Thanks, I appreciate your fast response.
I have been informed now that the second schematic works but only in a closed controlled network with no connection to the internet, It has been done earlier, but this network was also limited to just a few nodes. Not in an Ethernet network as we are used to think of it. So will also be the case for where we want to use this device too but we will have more nodes than what was the case for the example I was shown.
Where the suggestion was to avoid transformers for simplicity I found that to be a bit insecure, hence my question, especially since the datasheet specifies the usage of transformers but I do believe that the max4891 can handle it without as long as there are no differences in potentials between the connected devices. I have earlier used it to switch video with great success and off-course ere we used no transformers.
I think your advice is a good one. I will discuss it further with my team and see if there could be any problems.