Types of Computer Network Cables

There are at least 3 types of cables that are included in the category of computer network cables.
To understand what types of computer network cables covering the criteria and how to use them,
here are the full explanations: 

1. Coaxial Cables
Coaxial cable is a type of cable consisting of two carriers which one of the conductor is in the
middle of the cable and is surrounded by the other conductor with a circular pattern. Coaxial
works by delivering current or electrical signals from source to destination.
Coxial cable is the most popular cable in cable television industry, a coaxial cable consists of
copper conductor which is surrounded by an insulation material, over the insulation material is
copper braid or foil that acts both as the second wire in the circuit and as a shield for the inner
conductor thereby protecting it from interference. The coaxial cable is difficult to install and
manage but it can support much greater cable lengths.
 Coaxial cable types are currently being abandoned because ports for BNC connectors are rarely
found on computer devices or network devices such as switch and routers. Installation of the
network coaxial cable is difficult and need expertise esktra especially in making or installing
connectors.

The coaxial cable parts are as follows.

 Outside Insulation – Outer jacket (outer jacket) which is the outermost part to protect all
parts of the cable.
 Copper Mesh – Some coaxial cables have a braid shield, some have a foil shield, and
others have both a braid and foil shields. These shields can supply ground for the carrier
wire (copper) and help protect the copper wire from EMI and RFI.
 Insulation – Plastic insulation which is the coating of conductor cable.
 Copper Wire – Copper wire is a wire conductor at the center of the cable and is made of
copper and may be either solid or stranded
There are two types of coaxial cable

  Thinnet: It has a diameter of 0.25 inches and is relatively easy to install as

compared to the Thicknet cable. It was used previously used in Ethernet
networks but since the cable required grounding and many problems were faced
due to improper grounding it is no longer used in Ethernet networks.
  Thicknet: It has diameter of 0.38 inches which makes it a better conductor, this
cable can carry signal to long distances before the singal quality degrades.

Use of Coaxial cable

In its use within the network, the current coaxial cable has been replaced by the Twisted Pair
cable described later. Typically, this coaxial cable is used on the type of network that has a bus
network topology and ring topology.
Coaxial Cable Disadvantages
One of the major disadvantages of this type of coaxial cable in the network is because it has a
limited range and quality of transmitting data, so it is rarely used. In addition, coaxial cable is
also considered less flexible, especially when compared with twisted pair cable.
2. Twisted Pair Cables
Twisted pair cable is a cable that consists of several cables that are paired together. Just like a
coaxial cable, the workings of Twisted Pair cables are by transmiting current or electrical signals
from source to destination. Twisted pair cables have a range no farther than 100 meters, The
speed varies from 10 Mbps to 10000 Mbps (10 Gbps).
Twisted Pair cable has pairs of wires with each pair twisted to eliminate electromagnetic
interference and prevent crosstalk; each pair forms a circuit which can transmit data. At each end
of the cable RJ-45 connectors are installed, The RJ-45 is an eight-wire connector used commonly
to connect computers onto an Ethernet local-area network (LAN).
There are two sub-categories of Twisted Pair Cables as mentioned below
  Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable (UTP)
  Shielded Twisted Pair Cable (STP)
Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable (UTP) is the most common type of cable used in networks.
Almost all Ethernet LANs are built using UTP cables. UTP cables are thin and flexible and very
cost effective which makes them the ideal choice for Ethernet cabling. The EIA/TIA (Electronic
Industry Association/Telecommunication Industry Association) has established standards of UTP
and rated various categories of wire some of which are shown below.
Category Maximum Speed Use

1 1 Mbps Voice (Telephone wire)

2 4 Mbps Telephone

3 16 Mbps 10BaseT Ethernet

4 20 Mbps Token Ring

5 100 Mbps & 1000 Mbps 100BaseT Ethernet & Gigabit Ethernet

5e 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet

6 10,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet

Figure below shows an Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable

 Shielded Twisted Pair Cable (STP) wraps each pair of wire in a metallic foil and further wraps
all four pairs if wires in a metallic braid or foil, this further reduces the noise both within the
cable from outside the cable. STP cable is more expensive then UTP cable and is much more
difficult to install and manage. It also requires grounding at both ends of the metallic shield.

Figure below shows a Shielded Twisted Pair Cable

3. Fiber Optic Cables

Unlike the previous two types of network cables that use copper as electrical-conductor element,
this fiber optic cable is made of high-quality silica glass, although they can both be made of
plastic as well. Because it is made of glass or plastic as well, the signal sent by Fiber Optic is a
pulses from source to destination.

The fiber optic cable parts are as follows:

 Outer Jacket – which is the outermost part to protect all parts of the cable.
 Strength Member – strengthening fibers function to keep the cable from a hard
collision.
 Coating – The coating works to keep the cable from bending.
 Cladding – The cladding serves as a barrier with the main core of fiber optic cable.
 Core – Main core serves as a medium of data transmission.
Use of fiber optic cable 
Initially, fiber optic cable is only used for special purposes, such as the use of backbone networks
in a large company. But over time, the network using fiber optic become increasingly popular
and used for general purposes, maybe even now the internet network in your home already
supports connectivity using fiber optic
Fiber Optic Advantages 
 Able to transmit signals at high speed
 Simple and also flexible
 Can transmit pulses
 Resistant to radio or electromagnetic waves
There two types of fiber optic cables
 Single-Mode: It has as single stand of glass fiber, with a small core and supports one
mode of transmission. Single mode fiber optic cable can run longer distances but it is
more expensive than multi-mode fiber.
 Multi-Mode: It has a bigger core and supports multiple propagation paths and modes.
Multi-mode fiber is used for small to medium distances

Figure below shows a fiber-optic cable.

What does ‘Cat’ mean?

When shopping for cables, you may notice they’re nearly always classified as “Cat-5,” “Cat6e,”
or something similar. “Cat” simply stands for “Category.” The number that follows indicates the
specification version supported by the cable.

LAN card has intelligence, so that both cables can work.

The UTP(Unshilded Twisted Pair) cable can be categorized as 

 Cat 5 UTP cable

 Cat 5e UTP cable
 Cat 6 UTP cable.
Cat 5 UTP cable can support 10/100 Mbps Ethernet network,
Cat 5e and Cat 6 UTP cable can support Ethernet network running at 10/100/1000 Mbps. You
might hear about Cat 3 UTP cable, it's not popular anymore since it can only support 10 Mbps
Ethernet network.
Straight and crossover cable can be Cat3, Cat 5, Cat 5e or Cat 6 UTP cable, the only difference
is each type will have different wire arrangement in the cable for serving different purposes.

Ethernet network cables are straight and crossover cable. This Ethernet network cable is made
of 4 pair high performance cable that consists of twisted pair conductors that used for data
transmission. Both end of cable is called RJ45 connector.

There are two types of network cables commonly used in PC networks –

 Straight-through
 Cross-over.

Straight Cable
Usually use straight cable to connect different type of devices. This type of cable will be used
most of the time and can be used to:

1. Connect a computer to a switch/hub's normal port.

2. Connect a computer to a cable/DSL modem's LAN port.
3. Connect a router's WAN port to a cable/DSL modem's LAN port.
4. Connect a router's LAN port to a switch/hub's uplink port. (Normally used for expanding
network)
5. Connect two switches/hubs with one of the switch/hub using an uplink port and the other
one using normal port.

If you need to check how straight cable looks like, it's easy. Both sides (side A and side B) of
cable have wire arrangement with same color.
\Crossover Cable
Sometimes you will use crossover cable, it's usually used to connect same type of devices. A
crossover cable can be used to:
1. Connect two computers directly.
2. Connect a router's LAN port to a switch/hub's normal port. (Normally used for expanding
network)
3. Connect two switches/hubs by using normal port in both switches/hubs.

In you need to check how crossover cable looks like, both side (side A and side B) of cable have
wire arrangement with following different color.

This cable (either straight cable or cross cable) has total 8 wires (or we can say lines), i.e. four
twisted pairs (4x2=8) with different color codes. Right now just forget about color codes. It
doesn’t matter what color is given to the cable (but there is a standard).

In straight cable connectivity is like as follows

RJ451 Connected to RJ452
Pin1------------------------------------- Pin1
Pin2------------------------------------- Pin2
Pin3------------------------------------- Pin3
Pin4------------------------------------- Pin4
Pin5------------------------------------- Pin5
Pin6------------------------------------- Pin6
Pin7------------------------------------- Pin7
Pin8------------------------------------- Pin8
 In cross cable connectivity is like as follows

RJ451 Connected to RJ452

Pin1------------------------------------- Pin3
Pin2------------------------------------- Pin6
Pin3------------------------------------- Pin1
Pin4------------------------------------- Pin4
Pin5------------------------------------- Pin5
Pin6------------------------------------- Pin2
Pin7------------------------------------- Pin7
Pin8------------------------------------- Pin8

Purpose of this cross cable is RX (receiving terminal) connects to TX (transmitting) of one pc to

another PC and vice versa.

As we use two PCs (same devices), straight cable will connect TX to TX and RX to RX of two
computers, so cross cable is required. If you use HUB or switch, then straight cable will work
 because it has internal arrangement like cross cable. So note that use cross cable to connect two
similar devices.
A straight cable will not work to connect two computers together.
Crossover used to connect to PCs directly together, also used for connecting networking devices
together like Switch to Switch etc.

Straight cables connect two DIFFERENT types of devices. Whereas crossover cables connect
two of the SAME type.

What is the difference between Straight Through and Crossover Cable?

When talking about cable pinouts we often get questions as to the difference in Straight-through,
and Crossover cables and the intended use for each type of cable. These terms are referring to the
way the cables are wired (which pin on one end is connected to which pin on the other end).

T568A and T568B Wiring Standard Basis

A RJ45 connector is a modular 8 position, 8 pin connector used for terminating Cat5e or Cat6
twisted pair cable. A pinout is a specific arrangement of wires that dictate how the connector is
terminated. There are two standards recognized by ANSI, TIA and EIA for wiring Ethernet
cables. The first is the T568A wiring standard and the second is T568B. T568B has surpassed
568A and is seen as the default wiring scheme for twisted pair structured cabling. If you are
unsure of which to use, choose 568B.

T568B Standard

T568A
Standar Pin 1 White/Orange
d
Pin 2 Orange
Pin 3 White/Green
Pin 1 White/Green
Pin 4 Blue
Pin 2 Green
Pin 5 White/Blue
Pin 3 White/Orange
Pin 6 Green
Pin 4 Blue
Pin 7 White/Brown
Pin 5 White/Blue
Pin 8 Brown
Pin 6 Orange
Pin 7 White/Brown
Pin 8 Brown
What Is Straight Through Cable?
A straight through cable is a type of twisted pair cable that is used in local area networks to
connect a computer to a network hub such as a router. This type of cable is also sometimes called
a patch cable and is an alternative to wireless connections where one or more computers access a
router through a wireless signal. On a straight through cable, the wired pins match. Straight
through cable use one wiring standard: both ends use T568A wiring standard or both ends use
T568B wiring standard.
The following table lists the wire positions of the straight-through cable on both sides.
Side A Side B
Green White Green White
Green Green
Orange White Orange White
Blue Blue
Blue White Blue White
Orange Orange
Brown White Brown White
Brown Brown
What Is Crossover Cable?
An Ethernet crossover cable is a type of Ethernet cable used to connect computing devices
together directly. Unlike straight through cable, crossover cables use two different wiring
standards: one end uses the T568A wiring standard, and the other end uses the T568B wiring
standard. The internal wiring of Ethernet crossover cables reverses the transmit and receive
signals. It is most often used to connect two devices of the same type: e.g. two computers (via
network interface controller) or two switches to each other.
The following table lists the wire positions of the cross-over cable on both sides.

Side A Side B
Green White Orange White
Green Orange
Orange White Green White
Blue Blue
Blue White Blue White
Orange Green
Brown White Brown White
Brown Brown
Choose a Straight Through or Crossover Cable?
Usually, straight through cables are primarily used for connecting unlike devices. And crossover
cables are use for connecting unlike devices alike devices.
Use straight through cable for the following cabling:

 Switch to router
 Switch to PC or server
 Hub to PC or server
Use crossover cables for the following cabling:

 Switch to switch
 Switch to hub
 Hub to hub
 Router to router
 Router Ethernet port to PC NIC
 PC to PC
The Main Differences-Straight Through and Crossover Cable

Straight through and crossover cables are wired differently from each other. One easy way to tell
what you have is to look at the order of the colored wires inside the RJ45 connector. If the order
of the wires is the same on both ends, then you have a straight through cable. If not, then it’s
most likely a crossover cable or was wired wrong.