Straight through cables are normally used for serial to serial connections between computers. Toslink and optical cables transmit audio using fiber optic cables and are mainly used in Dolby surround sound systems and newer laptops. USB cables are primarily used for printing but also connect cameras, phones, and game consoles, and support transfer speeds of 12MBps for USB1 and 480MBps for USB2. Internal PC cables such as IDE and SATA cables connect hard drives to the motherboard and support different connection speeds. Network cables include Cat5e and Cat6e which are available as straight through or crossed cables. ADSL and modem cables connect telephone sockets to routers or modems using RJ11 cables, which is the American

1. COMPUTER CABLES
A brief guide to the different types of cables which are
commonly used by computers and computer networks.

2. STRAIGHT THROUGH CABLES

These are normally used for a serial to serial
connection. Before the days of networking this was
one of the best ways to connect computers together
and is still used on unix machines as a primary
method of connecting to the console.

3. TOSLINK AND OPTICAL CABLES

These are a new standard of transmitting audio
down a fiber optic cable. Mainly used by Dolby
surround sound systems and new laptops.

4. USB CABLES

Primarily used for the new
standard of printing. Now
used in many different
applications such as
Cameras, phones and even
playstations. One can even
do USB to USB LAN
Connections. There are
currently two versions, USB1
and USB2. USB1 being
12MBps transfer speed
whereas USB2 runs at
480MBps (MBps is the Mega
Bits per second transfer
speed).

5. INTERNAL PC CABLES

Internal PC cables connect devices within the
actual computer to the main board (motherboard).
The slow and fast connection speed being used by
the IDE & SATA cable which connects the hard
drive.

6. NETWORK CABLES

There are two standards of Network cables, Cat5e
and Cat6e. Within these two standards there are
two formats, straight through (standard) and
crossed.

7. ADSL AND MODEM CABLES

The modem cable connects the telephone socket to
a router or modem. The socket for connection to the
modem or router is known as an RJ11 cable, which
is the American telephone standard.

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