How to make a Gigabit Ethernet crossover cable?

Question

Nowadays, I usually make EIA/TIA-568A crossover cables for Fast Ethernet(10/100 Mbps) networks. On these cables, just 2 of the 4 wire pairs are used to comunications(the 2 remaining could be used for PoE or just for nothing), so I just needed to cross 2 color pairs(1-2 and 3-6 wires). However, on Gigabit Ethernet all the 4 wire pairs are used to increase the network bandwidth. So, to do a crossover on a Gigabit Ethernet I would need to cross all the 4 pairs. Is this feasible and reliable? I mean, how to make that and what is the correct color order of both ends of a Gigabit Ethernet crossover cable?

Solution 1

Wikipedia has pinouts for a gigabit crossover cable.

Note that while Auto-MDIX is an optional feature of the gigabit ethernet specification (IEEE 802.3-2008: "Implementation of an automatic MDI/MDI-X configuration is optional for 1000BASE-T devices"), most gigabit ethernet interfaces do implement it, so in most cases you will not need a special crossover cable.

Solution 2

You don't: Auto MDI-X is built into the Gigabit Ethernet spec. The endpoints will auto-negotiate and take care of those communication issues.

Solution 3

For gigabit this is the pin layout you want to follow

PIN 1 - PIN 3 PIN 2 - PIN 6 PIN 3 - PIN 1 PIN 6 - PIN 2

So far this is a regular crossover cable. for gigabit use

PIN 4 - PIN 7 PIN 5 - PIN 8 PIN 7 - PIN 4 PIN 8 - PIN 5

For a color graphic guide follow the link below, is basically

ORANGE/WHITE ORANGE GREEN/WHITE BROWN/WHITE BROWN GREEN BLUE BLUE/WHITE

Comments

[Admin]

nowadays there is no need for such cables. You can use standard cable which supports 1Gbit (5E and upper)

[Admin]

Just to be sure, you are running 1000BASE-T ? That's about 98% of hardware, but if you happen to be linking 1000BASE-TX the cross-over is the same as 100BASE-TX.

[Diogo]

So the endpoints will always take care of it by default?

[THESorcerer]

it was my understanding that gigabit crossover is DIFFERENT from 100M and all 8 wires are a lot more twisted, and I remember that from a CISCO class I took years ago (and didn't used after ... always used a switch ... until now), also, I tested "normal" twisted (your webpage), even if network card report 1G connected, speed doesn't match up (I test transfer by moving data between ... ramdrives, on both computers just to be sure is not the speed of hard disk or something), and if I put a switch and non-crossover cables, then speed matches up

[linuxdev2013]

While this has some good content it is best as a comment NOT an answer

[Donald Duck]

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.

[Ruscal]

For those wondering (and @THESorcerer), there is more than what that wiki shows. The crossover pinout for TIA/EIA-568b is: White/Green, Green, White/Orange, White/Brown, Brown, Orange, Blue, White/Blue. Note that the blue & brown are swapped (blue replaces brown) and twisted (solid replaces white/color trace).

[Carmageddon]

getting access denied. Can you please mirror or copy here the relevant information?