I hate to keep showing my ignorance, and I'm trying to do my research online, but I have a few questions that I hope someone here can give me simple answers to.

Background: When we remodeled in 2005, I used the opportunity to add some network wiring, running cable through the attic and down in the walls to install three RJ45 jacks where I thought I'd need them. At the time, I admit to just buying long lengths of patch cable (yes, I now know that I shouldn't have done it that way). I knew nothing about the difference between 586A and 586B. I think most, if not all of that wiring is 586A, but I need to check that.

I know that now the easiest way to keep everything compatible is to use only 596A coming off the wall jacks, and I think I understand that if I use a 586B straight from the wall jack I then have a crossover situation. However, from what I've read, it appears that if I run the 586A patch cable through a switch and then come off the switch with a 596B cable, the switch will sort it out and everything will be fine. So, the only problem with mixing 586A and 596B cables occurs when coming off the wall jack. Is that correct? Or can a switch pick up the crossover coming in and sort it out before it goes out? In that case, is the only time mixing 596A and 586B when the cable from the wall jack goes directly into a device, e.g. a computer, printer, smart TV, etc.? Or will the end device be able to sort out the crossover and handle it?

I'm confused, and I never considered the wiring configuration when I purchased my patch cables, I have a mix of 596A and 586B and even some 586C.

Can someone help simplify all this for me?

AFAIK shouldn't have any issues.

Found something saying you could have a problem if you're using old equipment, but even then it would just cause it to possibly use a slower speed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/arz6cc/can_you_plug_in_a_568b_cord_into_a_568a_jack/

586a and 586b are just the standards for the wire order in the ethernet connectors. They have to be the same on each end of a cable. But you can mix different cables across your network so don't worry too much about it.

If you're building your own network cables, memorize one or the other and pretend that's the only way it can be done.

Thanks for the responses. I went back to the information I found online about the wiring configurations for A and B, and realized I was over thinking the whole thing. Of course, it doesn't matter whether the green and orange wires are swapped as long as both ends are wired the same. Should have figured that out on my own. Again, thanks.