Cabling the Twisted Pair Ports

Chapter 4: Cabling the Networking Ports

Here are the guidelines to cabling the 10/100/1000Base-T twisted pair ports:

The cable specifications for the 10/100/1000Base-T twisted pair ports are listed in Table 1 on page 24.

The connectors on the cables should fit snugly into the ports, and the tabs should lock the connectors into place.

The default setting for the wiring configurations of the ports is auto- MDI/MDI-X. The default setting is appropriate for switch ports that are connected to 10/100Base-TX network devices that also support auto-MDI/MDI-X.

The default auto-MDI/MDI-X setting is not appropriate for switch ports that are connected to 10/100Base-TX network devices that do not support auto-MDI/MDI-X and have a fixed wiring configuration. For switch ports connected to those types of network devices, you should disable auto-MDI/MDI-X and set the wiring configurations manually.

The appropriate MDI/MDI-X setting for a switch port connected to a 10/100Base-TX network device with a fixed wiring configuration depends on the setting of the network device and whether the switch and network device are connected with straight-through or crossover cable. If you are using straight-through twisted pair cable, the wiring configurations of a port on the switch and a port on a network device must be opposite each other, such that one port uses MDI and the other MDI-X. For example, if a network device has a fixed wiring configuration of MDI, you must disable auto-MDI/MDI-X on the corresponding switch port and manually set it to MDI-X. If you are using crossover twisted pair cable, the wiring configurations of a port on the switch and a port on a network device must be the same.

The default speed setting for the ports is Auto-Negotiation. This setting is appropriate for ports connected to network devices that also support Aut-Negotiation.

The default speed setting of Auto-Negotiation is not appropriate for ports connected to 10/100Base-TX network devices that do not support Auto-Negotiation and have fixed speeds. For those switch ports, you should disable Auto-Negotiation and set the port’s speed manually to match the speeds of the network devices.

The 10/100/1000Base-T ports must be set to Auto-Negotiation, the default setting, to operate at 1000Mbps.

The default duplex mode setting for the ports is Auto-Negotiation. This setting is appropriate for ports connected to network devices that also support Auto-Negotiation for duplex modes.

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