I was told at the demo that the Ethernet ports on the Eos are auto switching (requiring no crossover cable). I have found no reason not to believe that in my time with those consoles. I had assumed that the Ion would be the same.
So, Dustin, Is that a definitive answer- that I need a crossover cable?
What threw me about this is that we have regularly in the past, used an 'off the shelf' PC as a Design Remote connected without a crossover or switcher. Do you think we stumbled on a PC with a built-in switch, or does the Console see the devices differently?
It's possible that your PC had an auto-sensing port on the ethernet connector that allowed it to automatically switch the transmit and receive pairs, but other than that it shouldn't work with just a normal cable.
It's not that the console see's things differently as much as it that the physical properties of the ethernet protocol won't allow the console to see things any other way...
You have a transmit pair of wires and a receive pair of wires in an ethernet cable (along with a couple of unused pairs). If the ethernet card has an auto-sensing port, it is able to sense which pair is which and make sure that they are lined up appropriately. If it does not, then you get two devices sending information along the transmit pair and no one listening....
[edited by: JeffMabray at 12:49 PM (GMT -6) on Wed, May 14 2008]
It's possible that your PC had an auto-sensing port on the ethernet connector that allowed it to automatically switch the transmit and receive pairs, but other than that it shouldn't work with just a normal cable.
It's not that the console see's things differently as much as it that the physical properties of the ethernet protocol won't allow the console to see things any other way...
You have a transmit pair of wires and a receive pair of wires in an ethernet cable (along with a couple of unused pairs). If the ethernet card has an auto-sensing port, it is able to sense which pair is which and make sure that they are lined up appropriately. If it does not, then you get two devices sending information along the transmit pair and no one listening....
[edited by: JeffMabray at 12:49 PM (GMT -6) on Wed, May 14 2008]
As a tangent, there's a discussion going on around here about this. Like I mentioned before, Our PC is new but is very basic with no bells or whistles. Some think that perhaps auto-switching ethernet ports are becoming more standard than before, reflecting the trend toward home/personal networking. However, my IT guy says that would surprise him.
Any thoughts?
By the way, I grabbed a switcher and have one ION backing another.
