> How did Ethernet go from fat cables and vampire taps to RJ35? At least, at university: students like me that got hired cheaply and rewired everything. :) Th

> How did Ethernet go from fat cables and vampire taps to RJ35? At least, at university: students like me that got hired cheaply and rewired everything. :) That was not a fun summer, but I learned a lot. > Is it still exactly the same protocol (is that even the right word?) as it was back then? I would be surprised, given that coax is equivalent to 3 conductors, and catX cables have 8. And that's before we get into fibre. I would expect they have sime high-level protocol (frames etc.) that gets mapped onto the physical signaling, but I don't know much about that (resource suggestions welcome!). I do know that going from a broadcast medium to switched point-to-point is a lot more efficient etc. Plus the taps were notoriously unreliable (variable connection quality). And would cause reflections in the cable as well, which is fun.