Why cant I make my laptop ethernet cards recognise 10Mbs?

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

phil prentice wrote:
> Thanks, I will try ethtool.  By the way I needed 10Mbps because I'm trying to 
> communicate with an old system which only supported 10.  I just dont 
> understand why one laptop works fine and the other does not and was wondering 
> if there was some standard reason why this might be happening.
> 
> Thanks again
> Phil
> 
Different NICs handle auto-negotiation differently. Also, when you
are using a crossover cable, the two NICs may not be able to
auto-negotiate at all. It depends on the NIC. Results are usually
better when going through a hub, switch, or router. This is because
there is a signal from the hub/switch/router that the NIC can use to
detect the correct speed/duplex.

In some cases, the only choice it to manually set the speed/duplex
on both ends. Some combinations simply will not work if you do not.
I suspect that it because of different interpretations of the
specifications. This happens regardless of the OS involved. It
appears to depend on the default settings in the firmware of the NICs.

Mikkel
-- 

A:  Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q:  Why is top-posting a bad thing?


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