CompTIA A+ 1101 Network Cables

Twisted Pair Copper Cabling

- common for ethernet connections

- balanced pair operation

- each cable has equal and opposite signals

- the twist keeps a single wire constantly moving away from the interface

- pairs in the same cable have different twist rates

CAT5 and CAT5e Twisted Pair Copper Cabling

- 1 gigabyte standard

- 100 meter maximum supported distance

- CAT5e is enhanced CAT5

CAT6 and CAT6A Twisted Pair Copper Cabling

CAT6:

- 10 gigabyte standard

- 55 meter maximum supported distance for an unshielded cable, 100 meter maximum supported distance for a shielded cable

CAT6A:

- augmented CAT6

- 10 gigabyte standard

- 100 meter maximum supported distance

Coaxial Cable

- commonly used on cable modems, cable televisions, and high-speed internet over cable

- made of a wire conductor, dielectric insulator, metal shielding, and plastic jacket

Plenum-Rated Cable

- fire resistant cable

- FEP (fluorinated ethylene polymer) or low smoke PVC

- may not be as flexible as PVC cabling

STP (Shielded Twisted Pair)

- additional shielding protects against interference

- shielding may be around each pair, or the whole cable

U (Abbreviation)

unshielded

S (Abbreviation)

braided shielding

F (Abbreviation)

foil shielding