Chapter 9: Cabling the Networking Ports
Cabling the Twisted Pair 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 2 on page 24 and Table 3 on page 25.
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.
