Network Cable

Currently, three types of network cable are available: coaxial, UTP, and fiber. Coaxial cable (rarely used today) looks a lot like the coaxial cable used to connect your television to the cable jack or antenna. UTP looks a lot like the cable that runs from your phone to the wall jack (the jacks are a bit wider). Fiber cable looks sort of like the RCA cables used on your stereo or like the cable used on your electrical appliances in your house (two separate segments connected together). The following sections discuss UTP and fiber network cable in more detail.

Unshielded Twisted Pair

UTP uses color-coded pairs of thin copper wire to transmit data. The six categories of UTP each serve a different purpose:

Category 1 (Cat1)—Used ...

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