>Hi again
>
>PLease forgive me if I am wrong, I have many computers and a mix of 100MB and 1GB. The 100MB I can positively confirm, about the 1GB I am not quite sure, but I belive it also only 2 pair? I must confess that where I have the mix of lan and PABX on the same cable, I only use 100MB. But at my office I have some offices where I needed more connections than I had prepared for, so I have splitted one connection into two, by using 2 pairs for connection one, and 2 pairs for the other connection.
>I am almost sure I also get 1GB connection speed in those cases, but I am not willing to bet, I may be wrong.
>
>>Really? How are you getting 1Gb speeds without all 4 pair?
>>
>>>By the way, I use it in a 1GB lan, so speed is not an issue here.
Tore,
I'm not a cable guy either :)
AFAIK Gb too uses 2 pairs (I know them as pins 1,2,3 and 6 not 8), twists/per foot increased to supply the higher Mhz. Gb also has pairing in 568A/B standard which is the same standard for Cat5 100Mbs. They added some impedance related things which is above me.
Apart from Gb thing we also utilized unused pairs for phones and didn't have a problem (of course taking care untwisted part for connecters doesn't exceed 13mm etc).
However we had to do it by then due to already existing infrastructure. Preferably I wouldn't risk cables for a simple 2 wire space saving.
Cetin