[Ronja] The inductor block in a NIC.

[Arun Krishnan]

Hey guys,

I have a question. I have noticed that there is a component right after
the RJ45 connector in NICs which I deduce is an inductor block of some
sort. These are present just about on everything with a 10/100BaseT port
on them. My wireless router's WAN port died a couple days ago after a
lightning strike and it looks like this thing has died (as the port
blinks on self test and the inductor is open across pins which are short
on the other ports).

The part number printed on it is HN1664 and I can't find this thing
anywhere for purchase.

My question is, what exactly does this thing do and can I bypass it?

I looked through my collection of NICs and none of their blocks have the
same pin count as the one in the router, so I'm sorta out of options.

Advice much appreciated.

Regards,
Arun