Whats the difference between Patch and Crossover?

[Cybernetic Organism]

I need to buy an Ethernet cable and I am unsure which is the difference is between Network Patch Cable and Crossover Cable? I would like to use this for my PC and Xbox and I am unsure which to get.

 

Thanks.

[ARikozuM]

Patch is for router to PC while crossover is for PC to PC. I'd suggest asking Google though.

[dlink377]

Just buy normal patch cable, your devices can automatically do the crossover thingy if they really need it, and from what I read, you need the normal patch one, rather than crossover.

[KuJoe]

If you're never plugged into a device described by somebody older than you as "legacy" then only buy patch cables.  

[dalekphalm]

8 hours ago, Cybernetic Organism said:

I need to buy an Ethernet cable and I am unsure which is the difference is between Network Patch Cable and Crossover Cable? I would like to use this for my PC and Xbox and I am unsure which to get.

 

Thanks.

Crossover cables are legacy outdated technology for the most part.

 

Modern NIC's and switches and routers can switch the pins automatically, making a crossover cable unnecessary.

 

Furthermore, crossover cables were only really used for direct PC-to-PC connections.

 

TL;DR, buy a Patch Cable, and forget about Crossover cables.

[Brightglaive]

 Short answer: Use a patch (AKA straight-thru) cable.

 

Straight thru (aka patch cables) are used to connect a host (PC, Mac, XBox, PlayStation, router etc.) to a hub or switch. I'll refer to switches and hubs as simply switches hereafter (with switches being ubiquitous, hubs have mostly gone the way of the Dodo). Crossover cables are for connecting 2 Hosts (or 2 routers) directly together. The reason for this is transmit wires have to be connected to receiver on the other side and vice-versa. A TX-to-TX connection is like 2 kids pressing the transmit button on a set of walkie-talkies at the same time. RX-to-RX connection is like having both listen at the same time. If this was the case neither side gets heard and no information is passed. TX must be connected to RX and RX connected to TX. Now switches automatically make this connection (TX-to-RX and RX-to-TX) through the internal wiring/circuit boards in the switch. Network cards (NICs) do not generally do this. (Router-to router and switch-to-switch links are special cases.) This is why we connect router to switch and switch to host. The wiring of a straight through vs. crossover is in the picture below

 

 

You can see that the "HUB" is wired with the RX on pins 1 and 2 and TX on 3 and 6 (exactly opposite of the PC).  The circuitry in the switch/hub has a crossover built in (if you look carefully at the the straight thru portion of the picture.) That way the Host passes info to the switch and the switch can then pass it to another host or router. "Wait", you cry,"You said that the switches automatically crossover the wires internally. What happens when we connect 2 switches together??"  This is where a crossover cable or a non-crossed over port is required. However, to avoid the issues and technical details needed to understand by the average consumer or to avoid issues in complex I.T. implementations many manufacturers have implemented a feature called Auto-MDI/MDI-X this will automatically detect if you are using a patch or crossover cable and adjust whether or not an internal switch crossover is used based on that.  

 

Nowadays though,at the public consumer level,  with router, switch, and wireless access point built in to one device, the definitions get blurred. 

 

So summing up the long answer:

Crossover cables are primarily used for directly connecting OLD switch-to-switch, switch-to-hub, or host-to-host (including router-to-router and PC-to-PC) devices.

AND 

Use a straight-thru (aka Patch) cable to connect a "host" to any "switch port" (and avoid all the annoying details and specifications and explanations needed to determine if you can or should use a crossover cable  LOL!!!)