Hardware 3.1 - Network Cables & Connectors Flashcards
three main types of physical cabling:
coaxial, twisted pair, and fiber-optic
Plenum rating can apply to all types of network cabling = coating does not produce toxic gas when burned
Coaxial
Coaxial cable (or coax) contains a center conductor core made of copper, which is surrounded by a plastic jacket with a braided shield over it.
Cable TV & cable modems; twists in eg f-type connector, bayonet, older RGs
*Less common, very slow
Twisted Pair Cable
Twisted pair is the most popular type of cabling to use because of its flexibility and low cost. It consists of several pairs of wire twisted around each other within an insulated jacket
Shielded (STP)& unshielded (UTP)
RJ-11 & RJ-45 connectors
STP vs UTP
STP has an extra layer of braided foil shielding to decrease electrical interference.
UTP (most common) has a PVC or plenum coating but no outer foil shield to protect it aka Ethernet cable
STP has been used less frequently, but the newer Cat 7 and Cat 8 standards rely on shielding and offer higher frequencies to deliver ultra-fast transmission speeds.
Twisted Pair Cable range specf for Cat 5-6a
Range = 100m (328 feet) or less
Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6, and Cat 6a.
Cat 5
Cat 5
100 Mbps up to 100 meters
Cat 5e
Cat 5e
up to 1 Gbps
100m & better interference protection.
Cat 6
Cat 6
Up to 10Gbps only at 55m
* This is the lowest grade of cable you should ever use to connect different parts of a network together eg on different floors of a building.
Cat 6a
Cat 6a - 10 Gbps speed, up to 100 meters
Twisted Pair Connector Types
connector used with UTP cable is called RJ-45 (ethernet)
Most landline phones connect with an RJ-11
crimper
crimper is used to attach an RJ connector to a cable
punchdown block
Some twisted pair installations don’t use standard RJ-45 connectors. Instead, the cable is run to a central panel called a punchdown block, often located in a server room or connectivity closet. In a punchdown block, the metal wires are connected directly to the block to make the connection.
Instead of a crimper
T568A & B (Cat cables & RJ45 connectors)
T568A- oranges aren’t adjacent
T568B - greens aren’t
crossover - A on one side & B on the other
straight through - same on both
*when held next to each other, not facing
& most ethernet cables are B
crossover vs patch cable
to create a cable to connect a computer to another computer directly, or you’re going to make a connection from hub to hub, switch to switch, hub to switch, or a computer directly to a router, then you need what’s called a crossover cable. In a crossover cable, pin 1 to pin 3 and pin 2 to pin 6 are crossed on one side of the cable only. This is to get the “send” pins matched up with the “receive” pins on the other side, and vice versa.
The key thing to remember is that a patch (straight-through) cable is the same on both ends. A crossover cable is different on each end. You should know the order of the colors for both standards.
Direct Burial
situations where network cable needs to be run outside or buried underground. For these types of installations, use direct burial cable. Direct burial cable is STP with an extra waterproof sheathing
Fiber-Optic Cable
thin, flexible glass or plastic fiber surrounded by a rubberized outer coating. It provides transmission speeds from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps over a maximum distance of several miles. Because it uses pulses of light instead of electric voltages to transmit data, it is immune to electrical interference and to wiretapping.
multimode fiber (MMF) - up to 10 Gbps for up to 550 meters
Single-mode fiber (SMF) - up to 10 Gbps for up to 40 kilometers
Fiber-Optic Connector Types
straight tip (ST) most common
subscriber connector (SC) square
Lucent connector (LC) mini form factor (MFF)
Connectivity Devices
the backbone for nearly all computer networks
Eg. Modems, access points, repeater, or extender, Hubs, patch panel, Switches, Routers
IEEE 1394 vs USB 2.0
- USB 2.0 supports more devices on a single bus
- USB 2.0 standard allows data transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps
- both support support hot swapping
- both PnP (plug & play)
- Apple refers to IEEE 1394 as FireWire
USB 3.0
speeds up to 5 Gbps
3.1 upto 10 Gbps
Term used for data transfer tech
Blue
*maximum length of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable is limited to 5 meters
ThinNet vs ThickNet
ThinNet – Up to 185 meters and 10 Mbps
ThickNet – Up to 500 meters and 10 Mbps
USB C
Never upside down
C = connector type (not data transfer speed)
10BaseT, 100BaseT, and 1000BaseT Ethernet use what cables?
unshielded twisted-pair cable (UTP) as their transmission medium. The maximum transmission distance of UTP cable is 100 meters, or 328 feet. This distance can be increased using repeaters.
Most joysticks use these 2 connectors
DA-15 connector & Universal Serial Bus (USB)
SATA and eSATA specifications and maximum throughput
SATA 1 – up to 150 megabytes per second (MBps) or 1.5 gigabits per second (Gbps)
SATA 2 – up to 300 MBps or 3.0 Gbps
SATA 3 – up to 600 MBps or 6.0 Gbps
External SATA (eSATA) – extends the SATA bus at full speed and can support a cable length of up to 2 meters.
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt-3 cables can provide the bandwidth to support 4K monitors, up to 40 Gbps. Thunderbolt-3 includes a USB-C connection.
The main differences between VGA and DVI connectors are
- the speed in which video signal travels
- the types of signal they carry:
VGA cable only carries analog; DVI = both
VGA - longer cable length
DVI - better video - both = only video
HDMI
Video & audio
Digital only, no analog
DisplayPort is an interface developed by Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It connects
connects video sources to a computer monitor and can carry audio, USB, and other forms of data to various devices.
USB optical drive – allows you to plug an
external CD-ROM or DVD drive into a USB port
aka external optical drive.
SATA & eSATA
hard drive cable
SATA cables are typically used inside a computer’s case. eSATA cables connect external devices outside of the computer case and support data transfer but not power
