DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRAIGHT-THROUGH CABLE AND CROSSOVER ETHERNET CABLE

Most of the people get confused the two Ethernet cables- straight-through cable and crossover cable. These two cables are looks like same but their usage and cabling are different.

So here I am going to explain in a very brief way the difference between straight-through cable and crossover Ethernet cable-

Straight-through Cable:

The straight-through cable is used to connect the two different devices such as-

• Host to switch or hub        
  
                                              
• Router to switch or hub.

In straight- through Cable only four wires are used to connect Ethernet devices.

Same colors of wires are connected on each side of the cable at same arrangement - 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3 and 6 to 6. 

Crossover cable:

The crossover cable is used to connect two similar devices such as-

• Switch to switch                                    
  
• Hub to hub
• Host to host
• Hub to host
• Hub to switch
• Router direct to host

The same four wires are used in this cable as in the straight-through cable but instead of connecting 1 to 1, 2 to 2 and so on, it is connected or need to connect  pins 1 to 3 and 2 to 6 on each side of the cable.