This is not harder the the issue of 8P8C connectors.
Depending on cable configuration, pinout, wall plate and structured wiring system that 8P8C might be usable (or not) for multiple different types of data networking, from the assorted ethernet speeds to E1 to token ring, or for a serial console, or delivering power and audio to a remote speaker, or hdmi-over-utp, or even -48V telephony, and let's not even get started on the only-subtly-different but actually incompatible RJ45 connector, or people sticking RJ11 plugs in 8P8C ports.
And yet the world has coped with this proliferation.
This is not much harder the the issue of 8P8C connectors.
Depending on cable configuration, pinout, wall plate and structured wiring system, that 8P8C might be usable (or not) for multiple different types of data networking, from the assorted ethernet speeds to E1 to token ring, or for a serial console, or delivering power and audio to a remote speaker, or hdmi-over-utp, or even -48V telephony, and let's not even get started on the only-subtly-different but actually incompatible RJ45S connector, or people sticking RJ11 plugs in 8P8C ports.
And yet the world has coped with this proliferation.
Whatever connector you stick on the end, as long as it gains popularity someone will use it in weird ways. The second your start selling these connectors widely and for affordable prices, they're going to get reused.
See: USB over D-SUB, serial over RJ45, the wide range of proprietary protocols that cheap IDE cables were (and probably still are) use for today, and weird edge cases like reusing the sturdy DMX ports to power sex toys.
8P8C is fine for ethernet, it doesn't need replacing. Nobody uses it for telephony modems anymore and very rarely will an average user encounter a compatible plug that wasn't made for ethernet.
I'd rather see fringe use cases like serial over RJ45 use a better connector than to have to cut off, strip, and wire up a new connector for every new network appliance I'll buy in the next 10 years.
Nontechnical people tend not to deal with multiple usecases for 8P8C connectors in everyday life. Despite being fairly technical, until I googled I would have called them RJ45.
Your comment is right above someone saying RJ-45 may be the worst connector! That’s just the internet I guess.
I think both opinions are right. If you’re a professional working in the field, RJ-45/8P8C is awesome because you can do large runs of cable and crimp on connectors after which is a lifesaver. The longevity of the connector is less important than ease of installation/replacement. I’ve done a little work with marine ethernet and CAN which uses M8/M12 circular connectors and those are pretty painful in contrast.
For consumers, it’s exactly the opposite. They’re unlikely to have the tools to crimp connectors. Most cables off Amazon come with lots of plastic that makes the cables rigid so it’s a pain to route and use in a home.
Weird connectors are hard to hack on. You bring up USB but I couldn't think of a worse example. USB got it wrong, it supports so many different things on a single connector that in some situations it can be impossible to determine what will happen when you connect device A to device B with cable C. Now don't get me wrong, it's great for plugging things into your laptop, but the world of cabling is so much bigger than that, and we don't really need to bring in even more BS connectors where they don't belong.
At the end of the day it's someone's job to actually run cable, terminate and test it, and attach equipment to it that people are responsible for. You have to remember that the physical cable plant is infrastructure itself whether it's connected to live equipment or not. There's already a big enough problem with people trying to do things like route display cables through buildings, for example - the workaround that I'm seeing a lot is that people are using specialized signal converters that send HDMI/DisplayPort over a pair of Cat5e/Cat6 cables, just so that structured cabling can use normal cabling/networking supplies (i.e. keystone jacks, patch panels, conduit sizes, testing/tools, etc.) without wasting so much time with planning for projectors/displays ahead of time etc.
RJ45 is for twisted pair cabling. It's not specifically for Ethernet. 802.3cg only uses 1 pair. If you use the center pair then it works for TIA-568A, TIA-568B, or USOC. It's great for experimenting since everyone already has twisted pair patch cables to play with. Barring that, just give me screws that I can put the wires into so I don't need to think about connectors at all.
I almost always hear "RJ45" to identify the 8-conductor ethernet female or male connector - depending on the context. It is universally understood, and there is no confusion about it. There is nothing wrong with using it in everyday conversation.
I have never once heard the phrase "8P8C" used to refer to an ethernet jack. Not once (outside of this thread) - but I have heard it used that way when referring to various 8-pin telco connections - it was a common term of art in the 90s when describing telco installations that used that configuration. When talking about Ethernet, and people are trying to be specific, they usually reference EIA-TIA-568B/A.
There are certain words, like "Bandwidth" - that, might technically mean the width of the band (typically in Hz), but have grown over time to refer to data rate as well. And that's cool - language is versatile that way.
I find your example lacking in perspective. In telecom, even under TDM standards like SDH, SONET, etc., there were a plethora of incompatible connectors. You can have rj45, rj12, BNC (literally dozens of variations). In optics the same is true as well with SC, ST, LC, FC, etc. The last decades shift towards Ethernet everywhere is as a result of "mass" consumer desire (i.e. you guys on HN building things that use Ethernet. A protocol originally designed for a limited number of workstations in a small environment.) and that has put the RJ45 at the top for a lot of devices. Recall that 15 years ago AS400, ATM, FDDI, all had their own connectors and standards. All of this (and much more) just to send some bits over a physical connection. Just crack open a Grays catalog and go to town.
For the record each of these has a purpose and reason. Some were a function of the materials present at the time others due to specific environmental concerns. I would not class any in the realm of "lock-in". Due to the capital intensive nature of the industry they each were good business decisions at the time. It wasn't as easy as buying a $40 plug.
Unfortunately, using identical connectors for incompatible protocols — often hazardously incompatible (to equipment) protocols — is an equally time-tested industry tradition, and not only in more cost-conscious market segments.
High-voltage differential SCSI comes immediately to mind — one might imagine there'd have been enough margin and price inelasticity in the market for $200 cables used to connect rooms full of $20,000+ storage devices to support the development and manufacture of slightly different connectors to prevent damage by connection to then-ubiquitous single-ended SCSI busses, but I suppose the projections for increased sales or reduced maintenance costs (for the vendors) due to redesigning the connector weren't high enough to justify a decision to standardize on different connectors for single-ended and differential SCSI.
Similarly, given that USB-C was essentially a fait accompli on the drawing board, short of material risk of injury or death due to misuse of otherwise compliant cables, I'm not convinced any one player in the industry — or any group of players likely to collaborate on something such as this — has both the means and the motive to seriously suggest something better.
Why build a better mousetrap when the world can't afford to beat a path away from your door?
If you've ever done field tech work, freelance or otherwise, you'd know that mere physical incompatibility isn't going to stop some people from plugging nearly any connector into nearly any port.
It's my experience that monitors, routers, speakers, and other devices often have non-standardized connectors. At the very least there are many different barrel connectors with different sizes, voltages, and amperages.
this is literally the problem with any specification then, because there is nothing stopping anyone from not following the specification for a particular port and just doing whatever the fuck they want.
I could hook a lightning cable up to a car battery, and you'd blame the connector.
Put that way, I'm not entirely sure it's worse. Coming from a world where the connector helped you determine what you could do, it seems worse, but that's because we've all internalized the cost of not having the right cable and having to buy different cables for everything. Having a cable that works for most things (if you were lucky enough to buy a good cable, and I'll freely admit that is a clusterfuck of planning) leaves you with just having to know if your ports will work together. That seems solvable, even if it's not currently solved. I think we're a step closer to the dream of a simplified connector ecosystem, even if we aren't quite there yet.
RJ45 needs to die. As does every other connector that was ever used for more than one incompatible thing. USB got it right: build a custom connector for your application so that nobody will ever plug the wring thing in.
I don't care what you replace Ethernet RJ45 with, but make it a standard that is only used for Ethernet.
Ok I knew the situation was confusing but after reading this I am dumbfounded. It seems so much strictly worse than the old world of having different cables with different connectors - yes you had to have a lot of different cables but you couldn’t get it wrong. Now we have all the same complexity and you can’t tell what’s what by just looking at the connector.
To be extra pedantic, it's serial with an "8P8C modular connector", not over RJ45. Sure, the physical connector is the same thing, but the RJ- standards define the uses of the various pins, not just the physical connector. RJ45, RJ49, and RJ61 all use the same "8P8C modular connector". RJ45S is for only one data line, with a programming resistor. RJ49C is an 8P8C carrying ISDN via NT1, RJ61 is four telephone lines on an 8P8C. There's no RJ standard for RS232 or for Ethernet at all!
Everyone (including me) still calls it RJ45 because "8P8C modular connector" is far too long a name.
Depending on cable configuration, pinout, wall plate and structured wiring system that 8P8C might be usable (or not) for multiple different types of data networking, from the assorted ethernet speeds to E1 to token ring, or for a serial console, or delivering power and audio to a remote speaker, or hdmi-over-utp, or even -48V telephony, and let's not even get started on the only-subtly-different but actually incompatible RJ45 connector, or people sticking RJ11 plugs in 8P8C ports.
And yet the world has coped with this proliferation.
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