Ethernet is a type of cabling used in high-speed wired computer networks and broadband internet. It requires an Ethernet card and uses a twisted-pair cabling configuration to reduce electromagnetic interference. Ethernet can be wired straight or with some pins as receivers and others as transmitters. It was developed by Xerox in the 1970s and has evolved to support speeds up to 1Gbps.
Ethernet is a type of cabling commonly used in high-speed wired computer networks. You will find Ethernet cabling in local area networks (LANs). It’s also commonly used with broadband Internet, by connecting your cable modem or DSL modem to a wired or wireless router, for example. To use Ethernet with your computer, you will need an Ethernet card, which is an expansion card that provides an Ethernet jack and the hardware and software needed to transmit over the Ethernet network.
If you look at the connector on the end of an Ethernet cable, called an RJ45 or 8P8C modular connector, you’ll notice that RJ45 looks a lot like a telephone line connector, but the Ethernet connector is larger and wider. An Ethernet cable has male RJ45 connectors on both ends, and cables can be anywhere from a few feet to hundreds of feet (or one to 70 meters) long.
Ethernet cabling uses a twisted-pair cabling configuration where the manufacturer twists pairs of wires together. This twist helps reduce the bleeding of electromagnetic interference (EMI) into the individual wires. Most of the time, twisted pairs involve wires from the same pins – pins 1 and 2, 3 and 6, 4 and 5, and 7 and 8 – although some other pairings are possible, depending on the manufacturer. If you look inside an Ethernet cable, you might see that the jackets covering the wires for these matching pairs are color-coded.
With the Ethernet cabling standard, it is possible to have two cabling configurations. First, the cable can be wired straight, with pin 1 of one connector connected directly to pin 1 of the other connector. In this configuration, each of the eight pins is wired directly to each other. Second, the cable can be wired so that some pins are receivers on one end and transmitters on the other end of the Ethernet cable.
Sometimes you’ll see Ethernet referred to as IEEE 802.3, but that designation refers to the standard by which Ethernet works. Sometimes, Ethernet is called 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, or 1000BASE-T, depending on the maximum speed of a particular cable.
Xerox developed Ethernet in the early 1970s, obtaining a patent in 1975 and initially appearing as a standard in use in 1980. The first Ethernet ran at a rate of 3 megabits per second (Mbps), but after the standard was released, it ran at 10Mbps . Later, high-speed Ethernet ran at 100Mbps. In recent years, Ethernet cabling started running at 1000Mbps, which equals 1Gbps. While an Ethernet cable can support high-speed transmission, it can also work backwards to support slower speeds, which allows users to mix and match Ethernet cards, routers, and modems that only support slower speeds.
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