Crossover Cable

What Does Crossover Cable Mean?

A crossover cable is a type of cable installation that is used for the interconnection of two similar devices. It is enabled by reversing the transmission and receiving pins at both ends, so that output from one computer becomes input to the other, and vice versa.

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Techopedia Explains Crossover Cable

A crossover cable is generally implemented on a twisted pair cable that consists of four pairs of cables. For crossover cable to work, both ends should follow the same wiring format.

The reversing or swapping of cables varies, depending on the different network environments and devices in use. For example, in a 100BaseTX network, the second and third pair must be swapped at each end to create a crossover cable. A crossover cable is also used to create mesh networks that work without an intermediate network device, such as a hub or switch.

Examples of crossover cables are null modem cables, rollover cables and loopbacks.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…