COMPARING DIFFERENT TYPES OF NETWORK MEDIA

Media Type	Maximum Segment Length	Speed	Comparative Cost	Advantage	Disadvantages
UTP	100 meters	10 Mbps 100 Mbps	Least Expensive	Easy to install, Widely available, Widely used	Susceptible to Interference; can cover only a limited distance
STP	100 meters	10-100 Mbps	More expensive than UTP	Reduced crosstalk, less susceptible to EMI than UTP or Thinnet	Difficult to work with; can cover only a limited distance
Coaxial	500 meters (Thicknet) 185meters (Thinnet)	10-100 Mbps	Relatively inexpensive but more costly than UTP	Less susceptible to EMI than other types of copper media	Difficult to work with ( Thicknet); Limited bandwidth; Limited application (Thinnet);damage to cable can bring down entire network
Fiber-optic	3 km and further (single-mode) 2 km and further (multimode)	10-100 Mbps (single-mode) 100 Mbps-9.92 Gbps (multimode)	Expensive	Cannot be tapped, so security is better; can be used over great distance; not susceptible to EMI; higher data rate than coaxial and twisted pair	Difficult to terminate
Wireless	50 km-global	1-54 Mbps	Expensive	Does not require installation of media	Susceptible to atmospheric conditions