The Various Kinds of Networking Cables

A networking cable is a necessity for wired computer network connections. Of course, the cable is unnecessary for wireless connections. The networking cable standard for computer network connections can be said to have grown out of the standards of the telecommunications industry. It is common knowledge that the Internet network rides on the facilities long established by the telephone companies worldwide. Similarly, the development of computer networking tools went side by side with the advances established in the telecommunications sector. As proof of this, the most widely used cable in computer networking is still based on the standards of the telecommunications sector. This cable has seen one hundred years of use in telephony systems, and it is called the UTP cable or the Unshielded Twisted Pair cable. The UTP cable is a proven network cabling solution. It is usable both indoors and outdoors and is available almost everywhere. Connecting computers through the use of this networking cable is easy and can be done even by a 12 year old. It is often referred to as Ethernet cables by computer specialists. A UTP cable is basically a copper based, twisted pair set of wires. There are four twisted pair wires inside a single strand of UTP cable. The connection at each end of the UTP networking cable is terminated by RJ-45 8 position modular connectors. These RJ-45 connections are what connect to the ethernet card and the hub, switch or router of the network. In the field of computers, the UTP cable has three commonly used standards. These are the 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T standards. The 10BASE-T was the first network cable connection standard for ethernet connections using a UTP networking cable. The 10BASE-T standard grew out of the StarLAN standard by AT&T. Further development on networking cable technology led to the development of the fast ethernet cables, which are represented by the 100BASE-T standard. The most common 100BASE-T standard in use is the 100BASE-TX. The next step from the 100BASE-T standard is the gigabit ethernet connection standard, the most common of which is the 1000BASE-T standard. These computer networking cable standards all represent the various ways that a computer network can be established. Furthermore, there are two ways to connect a UTP cable. These are the “straight through” connection and the “crossover ” connection. The “straight through” connection is used for connecting the computer to a hub or router. A “crossover” connection is used for connecting one computer directly to another.