A RJ-45 port is a network connector which allows you to connect your computer to your modem or router, so that it can access the internet. It’s also known as an Ethernet port. This kind of port provides both sending and receiving capabilities for data communications.
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What Does a RJ-45 Port Do?
The name RJ-45 comes from the Registered Jack 45 specification.
An important distinction between an RJ-45 jack and a standard phone jack is that the RJ-45 does not use metallic conductors that require a ground wire. Instead, most of the connector’s eight contacts are data members and one is a spare (unused).
The remaining two contacts are used for wiring the telephone line – the tip contact transfers network signals to/from an unbalanced twisted pair while the ring contact carries current to/from a balanced twisted pair.
“RJ45” is often shorted as “RJ-E” in speech and writing, just like the name of this type of connector: RJ11 plugs into telephone jacks and has only 2 or 4 wires, while an RJ45 is larger and plugs into wall outlets with 8 wires inside. Once it’s plugged into the wall, it’s connected to a computer or other networked device via an Ethernet cable.
In addition to the 8-wire design, another common type of RJ45 connector is found in telephones and other low-voltage applications as well as some high voltage applications such as telecommunications.
This smaller version uses only two wires and is known as an RJ11 connector. The difference between these connectors is that a standard POE (Power over Ethernet) system cannot be used with them because they have no spare conductors for delivering power to devices further down the line – you can however purchase a device known as a Powered PA or “PoE injector” which works exactly like a regular PoE system but to overcome the lack of spare conductors, it emits voltage through one wire and then tells the device that it doesn’t need power using another.
The RJ45 connector has become the industry standard for connecting Ethernet cables in both LANs (local area networks) and WANs (wide area networks). It is available in Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a and Cat7 varieties, with Cat7 offering faster speeds.
Having an RJ45 port means that you can access wireless internet anywhere where there are hotspots or Wi-Fi connections available by just plugging your computer into a modem or router via an Ethernet cable.
Most modern laptops have RJ45 ports built-in while desktops often require an Ethernet card in order to access the internet. To check whether you have RJ45 ports on your computer, look at the Ethernet port on the back of your machine and see if it looks like this:
How to Connect an Ethernet cable to an RJ45 port
Connecting an Ethernet cable to an RJ45 port is very simple. Most RJ45 cables only differ in color (one wire for each line) with some having a blue stripe along one side which indicates pin 1.
There is no standardization among manufacturers as to which color goes where so just remember that all of the colored wires need to be pushed into their respective holes and then twisted together before they can be screwed into place and crimped down tightly.
Once installed, just plug the other end of the Ethernet cable into any network switch or router with an RJ45 port. All that’s left to do is wait for the connection to be established and start surfing!
