It would be nice if this article defined a "ethernet patch cable". I think he's just using "patch" as a slang term for a short cable and it actually works with any length of standard cable, but I'm not certain.
Traditionally (pre-2000?), one had to use a special "crossover cable" to do direct connections like this, but apparently modern Gigabit ethernet adapters are able to detect this situation automatically?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-dependent_interface#Aut... is what allowed the switchover to happen automatically, and it got folded into the 1000BASE-T standard. So yes, crossover cables are no longer required because the two Ethernet adapters at either end can negotiate between them to have one of them "flip" the meaning of its Receive (RX) and Transmit (TX) pins.
They are all just twisted pair cables, probably Cat5e or Cat6 etc. The solid ones are usually used for structured cabling, inside walls and trunking, that doesn't often move. Structured cabling is terminated into keystones or patch panels, the "female" end.
Patch cables are outside of walls and designed to be moved around and plugged and replugged. They are terminated with 8p8c "male" connectors, commonly called rj45. Stranded cable is used because it's much more flexible.
No, traditionally a patch cable is a cable that you would use in a networking rack to connect (to "patch") from say a network switch to the desk outlets or to another switch. A patch cable would explicitly be NOT a crossover.
The main difference between patch and "normal" is that the former is using stranded conductors and the latter solid conductors.
That makes the patch cable more flexible (physically)
I have a feeling this is some re-invention of the definitions happening.
It's just a holdover from the telephone networks, where you used a short cable to actually phsyically connect - patch[0] - two lines. Therefore - patch-panel and patch-cord or patch-cable.
I am not sure that I know of any Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) standard cabling which uses solid-core wires rather than twisted-pair stranded wires. I can understand and see that many people consider "structured cabling" to consist of the former, but this article does not seem to mandate that construction, and indeed includes many types of twisted-pair and "patch" cables in the list of acceptable "structured cabling solutions."
Yeah, it's not patch vs structured. Patch cables are part of structured cabling. But you won't generally find solid core wires outside of structured cabling, because they are inflexible, unwieldly and in many cases can't even be terminated with RJ45 plugs anyway (they are often too thick).
To regular people it's probably enough just to say Ethernet cable. Outside of structured cabling you don't really need to care and probably don't have a choice anyway. If someone says patch cable they probably know a bit about structured cabling and couldn't help themselves.
Within structured cabling the rabbit hole is quite deep. Even within a single standard like Cat6 there are many possible cable constructions with different types of shielding and wire gauge etc. It becomes important when you need the network to certify as Cat6 and support PoE in a high noise industrial environment, for example. And, of course, Ethernet can run over other cable types anyway, like fibre.
Actually, switch to switch would be a crossover cable (pre auto MDI-X, of course). The rule was a crossover would connect devices of the same type, e.g. computer to computer, hub to hub, switch to switch; and patch for devices of different type, like switch to computer. So if you wanted to just plug a hub into the wall you would use a crossover cable, for example.
A patch cable is just a terminated cable with multi strand leads (as opposed to solid leads in installation cable), it could be straight patch or crossover.
Is the cable connected from say desktop computer to wall socket a patch cable? Or does that only apply to those used in server rooms or switch cabinets?
Patch cables are differentiated from bulk/structured cabling which is installed into a building unterminated, and is most commonly terminated after installation into patch panels or keystone jacks.
There doesn't seem to be agreement as to exactly what one is, with several definitions already appearing in the comments here. Do you agree with one of them and think everyone else is wrong? Or do you have yet another standard definition that we should all be using?
My problem with the article was that "patch" doesn't seem to add any useful information. Unless he was using a restrictive definition intending to exclude things like crossover cables (which still work), he could have just as well said "transfer files over a blue Ethernet cable" with equal precision.
If he meant to say that at this point in time "you can use _any_ ethernet cable to transfer files directly between two computers", I think it would have been better to say that rather than appearing to add a restriction on the type of cable required.
Traditionally (pre-2000?), one had to use a special "crossover cable" to do direct connections like this, but apparently modern Gigabit ethernet adapters are able to detect this situation automatically?