Know Your Hardware: Ethernet Port

In this mini series of short articles we will take a look at some of the most common computer hardware and peripherals, and learn the function of each.

Today we begin with the ethernet port. Looking at the router below, we can see 5 ethernet ports. While one serves a different function from the other four, it is an identical port.



Most people with a high speed internet connection are likely connected to their modem or router this way. Now at first it may look just like a phone jack, but it is actually bigger, and should not be confused (but you won't fit the ethernet cable in a phone jack without a hammer, and a phone line will not sit in an ethernet port)!

First commercially introduced in 1980, this is pretty much the LAN (local area network) standard. It is mostly used to interconnect computers (among other things) on a local network. Transfer speeds were originally 10 megabits/sec, but have been gradually improved to the current gigabit/sec.

The wire used to interconnect the devices is know as a cat5 cable (or ethernet wire for the casual user).