What Is Straight-Through Cable?

Cables are a pain. They get tangled, they get lost, and they keep you from being able to sit on the couch and play your favorite game for hours on end. What if there was a different cable? What if there was a cable that made life easier? That's where the straight-through cable comes in. A straight-through cable is a local area network connection that connects a computer to a network hub such as a router. This type of cable, also known as a patch cable, is an alternative to wireless connections when one or more computers connect to a router via a wireless signal. The straight-through cable has two connectors on each end, one male and one female that fit together when you connect them by twisting them like you would with regular cables. However, unlike standard cables, the straight-through cable doesn't have any twists that could cause problems with your connection speed or cause interference between devices, like wireless connections, which can sometimes do if they're not adequately positioned around your house or office space. When it comes to cables, you're probably pretty familiar with straight-through cables. They're the kind that connects two different devices and allows them to communicate. But what if you want to combine two of the same devices? For example, if you're going to connect an Ethernet cable to another Ethernet cable or a USB port to another USB port. In this case, you'll need an alternative kind of cable called a crossover cable. Crossover cables are explicitly designed for connecting two of the same types of devices, and they're used when you want to connect two computers or printers over a network connection. The difference between a straight-through cable and a crossover cable is simple: all wired pins match; with crossover cables, wired pins are reversed. You can think about them as being like mirror images.