IN-Depth tutorial of Hardware and Networking: Ports and Connectors

Ports and Connectors

Location	Port or Connector	Device
Computer or Card	Male DB-9	Serial Port
	Male AUI/DIX DB-15 (two rows)	Ethernet 10Base-5 Network
	Male DB-25	Serial Port
	Male BNC (referring to the whole connector rather than the wire)	Ethernet 10Base-2 Network
	Female DB-9	CGA/EGA Monitor
	Female DB-15 (two rows)	Joystick or MIDI Device (game port)
	Female High Density DB-15 (three rows)	VGA/SVGA Monitor
	Female DB-25	Parallel Port
	Female 5-pin DIN	AT-Style Keyboard
	Female 6-pin Mini-DIN	PS/2-Style Keyboard or Mouse
	Female 9-pin DIN	Bus Mouse
	Female TRS	Speaker or Microphone
	Female RJ-11 (four wires)	Internal Modem
	Female RJ-45 (eight wires)	Ethernet 10Base-T or 100Base-T Network
Cable	Male DB-9	CGA/EGA Monitor
	Male DB-15 (two rows)	Joystick or MIDI Device (game port)
	Male High Density DB-15 (three rows)	VGA/SVGA Monitor
	Male DB-25	Parallel Port
	Male 5-pin DIN	AT-Style Keyboard
	Male 6-pin Mini-DIN	PS/2-Style Keyboard or Mouse
	Male 9-pin DIN	Bus Mouse
	Male TRS	Speaker or Microphone
	Male RJ-11 (four wires)	Modem or Telephone
	Male RJ-45 (eight wires)	Ethernet 10Base-T or 100Base-T Network
	Male Centronics-36	Printer
	Male Centronics-50	SCSI
	Female DB-9	Serial Device (such as a serial mouse or external modem)
	Female AUI/DIX DB-15 (two rows)	Ethernet 10Base-5 Network
	Female DB-25	Serial Device
	SC Connector (Square-shaped) ST Connector (Round-shaped)	10BaseF, 10BaseFL, 100BaseFL, 100BaseFX, 1000BaseFX Fiber-optic network
	IDC/UDC (IBM-type Data Connectors or Universal Data Connectors) Hermaphroditic Connector	Token Ring network

Parallel and Serial Facts

You should know the following facts about serial and parallel devices:

Data can be transferred greater distances using serial communication techniques.
The maximum length for an RS-232 serial cable is 50 feet.
Serial devices use COM ports for system resources. Remember that COM ports 1 and 3, and ports 2 and 4 are shared. If you install a serial device on both COM 1 and COM 3, the devices might cause a resource sharing problem.

The older IBM Printer cable and the newer IEEE 1284 bi-directional printer cable are commonly sold today.
The old IBM printer cable is unidirectional from the PC to the printer and has a 25-pin male DB25 connector at one end and a 36-conductor male Centronics connector at the other end.
IEEE 1284 cables are the most common parallel printer cables.
The cables look physically similar to the older parallel port printer cables and use the same types of connectors. However, various cable configurations with different connector genders exist in the IEEE 1284 standard.
The maximum specified length of a IEEE 1284 cable is 10 meters (approx. 30 feet).
Data can be transferred at up to 2 MB/s with an IEEE 1284 cable.
Parallel devices use LPT ports for resources.

Parallel communication uses one of the following standards:

Communication Standard	Description
Standard Parallel Port (SPP)	Original parallel port standard. Transfers data in a single direction (away from the computer). 50 to 150 kilobytes per second. Cables should be less than 10 feet in length.
Bi-directional Parallel Port	Standard parallel port that can transfer data in two directions.
Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP)	500 kilobytes per second to 2 megabytes per second.
Extended Capabilities Port (ECP)	Requires an ECP chip on the system board. This standard is especially good for achieving high data rates for input rather than output. Supports DMA

Keyboard Port and Connector Types

Mouse Port and Connector Types

You should also know the following facts about keyboard and mice connectors:

A keyboard with a 5-pin DIN connector is sometimes called an AT keyboard, because it attaches to a computer with an AT motherboard.
A keyboard that attaches to an ATX motherboard is sometimes called a PS/2 keyboard because it has a PS/2 connector.
Many keyboards now use USB connectors to attach to the computer.
USB mice are very common.
Serial mice are now quite uncommon.

IN-Depth tutorial of Hardware and Networking