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People discovering that network cables can be used to network things. And then calling it a "trick" (I'm surprised it's not a "hack" actually).
by steve1977 17d ago
People discovering that network cables can be used to network things. And then calling it a "trick" (I'm surprised it's not a "hack" actually).
- concerned_user 17d agoBack in the day you needed a modified cable for this with RX/TX swapped on one end but nowadays probably all nic chips have auto-detect so you can take a normal patch cable and do it.
- bronlund 17d agoYeah, I remember those. When setting up an ad-hoc network, you were like; "where the eff is the crossover cable!" :D
- luz666 17d agoit was the red one, right?
- bronlund 17d agoMine was just a custom made gray one, but I have seen those red ones, yes :D
- Ekaros 17d agoI bought bunch of ready made 10 meter cables for lan party dunno 15 or 20 years ago... Used with switch... Grey with nice paper label at end with "Cross over"... Haven't had any issues with them ever in regular use... So pointless even back then...
- ErroneousBosh 17d agoMine were grey same as the normal patch cables but had red Hellerman sleeves at the ends. Look at you with your fancy red Cat5 ;-)
- steve1977 17d agoYeah so called crossover cables. But that's like decades ago.
- johnwalkr 17d agoYeah it's been about 20 years since there was a risk this didn't work.
- dolmen 17d agoIn fact you just need one of the two ends to be able to auto swap RX/TX.
- myself248 16d agoWhen I hacked a USB2-GigE adapter into my old Toughbook CF-m34 to replace the stock 10/100 adapter, it wasn't for the speed. I didn't need the speed, and of course USB2 wouldn't let me use the whole gig anyway. But GigE uses all four pairs, so the hardware has transceivers behind all four pairs, which means even when they're running at 10 or 100, the chipset can choose which pairs to transmit and receive on. Thus all GigE adapters are Auto-MDIX, and it meant I no longer needed to carry a crossover cable, no matter what other device I was talking to. It's funny how 10/100 cards with Auto-MDIX capability were exotic and expensive, but once GigE had it by default, it became ubiquitous, cheap, and quickly forgotten.
- pezezin 17d agoGigabit Ethernet sends and receive over the 4 pairs simultaneously using echo cancellation, so it doesn't need crossover cables.
- Hikikomori 17d agoNot really modified, you could buy them pre terminated or put on your own rj45 and just wire it as crossover.
- yjftsjthsd-h 17d agoIf you're used to a "normal" network with a router, it's a revelation that you can go direct.
- anon35 17d agoExactly. No need to get cynical about this being news. Maybe not news to you (or me, I'm old) but it could be really interesting news to others. See also: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- puzzlingcaptcha 17d ago"It's possible to just connect two computers together with Ethernet" - on the front page of hackernews. Incredible. Ethernet over USB4 interdomain protocol at least had some novelty, but this...
- hdgvhicv 17d agoHN has very little understanding of networking in general.
- inigyou 17d agoProgrammers have very little understanding of computers, in general. They'll think hard about a beautiful unrealistic idealisation of the problem, and/or treat a software abstraction as if it's the underlying reality, e.g. (of the latter) thinking networking starts with HTTP and languages start with JavaScript.
- abanana 16d agoAgreed, except IME this is "junior web developers" rather "(real) programmers" in general.
- inigyou 16d agoMel wouldn't. But Mel isn't programmers.
- dang 16d agoCan you please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512349 and, in the future, share some of what you know instead of putting down others?
- inigyou 16d agoJust read the contract from the other side! If focusing on idealistic software abstractions instead of the problem is bad, the implication is that focusing on the problem is good. If treating a software abstraction as the underlying reality is bad, the implication is that looking below it to the actual underlying reality is good.
- j1elo 17d agoOn related news, you can talk point to point with just a pair of copper wires that physically connects with a device on the other side! Wait there's more: a couple of simple plastic glasses joined with a string under tension also does the trick. However more seriously, while being snarky about "obvious" things can be fun, we should all remember to acknowledge the xkcd's "Ten Thousand" effect as a very real law of life.
- abanana 16d ago> xkcd's "Ten Thousand" effect True in general, but Hacker News isn't a school for beginners to technology.
- alnwlsn 16d agoThere is always some young person or new to the field learning for the first time. Post like this are exactly how I learned.
- teeray 16d agoSome of my favorite content are those that are like “hey, there’s no magic here.” See also: all of Ben Eater’s videos.
- dang 16d ago"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads. If you know more than others, that's great! but in that case please share some of what you know so the rest of us can learn. Here, for example, it could be possible to add related facts about networking, other ways of connecting computers, obscure details, war stories, bits of history - who knows? All such things could make the discussion more interesting and fun. (Edit: here's a great example of what I mean. This comment is currently at the top of the thread, which is what we want here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506392.) By contrast, dyspeptic supercilious putdowns do no good, other than perhaps providing a temporary internal status hit (at others' expense). https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22know%20more%20than%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...