Connecting up a home Network is incredibly easy to do, but you should know a little bit about the cables you’re using so that the process goes smoothly. All Ethernet cables are not created equally; In fact they can be very different depending on what purpose you have in mind.

There are basically two types of Ethernet cables that you can buy,  Straight-through and Cross-Over. Keeping things simple, the differences between the two cables is very small, although they will change how your network works.

First, the most common cable and the one that you are probably using right now is called a Straight-through Cable. In essence, a Straight-Through cable has all the wires hooked up at each end of the RJ-45 connector identically.  Here’s an image of an RJ-45 connector, it looks like an over-sized telephone connector. Straight through cables are used to connect a router to PC, or PC to Hub, PC to Modem etc.

On the other hand, the Cross-Over Cable is different from the straight-through in that the cable has it’s send and receive wires crossed. Cross over cables are designed to connect PC to PC (for  Windows-based computers in a Peer-to-Peer Networking configuration), or to connect two hubs together etc.

The usefulness of a Cross-Over cable has declined with the introduction of Automatic MDI/MDIX to auto-switch to the proper configuration after a cable is connected , which in essence creates the cross-over for you, eliminating the need for a Cross-Over cable. Modern hubs come with what’s called an Uplink Port that take care of the cross-over for you, and modern Network Interface Cards (NIC) that use the Automatic MDI/MDIX  tecnology will also do the cross-over for you as well.

In essence, 9 times out of 10 all you need is a straight-Through cable to hook up your Network. Cross-Over cables are used rarely but can still be useful if you are connecting older computers or hubs together. For the best deals and selection on Network cables and everything else that you need for your network check out showmecables.com.

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