[Beowulf] Jury rigged ethernet?

[Mark Hahn]

> What are the chances that I can coax 10Mbps out of this connection with
> modern (hopefully tolerant) ethernet cards at either end?  Is this doomed
> to failure? 

I'd guess not.  my first DIY network was a small workgroup using cat5
and connectors I crimped on myself.  I didn't bother checking the
wiring diagram, thinking that pairs must surely go on adjacent pins.

the result was interesting: because of the whacked way rj11 is _actually_
wired, one pair (rx or tx) was OK, but the other was split over two pairs.
the cable worked great in one direction, but could only manage 100bT
in the other.  I'd guess that even existing, serial-spec'ed twisted pairs 
could do better than the split pairs I had.

regards, mark hahn.