Both twisted pair copper cable and coaxial copper cable can be used for network cabling. The most common is twisted pair.
Ethernet Category 5 (CAT5) Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cabling uses 8 conductor cable and has RJ-45 connectors on both ends.
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RJ45 Connector. CAT5 UTP Cable. Note 8 pins/conductors. |
Uncrimped RJ45 connectors. |
There are two types of UTP ethernet cables, straight and crossover. Straight UTP ethernet cables are for connecting NICs to Hubs. Crossover UTP ethernet cables are for uplink (connecting Hubs, Routers) and 2 computers directly. Although must Hubs and Routers today have a switch to convert one of it's ports to an uplink port thereby eliminating the need for a special crossover cable as straight cables are the most prevalent. Another use for a Crossover UTP ethernet cable is to connect two computers together directly without a hub. If you need the pinout for a crossover cable, look here.
Here is the color code for crimping your own CAT5 UTP cables:
Note that maximum cable length for 10BASET (10 mbits/s) and 100BASET (a.k.a. Fast Ethernet or ETHERFAST - 100 mbits/s) networks is specified at 100 meters. Though achieving 100BASET over a hundred feet can be difficult. Note the T in BASET stands for twisted pair. BASETX is a standard for using only two twisted pairs of copper (4 conductors) versus all 8 and is the most common in use today although most often referred to without the X (eg 10/100 BASE T). Here is what a BASET(X) network looks like conceptually.
A 10BASE2 network is based on coaxial cable, either RG59 or RG8. Each end of the coax cable has to be terminated. The 2 in the 10BASE2 stands for 200 meters, meaning the maximum cable length can be a little over 600 feet.
