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Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by jrockway on Friday April 19, 2019 @12:17AM (#19697062)
Ethernet will probably do fine. The differential pair ends in a transformer, so unless you pump so much current in that it physically melts the transformer or wire, you'll be fine. USB should be similar, but apparently is not. (In the case of the USB killer, the amount of time where 200V is applied to the circuit is probably very tiny. I imagine it's just a charge pump that charges a tiny capacitor and discharges it.)

Ethernet is designed this way because the differential pair can apparently pick up a bit of a DC bias when laid next to cables in the ceiling/wall. While researching this post, I found that the spec requires the transformer/inductor to work correctly with a 30mA bias current. I am too lazy to go measure what the DC resistance is, though, so I don't know whether or not 200V is close to that.

When I was in high school, I wired up a cat 5 cable such that each pair was connected to one phase of the mains. I then plugged it directly into my iMac. There was no damage to the computer and the Ethernet port worked fine afterwards as well. (The integrated monitor went crazy; this was in the CRT days and presumably the Ethernet transceiver's magnetics make a good degaussing coil).

Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by brirec on Friday April 19, 2019 @02:02AM (#19697412)
Oh dear god, why did you connect your iMac’s Ethernet port to mains? Did you expect it to survive?!

The fact that Ethernet functions the same with a voltage bias across the leads is exploited for PoE — power over Ethernet.

Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by jrockway on Friday April 19, 2019 @12:30PM (#19700841)
> Oh dear god, why did you connect your iMac’s Ethernet port to mains?

Because I was 15 and bored.

Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by copperx on Friday April 19, 2019 @05:41PM (#19703256)
Wouldn't you be more bored if you found yourself without an iMac?
Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by nostrademons on Friday April 19, 2019 @04:08AM (#19697865)
In college I stripped one end of an Ethernet cord and plugged it into household current. The other end I had hooked up to an old laptop I no longer wanted. The wire exploded, and the motherboard was fried. YMMV. Laptop was an old Sony Vaio c. 2001 vintage if it makes a difference.

(On the plus side, this made up for sleeping through that physics class where my professor did the exploding wires demo.)

Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by ttsda on Friday April 19, 2019 @10:31AM (#19699920)
Household current is AC, the transformer will pass it through.
Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by Dylan16807 on Friday April 19, 2019 @12:54AM (#19697189)
The transformer mainly protects you from a voltage difference between a twisted pair and ground. Much less so from voltage across a twisted pair. But saturation could help limit the current spike, at least.
Re:Former student destroys 59 university computers using USB... by jrockway on Friday April 19, 2019 @01:06AM (#19697230)
That makes sense. The pair shouldn't have a voltage on it, that's why it's a twisted pair.