Another cabling question

Y

Yohhan

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 17, 2002
Messages
220
I'm running a home network behind a basic Linksys router (BEFSR41). All of my computers are connected to this router using cat 5 cable and rj45 connectors. Is this cable equivalent to 10BaseT? I've asked questions on this before, and I apologize for any redundancy. I'm still a little confused on the issue though. When you talk about 10Base5/2/T/F, this just relates to signalling, correct? Not quite physical layer, but layer 2 if we're talking about the OSI model? Do all of these 10Basex standards run on different physical cables, or can you intermix them? Could I potentially plug different types of cable (other than cat 5) into my Linksys router, as long as they're using rj45 connectors (at all, at the same time)? Can rj45 connectors be used on cable other than cat5?

Thanks ahead.
 
Short answer:
Yes, they're the same.
Long answer:
No, but they're inter-related. The specifications "Cat 5" and "RJ-45" ("Registered Jack") are physical standards...the plug is this wide, the wire is made out of...that kind of thing. 10BaseT is both...a software specification (the sending computer will send at this rate, so the recieveing computer can expect it.) 10BaseT, 100BaseT and 1000BaseT are the most common protocols that use Cat 5 cabling and RJ-45 connectors...and give (theoretical) throughputs of 10, 100, and 1000Mbps (It won't go that fast unless you have two machines back-to-back with a 2-foot wire between them, but that's beside the point.) 10Base2 uses coaxial cable and BNC connectors.
I'm not sure about your other questions though...about whether or not RJ-45 connectors work on other cables and all. Hadn't really ever thought of it. A little help?
 
Basically, they are all different cable and connector types, and as a rule of thumb media and bit signalling operates at OSI Layer 1.
Cat5(e) cable is rated up to 1000Mbps when all 4 pairs of wires are used. Depending on how new your hardware is, it will generally run full duplex (send and receive at the same time) at 200mbps(100 send / 100 receive), as long as both connected ports are 100mbps ports. 10Mbps was the old standard for twisted pair Cat3 and early Cat5 when only two pairs of wires were connected to the RJ-45s. 10Base5 is what they call "Thicknet", and was a coaxial cabling standard for early Ethernet, running at 10Mbps and at half-duplex(send, wait, receive, wait, send). It is good for up to 500 meter runs, and needs to be terminated at its endpoints so there is no signal bleed and uses BNC connectors. 10Base2, or "Thinnet" "replaced" 10Base5, because it was cheaper and easier to run, due to its lower density, but it was only good for 185 meter runs, also used BNCs and was common to a bus topology. 10BaseF would be 10Mbps over Fiber-Optic, but I don't think anyone would waste their time running fiber for 10mbps, when most fiber is used as vertical cabling from switches or to connect networks within short distances (up to 5000 meters) without having to pay for a T1 or a PVC. Most fiber runs are at least 1000Mbps, but some were used as 100mbps trunk links between switches. When considering the OSI Model as a standpoint, Layer one is just your media and the signalling method used by the media, and how the cable is connected to the NIC. RJ-45 connectors are only for twisted pair cable (solid or stranded core, STP or UTP cable), and cannot be used with Thicknet or Thinnet as it would be hard to whack an RJ-45 onto a Coax cable, and light would not penetrate the RJ-45 head if cleaved to a fiber cable. Layer 2 of the OSI Model is for the assembly or disassembly of the electrical bits into packets, communication with the adapter, media control at the MAC level, error correction at the LLC (logical link control) and is where most internetworking devices operate.

Hope that wasn't too verbose!

-DVA
 
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