So what does 100Base-TX/T4/FX mean?

We are going to break the "100Base-T" into three parts so we can make it easier to understand:

100
The number 100 represents the frequency in MHz (Mega HertZ) for which this cable is made. In this case it is 100 MHz. The greater the MHz, the greater speeds the cable can handle. If you try to use this type of cable for greater frequencies (and, therefore, speeds) it will either not work or become extremely unreliable. The 100 MHz speed translates to 100Mbit per second, which in theory means 12 Mbps. In practice though, you wouldn't get more than 4 Mbps.

Base
The word "Base" refers to Baseband. Baseband is the type of communication used by Ethernet and it means that when a computer is transmitting, it uses all the available bandwith, whereas Broadband (cable modems) shares the bandwidth available. This is the reason cable modem users notice a slowdown in speed when they are connected on a busy node, or when their neighbor is downloading all the time at maximum speed! Of course with Ethernet you will notice a slowdown in speed but it will be smaller in comparison to broadband.

TX/T4/FX
The "T" refers to "Twisted Pair" physical medium that carries the signal. This shows the structure of the cable and tells us it contains pairs which are twisted. For example, UTP has twisted pairs and this is the cable used in such cases. The 100Base-T is used sometimes to refer to the 100Base-TX cable specification. For more information, see the "UTP -Unshielded Twisted Pair" page where you can find information on pinouts for the cables. All 100MB rated cables, except the 100Base-FX, use CAT5 cable.

100Base-TX
The TX (sometimes referred as "T" only) means it's a CAT5 UTP straight through cable using two of the four available pairs and supports speeds up to 100 Mb. Maximum length is 100 meters and minimum length between nodes is 2.5 meters.

100Base-T4
The T4 means it's a CAT5 UTP straight through cable using all four available pairs and supports speeds up to 100 Mb. Maximum length is 100 meters and minimum length between nodes is 2.5 meters.

100Base-FX
The FX means it's a two strand fiber cable and supports speeds up to 100 Mbs. Maximum length is usually up to two kms.

To summarize, keep the following in mind:

100Base-TX/T4 works for 100 Mb networks only and uses unshielded twisted pair cable with

RJ-45 connectors at each end All CAT5 UTP cables have four pairs of cables (eight wires). 100Base-TX (sometimes called 100Base-T) uses two of the four available pairs within the UTP cable, whereas the 100Base-T4 uses all four pairs. 100Base-FX also works for speeds up to 100 Mb but uses fiber optic cable instead of UTP.

10Base-T = 10 Mbps, baseband, over two twisted-pair cables 100Base-T2 = 100 Mbps, baseband, over two twisted-pair cables 100Base-T4 = 100 Mbps, baseband, over four-twisted pair cables 1000Base-LX = 100 Mbps, baseband, long wavelength over optical fiber cable

Category 1/2/3/4/5/6 a specification for the type of copper wire (most telephone and network wire is copper) and jacks. The number (1, 3, 5, etc) refers to the revision of the specification and in practical terms refers to the number of twists inside the wire (or the quality of connection in a jack). CAT1 is typically used for telephone wire. This type of wire is not capable of supporting computer network traffic and is not twisted. It is also used by phone companies who provide ISDN, where the wiring between the customer's site and the phone company's network uses CAT 1 cable. CAT2, CAT3, CAT4, CAT5 and CAT6 are network wire specifications. This type of wire can support computer network and telephone traffic. CAT2 is used mostly for token ring networks, supporting speeds up to 4 Mbps. For higher network speeds (100 Mbps plus) you must use CAT5 wire, but for 10 Mbps CAT3 will suffice. CAT3, CAT4 and CAT5 cable are actually 4 pairs of twisted copper wires and CAT5 has more twists per inch than CAT3 therefore can run at higher speeds and greater lengths. The

"twist" effect of each pair in the cables will cause any interference presented/picked up on one cable to be cancelled out by the cable's partner which twists around the initial cable. CAT3 and CAT4 are both used for Token Ring -- the only difference is CAT3 can be as long as 100 meters while CAT4 can only be 200 meters. CAT6 wire was originally designed to support gigabit Ethernet (although there are standards that will allow gigabit transmission over CAT5 wire, that's CAT 5e). It is similar to CAT5 wire, but contains a physical separator between the four pairs to further reduce electromagnetic interference.

The picture above shows a standard CAT5 straight-through cable used to connect a PC to a hub. You might expect the TX+ of one side to connect to the TX+ of the other side, but this is not the case. When you connect a PC to a hub, the hub will automatically x-over the cable by using its internal circuits. The result is that pin 1 from the PC (which is TX+) connects to pin 1 of the hub (which connects to RX+).This happens for the rest of the pinouts as well. If the hub didn't cross over the pinouts using its internal circuits (this happens when you use the uplink port on the hub), then pin 1 from the PC (which is TX+) would connect to pin 1 of the hub (which would be TX+ in this case). So, no matter what we do with the hub port (uplink or normal), the signals assigned to the eight pins on the PC side of things will always remain the same. The hub's pinouts, however, will change depending whether the port is set to normal or uplink.

TX/T4/FX
The "T" refers to "Twisted Pair" physical medium that carries the signal. This shows the structure of the cable and tells us it contains pairs which are twisted. For example, UTP has twisted pairs and this is the cable used in such cases. The 100Base-T is used sometimes to refer to the 100Base-TX cable specification. For more information, see the "UTP -Unshielded Twisted Pair" page where you can find information on pinouts for the cables. All 100MB rated cables, except the 100Base-FX, use CAT5 cable.

100Base-TX
The TX (sometimes referred as "T" only) means it's a CAT5 UTP straight through cable using two of the four available pairs and supports speeds up to 100 Mb. Maximum length is 100 meters and minimum length between nodes is 2.5 meters.

100Base-T4
The T4 means it's a CAT5 UTP straight through cable using all four available pairs and supports speeds up to 100 Mb. Maximum length is 100 meters and minimum length between nodes is 2.5 meters.

100Base-FX
The FX means it's a two strand fiber cable and supports speeds up to 100 Mbs. Maximum length is usually up to two kms.

To summarize, keep the following in mind:

100Base-TX/T4 works for 100 Mb networks only and uses unshielded twisted pair cable with RJ-45 connectors at each end All CAT5 UTP cables have four pairs of cables (eight wires). 100Base-TX (sometimes called 100Base-T) uses two of the four available pairs within the UTP cable, whereas the 100Base-T4 uses all four pairs. 100Base-FX also works for speeds up to 100 Mb but uses fiber optic cable instead of UTP.