Which cable type is used to connect two switches or two hubs?

Which cable type is used to connect two switches or two hubs?

• A. Fiber optic
• B. Crossover cable
• C. Straight-through cable
• D. Coaxial

Answer: (B)

To connect two switches or two hubs, you need a cable that flips the transmit and receive lines so each device’s transmitter is connected to the other device’s receiver. A crossover cable does exactly this by swapping the send/receive pairs, allowing two like devices to communicate directly. In contrast, a straight-through cable connects different device types (for example, a PC to a switch) where the transmit and receive lines don’t need swapping. Modern devices may auto-negotiate this with auto-MDI/MDIX, but traditionally the correct choice for switch-to-switch or hub-to-hub is a crossover cable. Fiber and coax are different media and aren’t the standard copper Ethernet option for this specific scenario.

To connect two switches or two hubs, you need a cable that flips the transmit and receive lines so each device’s transmitter is connected to the other device’s receiver. A crossover cable does exactly this by swapping the send/receive pairs, allowing two like devices to communicate directly. In contrast, a straight-through cable connects different device types (for example, a PC to a switch) where the transmit and receive lines don’t need swapping. Modern devices may auto-negotiate this with auto-MDI/MDIX, but traditionally the correct choice for switch-to-switch or hub-to-hub is a crossover cable. Fiber and coax are different media and aren’t the standard copper Ethernet option for this specific scenario.