IIRC crossovers are pre-2000, yes. "Fast Ethernet" or 100Base-T adapters usually could talk over straight link. edit: as for length, it depends. you won't get

IIRC crossovers are pre-2000, yes. "Fast Ethernet" or 100Base-T adapters usually could talk over straight link. edit: as for length, it depends. you won't get a gigabit over 150m of crap cat3, but you will get a link, even if it's 10 half-duplex.