I'll use the terms a little different that you did, possibly...

The marking goes on the wire when they make the bulk wire
and put that on a spool with no ends...

Then a company buys the correct bulk wire (hopefully),
and makes that into cable assemblies by adding ends...

How those ends are configured determines what the cable
will be used for (which wires go to which pins).

So the type of markings on the wire, when taken with the
types of ends will give you some good hints about what a
cable is used for, and in some cases the quailty of the cable...

From the second part of your question, I'll assume the cable
you are looking at is for Ethernet.  If that is correct, the "E"
might mean is is one of the better wires of that type.
(You can't tell for sure unless you ID the wire exactly...)

The ends are wired differently for a "straight through" cable
than for a "crossover cable". If you look closely, you might be
able to see the differences or be able to tell the "cable use".

SOME NIC cards will use either cable type was if it was the
other type "when necessary". They recognize the plug is "wired
wrong" and correct it automatically...  I would not count on this,
because it is an advanced feature of quality cards, and it may
cause you to develope poor habits of using "just any old" cable
that is laying around...

I just looked at a new Ethernet cable. I put all the gold pins up
and ends facing away from me, with the plugs side by side.
I noticed all the wires in BOTH plugs matched color for
color left to right. This would be a straight through cable...
If the "inner ones" switched around on one plug, it would be a
crossover cable. This assumes a factory made them and did it
correctly. I am not listing the "proper colors" here because special
crimpers are needed to install the plugs and that info should come
with the crimper.
                              Hope this helps.  Rick Glazier

From: "D Duncan"
> Is it possible to identify the purpose of a cable by the stuff that's
> stamped on the plastic cable covering?  The stuff that says
> "wonderful E1422890 CM 75(something)c LL43774 ETL verified E Patch cable"
>
> What I think I know is, _that_ would be a cable linking my computer
> to the router, or an Ethernet cable.  Therefore, it's patching my
> computer to the Internet using the Ethernet port/plug.
>
> Is there anything within that stamped info that tells me it's a
> straight through vs a cross-over patch?
> (now that I'm thinking about it, isn't a cross-over sort of just a
> one-way dialogue?  Am I making any sense?)
>
> Do I have any of that terminology correct?
>
> (I do have that particular cable linking my computer to my router,
> but I'm just curious about the stamped info and identifying cables)


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