Describe the three most common types of cabling media used in LANs.

The three most common types of cabling media used in LANs are:

• Coaxial Cable. Coaxial cable comes in two versions: Thinnet and Thicknet. Thinnet looks like regular TV cable.* It is about 1/4 inch in diameter and is very flexible and easy to work with. In contrast, Thicknet is about 1/2 inch in diameter and not very flexible. Thicknet is older and not very common anymore except as a backbone within and between buildings. Coax transmits at 10 Mbps..
• Twisted Pair. Twisted pair looks like telephone wire and consists of insulated strands of copper wire twisted together. There are two versions of twisted pair cable: Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) and Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP). STP is commonly used in Token Ring networks and UTP in Ethernet networks where it is referred to as "10baseT." Transmission rates vary between 10-100 Mbps..
• Fiber-Optic Cable. Fiber-optic cable consists of a thin cylinder of glass surrounded by glass cladding, encased in protective outer sheath. Fiber-optic cable is very fast (100 Mbps). It can transmit over long distances (2 km +) but is expensive.

*Don�t confuse Thinnet cable (RG 58) with cable TV cable (RG 59). They look alike but they are not interchangeable.