How to identify "Crossover" cable?

[mikehende]

I have a lot of similar length Cat5 cables, I know one of them is a "crossover" cable but I only used that cable 1 time some years ago, how can I tell which one it is please?

[mikehende]

Need to transfer files directly from my Desktop [XP Home] to a Laptop [XP Pro], last and only time I have ever used a crossover cable for this was years ago and I simply forgot how I did it, searched the net but can't find a step by step, help?

[classicsoftware]

This is really two questions as part of one thread. I merged them for you....

[Relztrah]

Hopefully you haven't overlooked the obvious--like I often do--but my crossover cable has a label wrapped around it with the word CROSSOVER. Look closely. It's a small label with fine print.

[azzey]

If it was a manufactured cable, there should be a label. If you crimped it yourself or a friend did it, then there will be no label (assuming nobody stuck on on it, of course).

You will be able to figure out which one is a crossover cable if you look at the colour of the wires at each end.

[mikehende]

The cable I have which I "think" is a crossover cable, it is a Yellow manufactured cable which has a label around it but it does not say "crossover" only "023-800202 Rev A" but anyway, when I line up the two end connectors, the wires are lined up in exactly the same way/sequence so this tells me it is a crossover cable but it does have the words "Patch cable" included in the writing on the Yellow jacket?.

[Erik]

A crossover cable would have the ends wired differently, one to A the other to B.

B:
white orange
orange
white green
blue
white blue
green
white brown
brown

A:
white green
green
white orange
blue
white blue
orange
white brown
brown

[mikehende]

ok, found 2 crossover cables, now what I need is some help setting this up, I have done everyhting according to this tutorial I found on the net

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...9002534AA8lLFE

but I am seeing only the name of my pc on my machine and only the name of the other pc on that pc, help?

[azzey]

Restart if you haven't already. You might have to wait for up to 10 minutes in order for the other machine to appear. Try pinging the other one.

[Variable]

XP Home and XP pro?

[mikehende]

XP Home and XP pro?

yes, Home on the Desktop and Pro on the laptop.

[mikehende]

Wait a minute, am I mistaken here or was this done by simply connecting just 2 towers together? From the article it looks like I will need to have 2 pc's with monitor, keyboard and mouse for each. What I can remember doing years ago was simply to connect one tower to another pc so the main pc would be able to copy files from the tower, am I mistaken or is this how it's done?

[PrntRhd]

You started with a question about how to identify a crossover cable and mixed in file sharing between XP Pro and XP Home which confuses things with Guest Accounts, User Accounts on both PCs, Share Permissions....and doing it with only one monitor and keyboard makes it harder still.
What are you wishing to accomplish?

The easiest way to get files from one PC to the other is to get a USB thumb drive and simply cut/paste the files to the thumb drive on PC1 and then insert into PC2 and cut/paste the files there. No networking is involved at all. You can switch the monitor and keyboard/mouse to a PC, boot up and transfer the files to/from the thumb drive.

If you wish to use crossover networking and have only one monitor and keyboard/mouse, you will need something like a KVM switch so you can switch the monitor back and forth between the two PCs, not an elegant solution for simply getting the files from one to the other.

[mikehende]

I will do just those 2 things, get the thumb drive and the kvm, thanks!

[PrntRhd]

Don't even need the KVM, just boot down to switch out the keyboard, put them on the other PC and boot up. The thumb drive holds the data in the meantime.

[mikehende]

I'll be getting the kvm mainly to have multiple pc's hooked up so I won't have to keep switching monitor, keyboard and mouse.