Although there have been advances in wireless technologies, many 21st century computer networks rely on cables as the physical medium that devices use to transfer data. There are several standard types of network cables, each designed for specific purposes.
Ethernet Cables, UTP vs STP, Straight vs Crossover, CAT 5,5e,6,7,8 Network Cables
Coaxial cable (also called coax) was invented in the 1880s and was best known as the type of cable that connected television sets to home antennas. Coaxial cable is also a standard for 10 Mbps Ethernet cables.
When 10 Mbps Ethernet was most popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, networks typically used one of two types of coaxial cable: thinnet (10BASE2 standard) or thicknet (10BASE5). These cables consist of a copper inner wire of varying thickness, surrounded by insulation and another type of shielding. Their stiffness created problems for network administrators when installing and maintaining thinnet and thicknet.
Twisted pair emerged in the 1990s as the leading cabling standard for Ethernet, starting with 10 Mbps (10BASE-T, also known as Category 3 or Cat3), later followed by improved versions for 100 Mbps (100BASE-TX, Cat5 and Cat5e) and successively higher speeds up to 10 Gbps (10GBASE-T). Ethernet twisted pair cables contain up to eight wires wrapped in pairs to minimize electromagnetic interference.
