Several types of cabling are used for Ethernet & few of them are discussed below.
10Base2 or Thinnet supports 10Mbps (transmitting Ethernet packets at a rate of a 10Mb per second), baseband technology & can span up to 200 meters in length. The 10 means 10Mbps, Base means baseband technology, and the 2 means 200 meters. This uses a string of RJ-58 coaxial cables in a bus topology, with BNC-T connectors attached to each device.
10Base5 or Thicknet supports 10Mbps, baseband technology, up to 500 meters in length. This uses a single 75-ohm coaxial cable in a bus topology, connecting each device with a "vampire tap" clamped over a hole drilled in the cable. Segments may be up to 500 meters in length.
10BaseT supports 10Mbps using category 3 UTP wiring. Unlike the 10Base2 and 10Base5 networks, each device must connect into a hub or switch, and you can only have one host per segment or wire. This uses a RJ-45 connector (8-pin modular connector) with a physical star topology and a logical bus.
100BaseTX (IEEE 802.3u) uses category 5, 6, or 7 UTP two-pair wiring. There can be only one user per segment. Supports up to 100 meters in lenght. It uses a RJ-45 connector with a physical star topology and a logical bus.
1000BaseT (IEEE 802.3ab) supports 1000 Mbps. This uses category 5, four-pair UTP wiring & can go up to 100 meters long.
1000BASE-X is used in industry to refer to gigabit Ethernet transmission over fiber, where options include 1000BASE-SX, -LX, or -LH/-ZX implementations.
1000BaseSX (IEEE 802.3z) uses Multi-Mode Fiber that uses a 62.5- and 50-micron core and 850 nanometer laser and can go up to 220 meters with 62.5-micron, 550 meters with 50-micron.
1000BaseLX (IEE 802.3z) uses Single-mode fiber that uses a 9-micron core and 1300 nanometer laser, and can go from 3 kilometers up to 10 kilometers.
1000BASE-ZX and 1000BASE-LH refers to gigabit Ethernet transmission using 1550 nm wavelength to achieve distances of at least 70 km over single-mode fiber.
