thanks for the clarification....i've updated the topic and my references to the incorrect term. I have also created a TON of home brew network cables and traditionally only cared ever about 1,2,3,6 and the other two pairs just went where ever when I crimped the cables.....so I really need to start over, get a few different cases of different colour ethernet cable and coordinate things a bit better. outside of that, will 12V of power from the hub to the jack kill it? I tried a few other network cables and all give a link light on the switch, but no lights anymore on the etherdongle. I even tried to just do a quick known test with the etherdongle to the hub to an LE and run a quick chase test and nothing going on with my LE so figured without lights and no blinky i fried it. I ordered two new connectors from newark (incase i ever need another one in the future) ...hopefully its not too much effort to desolder the connector.