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Comment by inopinatus | Hacker News Reader

This is not harder the the issue of 8P8C connectors.

Depending on cable configuration, pinout, wall plate and structured wiring system that 8P8C might be usable (or not) for multiple different types of data networking, from the assorted ethernet speeds to E1 to token ring, or for a serial console, or delivering power and audio to a remote speaker, or hdmi-over-utp, or even -48V telephony, and let's not even get started on the only-subtly-different but actually incompatible RJ45 connector, or people sticking RJ11 plugs in 8P8C ports.

And yet the world has coped with this proliferation.

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Nontechnical people tend not to deal with multiple usecases for 8P8C connectors in everyday life. Despite being fairly technical, until I googled I would have called them RJ45.

The generic term is 8P8C for the multitude (and I've seen many of them in Telecom) uses, RJ-45 is one specific use - ethernet cables.

Over time, as you've noted - the vast majority of uses of 8P8C has turned out to be networking - it will be interesting to see if USB-C likewise, makes a similar evolution.

RJ45 doesn't refer to Ethernet. In fact, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as RJ45.

There's an RJ45S, but that's definitely nothing to do with Ethernet. Use of the term RJ45 is simply wrong, in any circumstance, as far as I can tell.

There's no term for the use of 8P8C for Ethernet purposes other than well, Ethernet, or its specific profiles ...BASE-T, as far as I can tell.

I almost always hear "RJ45" to identify the 8-conductor ethernet female or male connector - depending on the context. It is universally understood, and there is no confusion about it. There is nothing wrong with using it in everyday conversation.

I have never once heard the phrase "8P8C" used to refer to an ethernet jack. Not once (outside of this thread) - but I have heard it used that way when referring to various 8-pin telco connections - it was a common term of art in the 90s when describing telco installations that used that configuration. When talking about Ethernet, and people are trying to be specific, they usually reference EIA-TIA-568B/A.

There are certain words, like "Bandwidth" - that, might technically mean the width of the band (typically in Hz), but have grown over time to refer to data rate as well. And that's cool - language is versatile that way.

This interesting tangent about common parlance for connector names demonstrates another way in which USB Type-C's adoption trajectory is characteristically similar to 8P8C: people are already giving it a technically incorrect common name, "USB-C".

> In fact, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as RJ45.

In fact, language and terms are not set in stone.

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