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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The letter in the D-subminiature line (aside: they really didn’t anticipate how small connectors were going to become) refers to the shell size (A through E, though not in size order). “DB” is frequently used colloquially as a prefix for any size in the line. There’s also some interesting variants like the DB13W3, which is a B-size shell containing 10 ordinary pins plus 3 coax connectors.
RJ11/RJ45 refer to the connectors and the way they’re wired, together. For example, RJ14 is the same 6p connector as RJ11 but wired to support two phone lines instead of just one, and the same 8p8c connector we’d use for Ethernet but wired for 4 phone lines would be an RJ61.
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.
in ethernet's case, having another connector would be useless because all the other devices still use good old rj45.
RJ45 connectors are in terms of their size, already not that large considering the size of the cable they deal with. (CAT cable is far larger then a 3.5mm headphone cable).
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.
Every RJ45 jack ("Ethernet connector") I've seen used in modern networking hardware has a metal case for EMI shielding.
Where would one acquire these metal RJ45 jacks? The ones I have are all plastic (usually clear), with the exception of the small (copper?) metal wires that transmit the signals. I am in fact looking at one right now on my desk and it's definitely not metal shielded.
I didn't fully appreciate RJ45's failings as a connector until I had to put terminate some cables myself recently. I have a new respect for network techs, because wiring those things is a massive pain.
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.
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