On Nov 22 2005, 8:18, Gil Carrick wrote: to both Not terribly, but enough to know that VG Anylan carries Ethernet packets; it's only the physical layer that differs. No carrier sense/collision detect but instead it uses access rules called Demand Priority to ensure there will never be a collision. That, incidentally, is why the switches are smart and not like ordinary Ethernet switches. Also VG Anylan uses all four pairs in the cable; 10baseT and 100baseTX only use two pairs (100baseT4 uses all four though, and for the same reason that VG Anylan does -- more bandwidth on inferior cable. VG stands for "voice grade", ie Cat 3 or similar). Anyway, Ethernet packets are one reason a card can be both Ethernet and VG Anylan. Also most HP cards were made dual-standard -- one physical 10baseT interface and one physical VG Anylan interface -- as a transition mechanism. Often they had two connectors , but sometimes just one that can be configured or autoconfigures. HP's website lists these as dual-standard, probably by detecting signals on the second and third pairs. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York