[ale] cat5

[Joseph A Knapka]

Geoffrey wrote:
> So I said all that to get to this.  Assuming you're only using half the
> wires in said cable, if you use the other half for another connection,
> is this going to cause problems (interferance)?

Apparently yes, cf Mr. Glass's message. I now recall that two
wires lying side-by-side basically form a giant capacitor, which
means signal degradation. When you twist the wires together, the
capacitance problem goes away. So the eight wires in Cat5 cable
form 4 twisted pairs, and you probably do need to wire them in the
proper order so that the twisted-pairs work out right. But I
have totally exhausted my feeble knowledge of this matter, so
don't take my word for anything...

Cheers,

-- Joe
"I should like to close this book by sticking out any part of my neck
 which is not yet exposed, and making a few predictions about how the
 problem of quantum gravity will in the end be solved."
 --- Physicist Lee Smolin, "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity"

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