Ethernet Cabling

The types of Ethernet cables available are:
- Straight-through cable
- Crossover cable
- Rolled cable

Straight-Through Cable

The straight-through cable is used to connect
- Host to switch or hub
- Router to switch or hub

Four wires are used in straight-through cable to connect Ethernet devices. It is relatively simple to create this type; Figure as below shows the four wires used in a straight-through Ethernet cable.

Notice that only pins 1, 2, 3, and 6 are used. Just connect 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and 6 to 6, and you’ll be up and networking in no time. However, remember that this would be an Ethernet-only cable and wouldn’t work with Voice, Token Ring, ISDN, etc.

Crossover Cable
The crossover cable can be used to connect
- Switch to switch
- Hub to hub
- Host to host
- Hub to switch
- Router direct to host
The same four wires are used in this cable as in the straight-through cable; we just connect different pins together. Figure as below shows how the four wires are used in a crossover Ethernet cable.
Notice that instead of connecting 1 to 1, etc., here we connect pins 1 to 3 and 2 to 6 on each side of the cable.

Rolled Cable
Although rolled cable isn’t used to connect any Ethernet connections together, you can use a rolled Ethernet cable to connect a host to a router console serial communication (com) port.
If you have a Cisco router or switch, you would use this cable to connect your PC running HyperTerminal to the Cisco hardware. Eight wires are used in this cable to connect serial devices, although not all eight are used to send information, just as in Ethernet networking. Figure as below shows the eight wires used in a rolled cable.

These are probably the easiest cables to make, because you just cut the end off on one side of a straight-through cable and reverse the end.

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