Thanks, whoever you are!

[Dee Gallo]

I would just like to thank the person who offered the suggestion to switch to ethernet instead of USB cable - what a difference it makes! I was not having big problems, but once in while, after about 5, my documents would not print unless I shut down and restarted the laser. Now, that never happens. It was WAY worth the few minutes it took to set up the ethernet thing, I highly recommend it!

This suggestion was embedded in some other topic, I can't remember which, so I thought I'd start a new thread to say THANK YOU MYSTERY MAN! (I'm pretty sure it was a guy)

cheers, dee

[Pete Simmons]

Cat 5 Ethernet cable

How can you spot a crossover cable from a straight?

[Bob Cole]

If that is a question, a crossover cable (for Ethernet) has pins 1,2 and 3,6 swapped. Looking at the flat side of the connector and reading from left to right, one will have:

white-green (pin1)
solid green (pin2)
white-orange (pin3)
solid blue (pin4)
white-blue (pin5)
solid orange (pin6)
white-brown (pin 7)
solid brown (pin8)

The other end will look like:

white-orange (pin1)
solid orange (pin2)
white-green (pin3)
solid blue (pin4)
white-blue (pin5)
solid green (pin6)
white-brown (pin 7)
solid brown (pin8)

[Gregg Vaughn]

Dee,

I mentioned the change to a ethernet cable on a thread, but I have to credit the good technical staff at Epilog for the solution.

[Dee Gallo]

Thanks, Gregg, I hoped the "guilty party" would speak up!

My Epilog came with 2 cables, one USB and one Ethernet crossover. It was a simple thing to follow the instructions even for me!

Thanks again, dee

[Pete Simmons]

Found a crossover cable - Thanks for the help.

[Dave Fifield]

If you connect your laser to an Ethernet switch or hub (on your Ethernet network) with an Auto MDI Crossover feature built into it, you don't have to worry if your cable is a crossover cable or not.

If you are connecting your laser directly to your PC's Ethernet port, then again, it will depend on whether the Ethernet port on the PC has an Auto MDI-X feature or not.

Without straining your eyes to see which color wire goes where on each end of the cable, you can tell simply by plugging the cable into your laser and your PC/Ethernet switch/hub. If the LINK light comes on (you can check at either end of the cable), then you're in business. If it doesn't, then you need to use a different cable.

HTH,
Dave F.

[Dee Gallo]

Okay, now I have decided to direct wire my ethernet to a hub so it can serve two lasers without plug-unplug to my computer. Also, I found out that when I put the IP address in the driver, my computer does not connect to the internet without switching the address back... Needless to say, this is a pain so I want to make a hub for the 3 connections (2 lasers and one computer) through my router. I hope I am describing this correctly. The router is in another room, so I can't go directly from the back of it, that would be too easy.

What I really need is the HUGE BRAINPOWER of SMC - I bought a NetGear 5-port ethernet switch, some Cat 5 cable and some connectors - now they want me to decide which I need to use: crossover or not? I have Bob Cole's wiring sequence, thanks Bob, for cross-over. IF I don't need that, does anyone have the sequence for a "regular" ethernet cable?

Also, if the "A" and "B" ends are different, which one comes frm the router, which one goes into the hub and then what do I use from the hub to the lasers?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help.

cheers, dee

[Cary Fleming]

Dee, for a standard ethernet cable both ends are the same.