Network connection detected through switch, not directly?

They recently rerouted/redropped the network wires at an office I work at. I noticed that one of the computers (running XP, and that worked before) showed that the network was disconnected, despite an ethernet cable being plugged directly into the jack. However, when I plugged a switch in (on a partial whim), the connection was detected and an IP address was assigned!





How is it that a jack run to a switch, then to a computer will detect a network connection but a direct connection from jack to computer cannot? I'm really confused.





Thanks.

Network connection detected through switch, not directly?
they may have got the connection on that jack crossed over the switch is auto sensing and can reverse the problem. meaning that on one end of the cable the pairs are


wo,o,wg,b,wb,g,wbr,br and the other end


wg,g,wo,b,wb,o,wbr,br.


wo = white orange


o = orange


wg = white green


g = green


wb = white blue


b = blue


wbr = white brown


br = brown
Reply:Sounds like a crossover cable or crossover port was used. Either way a crossed connection allows a switch to connect to another switch but not to a computer. Most of the new switches have (thankfully) started including an auto-sensing feature that takes care of that.
Reply:Perhaps you had a rolled (crossover) cable.