Network Cables and connectors - WEEK SEVEN

Network Cables and connectors

Networking cables are used to connect one network device to another. Cables

There are different types of cables. These include twisted pair, coaxial Fibre optic and telephone cable.

Twisted pair                                        ,

It is the most widely used medium for telecommunication. Twised-pair cabling consist of copper wires that are twisted into pairs. Ordinary telephone wires consist of two insulated copper wires twisted into The use of two wires twisted together helps to reduce crosstalk induction. Two types of twisted pair are Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) and Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP). Shielded twisted pair has a foil wrapped around the wires, but unshielded twisted pair does not.

Coaxial

It is widely used for cable television systems, office buildings, and work-sites for local area networks. The cables consist of copper aluminum wire surrounded by an insulating layer (typically a flexible material with a high dielectric constant), which itself is surrounded by a conductive layer. The insulation helps minimize interference and distortion. Transmission speed ranges from 200 million bits per  second to more than 500 million bits per second.

Fibre Optic Cable

Fibre optic cable is made of light conducting glass or plastic fibre. It consists of a centre glass core surrounded by several layers of protective, material. The outer insulating jacket is made of Teflon or Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). The fibre optic cable transmits light rather than electronic signals thereby eliminating electric interferences. It uses pulses of light to transmit data. Some advantages of optical fibre over metal wires are less  transmission loss, immunity from electromagnetic radiation, and very fast transmission

Speed up to trillions of bits per second. One can use different colours of lights  to increase the number of messages being sent over a fibre optic cable. It also supports very high bandwidths.

Telephone Wires

Telephone wires and cables connect your line phones to communication web. It is  made up of copper wire or aluminum. This wire runs from your home to a central junction then to the telephone exchange.

 Network Connectors

Network connectors are devices used to terminate network cables.

RJ45

It is a standard type of connector for network cables RJ45 are mostly seen with Ethernet  cables (CAT 6). RJ45 connectors feature 8 pins to which the wire strands of a cable interface electrically. RJ stands for Registered ack                                                                                                             .                    

RJ11

It is a connector used for telephone cable termination. They are smaller and narrow than RJ45. They have 4 pins.

T-Connectors

M is .m electrical connector that connects three cables together. It is usually in the shape of capital T. It is usually used for coaxial cables and liner connecting points can either be female or male could be different or same standard. They can be used to split radio frequency power from a cable into two.

Computer Cables

Basically we have two types of computer cable namely the power ct and the data cable. Data cables are used to connect computers and other peripherals. These peripherals are printers, speakers, monitors others. Data cables could be parallel serial and universal serial bus (USB) cables.

Power cables

Power cable is an assembly of two or more electrical conductors usually held together with an overall sheath. Power cables are used to electric power to electronic devices. Flexible power cables are used portable devices such as mobile tools and machinery.’                                                            

Printer Cable.

Printer cables are of different types. The types are serial, parallel, and USB. They are used to send data from the computer to the  printer. Without a printer cable, the printer cannot communicate computer. Most recently manufactured printers use universal punter or infrared cables.

Monitor cables

Signal cables are used to send data from the central processing computer to the monitor or visual display unit.