Do the ethernet ports on an RAX80 include support for two separate channels or just one each?
I have a printer and a computer I want to hook up to my RAX80, but I only have one cat6 cable running between the router and the room they are in. I understand that in any ethernet cable, pins 1,2,3,6 are used for one channel and 4,5,7,8 are for another. With a pair of the right splitters, you can send two channels along the same cable. Normally, you use a splitter pair and plug separate patch cables into each device on one end, and into two separate jacks on the router.
Now for the key question. Is the RAX80 smart enough to recognize activity on pins 4,5,7,8 and communicate with both channels on a single router port jack, or am I forced use a splitter on that end to send the active 4,5,7,8 channel on the cable to the 1,2,3,6 pins of the next jack? If one jack on the router will talk to two channels on one cable, will speed on either channel suffer for that?
Re: Do the ethernet ports on an RAX80 include support for two separate channels or just one each?
I may be misunderstanding your question, but couldn't you just plug a gigabit switch (like a small Netgear or other) and then plug both the computer and printer into one of the switch ports?
Re: Do the ethernet ports on an RAX80 include support for two separate channels or just one each?
Yes, but I'd prefer a solution that doesn't involve yet another powered device to plug in. I'm also not sure about what kind of performance hit I'd expect to take by multiplexing two channels onto one with a switch. A passive solution that handles two independent channels all the way to the router must be the fastest and most efficient. If I were to make a prediction I'd say that the RAX80 router will not deal with more than one channel per jack, but will only regard pins 1,2,3, & 6 on the connector (ignoring 4,5,7, & 8), which will demand that I use another real splitter on that end and plug both cables coming out of it into two separate jacks on the router.
