Ethernet cabling is an important discussion, especially if you are planning on taking the Cisco exams. These cables are simply used to connect two computer systems, using an RJ 45 connector. An Ethernet cable consists of eight standalone wires having different colours and arranged in different ways depending on the devices to be connected. These cables are firmly inserted into the RJ 45 connector with the aid of a crimping tool, and is plugged into the network card on the computer system.
Three types of Ethernet cables are available:
- Straight-through cable
- Crossover cable
- Rolled cable
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We will look at each in the following sections.
Straight-Through Cable
The straight-through cable is used to connect
- · Host to switch or hub
- Router to switch or hub
· Host here refers to a standalone computer system.
Eight wires are used in this cable to connect devices, although not all eight are used to send information.
The diagram below shows the arrangement of a straight through cable.
Crossover Cable
The crossover cable can be used to connect
- · Switch to switch
- Hub to hub
- Host to host
- Hub to switch
- Router direct to host
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Eight wires are used in this cable to connect devices, although not all eight are used to send information.
The diagram below shows the arrangement of a crossover cable.
Colours 1-8 at the left is simply the arrangement of the wires at one end of the cable and colours 3,6,1,4,5,2,7,8 at the right is the arrangement of the wires at the other end of the cable.
Rolled Cable
Although rolled cable isn’t used to connect any Ethernet connections together, you can use a
rolled Ethernet cable to connect a host to a router console serial communication (com) port.
If you have a Cisco router or switch, you would use this cable to connect your PC running
HyperTerminal to the Cisco hardware (that is, when you want to configure your Cisco device. Eight wires are used in this cable to connect serial devices, although not all eight are used to send information, just as in Ethernet networking.
These are probably the easiest cables to make because you just cut the end off on one side
of a straight-through cable, turn it over, and put it back on (with a new connector, of course).
Once you have the correct cable connected from your PC to the Cisco router or switch, you can start HyperTerminal to create a console connection and configure the device. Set the con-
figuration as follows:
1. Open HyperTerminal and enter a name for the connection. It is irrelevant what you name
It.Hyper Terminal is located in assessibility menu in the start menu bar.Then click OK.
2. Choose the communications port—either COM1 or COM2, whichever is open on your PC.
3. Now set the port settings. The default values (2400bps and no flow control hardware) will not work; you must set the port settings as shown in Figure 1.25.
Notice that the bit rate is now set to 9600 and the flow control is set to None. At this point,
you can click OK and press the Enter key and you should be connected to your Cisco device
| console port. |
Port settings for a rolled cable connection
The figure below shows an RJ 45 connector
RJ 45 and cable connected
Crimping tool
In our next tutorial, we will be looking at networking devices, how to connect them and we'll have a few self tests.
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