and I don't believe it makes any sense for their to be 
an autodetecting PCI or integrated NIC. The only single port devices I 
can think of that do this would be some cable modems or the WAN port on 
cable/DSL routers.

  Making a crossover takes all of five minutes if you've got ends and a 
crimp tool ...