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Date:      Sun, 6 Aug 1995 23:58:43 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Chuck Robey <chuckr@Glue.umd.edu>
To:        rhh@ct.picker.com
Cc:        questions@freefall.cdrom.com
Subject:   Re: (?) RJ45 Crossover Cable Question (Pin numbering)
Message-ID:  <Pine.SUN.3.91.950806234730.4306D-100000@mocha.eng.umd.edu>
In-Reply-To: <9508062304.AA22800@elmer.ct.picker.com>

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On Sun, 6 Aug 1995, Randall Hopper wrote:

>      In short, does someone know the convention for numbering the pins on an
> RJ45 cable connector?  If the cable w/ attached connector is held in front of
> you, pins on the near side of the connector and pointing up (cable attached to
> the bottom), are the pins 1-to-8 numbered ascendingly from left-to-right or
> right-to-left?
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The more detailed version:
> 
>      I recently purchased an ethernet board for my FreeBSD box and am having
> trouble getting it to talk to my router.  I suspect that the cable might be
> the problem.
> 
>      The cable (custom made by someone else) is supposed to be an RJ45
> crossover cable which I'll use to direct-connect to my home router.  I've
> buzzed it out to verify that pins 1-3 and 2-6 are swapped.  If the answer to
> the numbering convention question above is right-to-left, they are.  However,
> given that it isn't working and my board appears to be working fine except that
> it can't put a packet on the network, I suspect that the the convention is
> in-fact left-to-right, and the person that built the cable cabled it backwards.
> If someone knows which is correct, please drop me some e-mail.
> 
>      Thanks in advance.
> 
> 							Randall Hopper
> 							rhh@ct.picker.com

I haven't used this for anything but standard telco data interfaces, but 
I do know those.  Here's the  data from the GTE Network Interface Manual 
For Registered Terminal Equipment:

1 -- NC
2 -- NC
3 -- A  (a control lead for keysystems)
4 -- R  ("ring" lead, conventionally red in color, one of the two voice
         communications leads)
5 -- T  ("tip" lead, conventionally green, also a voice communications lead)
6 -- A1 (another keysystem control lead, actually ground return for the A
         lead.)
7 -- PR (one end of the programming resistor, to set audio levels)
8 -- PC (the other end of the resistor from PR).

The parenthetical comments are mine.  The colors on the T and R leads are 
a pretty strongly adhered to convention, at least among telco people, so 
that can be used to identify leads 4 and 5.

The interface is unfortunately used for voice only (non data modem) 
applications in a different way, so I wonder if you can really draw any 
strong conclusions.  Check the interface wiring for RJ-31X and RJ-41S for 
comparison on that.  The wiring I show is for the RJ-41S, which was used 
for data modem connections.  Not really common for that anymore, tho.

----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Chuck Robey                 | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
chuckr@eng.umd.edu          | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
9120 Edmonston Ct #302      |
Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run Journey2 (Freebsd 2.0R) and n3lxx
(301) 220-2114              | (FreeBSD 2.0.5-snap) and am I happy!
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------




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