software may reside on any network entity such as either pc 20 or switch 30 or both the software may be run by a processor in any network entity such as either pc 20 or switch 30 or both or by any external processor for pc 20 the software is preferably part of the ethernet driver software for switch 30 or for a hub or a router the software of the present invention is preferably part of the loaded software of the device preferably the software of the present invention is loaded in and runs on both pc 20 and switch 30 in this way errors in both receive and transmit wire pairs of the link segment 10 cable are used in implementing the method of the present invention in other embodiments the software of the present invention is loaded only on switch 30 so that no modification to connected network entities such as pc 20 are required it is advantageous from a network administration standpoint to modify or load software in a switch at the factory or on an operational network by a network manager likewise the method of the present invention may be overridden or disabled by a network manager in other embodiments of the present invention the software of the present invention could reside in or be run on any suitable device connected to a network entity for example the software could be run on.