Do You Know the Difference between Ethernet and Phone Cables?

Ethernet patch cable and telephone cables look fairly similar and people always get the two mixed up.

They are different from optical fiber, but people often confuse them.

There is glass inside the optical fiber patch cord cable, which is the cable for transmitting optical signal, which cannot be used to transmit electric energy. Moreover, the joint must be a special connector box for optical fiber. The fiber optic patch panel price is relatively high, but the transmission speed is fast and the transmission volume is large.

The lan patch cable and telephone line are all copper core wires. There are 8 wires of different colors in the network cable, and there are only two telephone lines, which can conduct electricity. However, because of the small cross-section of the wire, it is only used for signal transmission, so it is easy to install and has low cost.

Optical fiber is generally used as an external long-distance transmission, and then it is connected to each user's home by telephone line or network cable after conversion.

The key difference between the lan patch cable and telephone cables the is the size of the plastic connectors on the ends of the cable. The telephone uses RJ11 / RJ12 connectors, while Ethernet uses RJ45. RJ11 / RJ12 only uses 4-6 pins, while RJ45 uses 8 pins. As a result, RJ11 / RJ12 is physically smaller than RJ45 because it does not need to contain so many pins.

What are Modular Connectors?

Both Ethernet patch panel cord and telephone cables are made using modular connectors. These are connectors designed for use with registered jack (RJ) twisted pair cables. The original modular jack was invented by at & T in the 1960s and used in some telephones. Over time, they became popular and eventually became industry standards in the 1970s.

Because data signals are more complex than telephone signals, these older jacks did not cut it for patch cords online usage once the World Wide Web was invented. RJ45 (8p8c) uses four pairs of wires for this purpose. Due to the need for an additional pair of wires, the physical size of the RJ45 connector is larger than that of the RJ11 / RJ12.

Other Telephone Connectors that Can Be Used

Although RJ11 / RJ12 is the most common telephone line, it is not the only available type. Since these cords do have a tendency to wear out and become damaged over time, using a cord detangler is recommended in order to prevent the patch cord types from wrapping around itself and speeding up wear-and-tear.

Telephone dial-up Internet access is different from fiber patch Internet access. If a user has a personal computer, an external or built-in modem and a telephone line, he can apply for his account from the local ISP supplier, or purchase a network card, and have his own user name and password to connect to the Internet.

While there are a few different kinds of Ethernet of fiber optic patch cable available, they all use RJ45 connectors in their construction. Checking the size and counting the number of pins in a connector are the easiest ways to see whether a cable is an Ethernet patch cord or telephone cord.