[ILUG] I've asked you once...

[Justin Mason]

lbedford at wbtsystems.com said:

> On Mon, Apr 24, 2000 at 05:38:28PM +0000, Michael Treacy wrote:
> > >Nearly all modems you get out the UK will work in Ireland (and I say nearly
> > >just to cover ball's). The modem is not the problem but the cable that goes
> > >between it and the wall. If you get a UK modem then all you have to do is
> > >use an Irish lead you can get one in any electronic store or in the usual
> > >suspects. I never investigated the difference in connections but I'm sure
> > >some one can enlighten us.
> > 
> > AFAIK, and I could be wrong on this, but the difference between the Irish 
> > and UK connections lies in which of the four wires are used. Somebody told 
> > me not too long ago, that in Ireland, we use the middle two wires of the 
> > four wires in the connector, whereas in the UK, they use the outer two. It 
> > could be the other way around.

> Dunno whether I count as a techie, but a cable which swaps the middle
> pair with the outside pair works to change between Irish/UK...
> 
> 1  --\/-- 1
> 2  --/\-- 2
> 3  --\/-- 3
> 4  --/\-- 4
> (my crappy ASCII art again!)
> so 1 - 2 and 4 - 3 is the changeover you need to make.

Yep, I can confirm that.  And the sick thing was my modem had this use of
the outside pair built in on its connector, so an Irish phone lead would
not do the trick -- I had to do some snippage & cuttage to sort it.  (it
also used the other pair in such a way that it inhibited the operation of
the phone line from other extns altogether when the modem was connected,
even when powered off, nasty!)

--j.