xbox ethernet cable

I noticed that the grey ethernet cable that was included with my xbox 360 elite only has 3 wires in it, not 8.

Why is this? And will this ethernet cable work just like any other?

 

It's a cat 3 cable.

 

A cat3 cable has 6 wires, or three twisted pairs.

I have no idea what kind of cable that is that you are referring to....I've never seen an xbox come with a 3-wire cable (not that I've seen all that many xboxes)

 

No, it has 4. 2 orange and 2 green.

 

Right, this is what I was thinking...maybe it was actually 4 and the OP missed a wire. I have read/heard that Cat5 ethernet cables only actually use 2 pairs (4) of the wires for actual transmission of data. So in theory if you wire the 2 pairs needed the cable should work just fine....I have never tested the theory myself though.

 

I'm not a cable guy but from what I know Cat 3 has 4 pairs just like cat 5 has but only two are used. The difference between Cat 5 and Cat 3 would be the operational frequency of 16MHz for Cat 3 and up to 100 MHz for Cat 5.
Anyway- for all I know there is no cable that has 3 cables.

Isn't the cable sold with Xbox a crossover cable?

 

It will have 4 wires in it, ( 2 pairs ) orange and green if using the 568-A or 568-B, format. Lots of the cheapo cables will only have 2 of 4 pairs actually in it.

Pins 1,2,3 and 6 are used for 10BT and 100 BTX ethernet, the green pair (568- B ) is transmit + & - , orange is recieve + & -

for 1000 base all 4 pairs are used

http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/ethernetcables.html

FYI in your 8 conductor 10 and 100 cables you CAN power devices ( POE ), run a phone line or even a second network link through the extra 2 pairs, as long as you are familiar with data cabling and the pinouts.

Nope all I have seen are 568-B straight throughs to hook into your router or Cable/DSL modem

 

Really, the number of wires used does not identify the the category of cable. I've got a piece of category 3 cable in my hand and it has 6 wires. It is intended for use for multi-line phone systems, hence I suspect, the extra two wires.

Digging through an old box, I found another cat3 cable with four wires.


I think the lesson I have learned is that the amount of wires used is not the determining factor, but the bandwitdh supported. Still wondering what the OP's cable is, though

 

Correct, you have to have a certain MINIMUM of conductors, I have CAT3 with 4,6 and 8 wires in it for phone systems.
the CAT rating had more to do with bandwidth, resistance and maximum run length then the number of conductors within the cables.

I am quite certain the OP has a 4 conductor CAT 5, and the company that mfg'd the cables for MS just skimped on the copper to save money as those extra 3 conductors are NOT needed for 10/100

 

Sorry guys, my bad, I didn't take a good enough look before.
The cable does have 4 wires(2GreenWhite+2OrangeWhite)

BTW this is the MS ethernet cable that comes with the xbox elite.

Thanks for educating me.

 

hey anytime, and enjoy that new found knowledge to confuse your friends

 

Hmm...and here all along I was thinking that maybe it was M$'s request to have those particular cables made for their XBox use so THEY can save $.

...But I guess you can look at it either way. Someone is saving!