UTP Cables

UTP

Unshielded Twisted Pair

The twist in the cables helps protect against electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Using 2 pairs (4 wires)

• 10BASE-T

• 100BASE-T

Transmission Cables

Firewalls, PCs and Routers: 1 and 2.

Switches: 3 and 6.

Reception Cables

Firewalls, PCs and Routers: 3 and 6.

Switches: 1 and 2.

This allows for Full-Duplex transmission

This means both devices can receive and send data at the same time without collisions.

There are other types like:

• Simplex = network traffic can only be transmitted in a single direction

• Half Duplex = network traffic can be transmitted in both directions, but not at the same time.

Straight-through cable

A UTP cable that connects each pin of one side, to the same on the other.

Pin 1 connects to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, pin 3 to pin 3, and so on.

Crossover cable

A cable that crosses the pins of one side to the other.

In this case, in a crossover cable, pin 1 would connect to pin 3, and pin 2 to pin 6. On the other side, the same thing.

This would allow connecting a PC directly to a Router, without needing a Switch in the middle, as we would if we were using a straight-through cable.

Auto MDI-X

In modern network devices, this is a feature that allows them to detect which pin pairs their neighbor device is using for transmitting/receiving data, and automatically adjust which pin pair they use.

Using 4 pairs (8 wires)

• 1000BASE-T

• 10GBASE-T

Pairs

• 1 and 2

• 3 and 6

• 4 and 5

• 7 and 8

Each pair is bidirectional, which means any pair can be used both to send and receive data.