- Coaxial Cable
Actually, two types of coaxial cable are used in networks (the type that hooks up your television set is a third type):
- Thick coaxial cable, which is usually yellow in color and used in what are called thicknets, has two conductors. It's made of a solid center wire and a braided metal shield. Foam insulation separates the two, and a sturdy plastic sheathing covers the whole bundle. Thick coax can be used in 500 meter lengths.
- Thin coaxial cable, used in thinnets, has the same basic construction of thick coax, except it is made of lighter and less expensive materials. This cable is also referred to as RG-58 A/U. The A/U indicates that the core of the wire has a stranded core (strands of wire wound together).
- Fiber-optic Cable ("fiber" to most network techies), has several advantages. It carries a huge amount of data very fast, is small in size, resists corrosion, and is very reliable. On the other hand, it is hard to splice, difficult to install, and it and the devices that connect to it cost more than other network cables.
- Twisted Pair Cable is available in two types: unshielded and shielded.
- Unshielded twisted pair (UTP), is the most popular type of network cable in use. UTP has four pairs of wires inside a plastic sheath. Because each of the copper wires (either solid or stranded) is only itself covered with thin plastic sheath, each pair of wires is twisted a different number of twists per inch to eliminate interference from the other pairs of wire or other electrical devices near the cable.
- Shielded twisted pair (STP) is common in higher-speed network architectures. STP is very much like UTP with the added bonus of a metallic shield wrapped around the wire bundle to eliminate interference from outside devices, such as electrical motors, flourescent light fixtures, and so on.
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