I don't know of any 4 pin network adapter. CAT5 connectors have 8 pins.

Please be more specific as to what you're talking about.

 

Please look closely at the picture. You can see that there are 8 slots for the pins but only 4 pins are available. It seems that the other 4 have no used. This type of adapter is still available on the market but without the BNC connector.

 

Please look closely at the picture. You can see that there are 8 slots for the pins but only 4 pins are available. It seems that the other 4 have no used.

That's correct. 10-BaseT and 100-BaseT Ethernet uses only 4 of the wires in a Cat5 cable. The connector is the standard 8-pin RJ45.

The only thing you can't have is Gigabit Ethernet.

 

Do you mean to say using any of these two adapters (4 pin/8 pin) on my network makes no difference? How will I know if my network employs 10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet? Please Forgive me for asking these questions. I just have a little knowledge in Networking.

 

Do you mean to say using any of these two adapters (4 pin/8 pin) on my network makes no difference?

For 10/100, probably no difference. However, the first card (with 4 wired pins) may be an older 10-BaseT card only, especially if the port next to it is coax (which went out of style for ethernet years ago.)

How will I know if my network employs 10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet?

For one thing, Cat5 cable isn't good enough for Gigabit. So unless you know that you've set up for Gigabit, you don't have it. As for 10/100, most systems these days are "auto-negotiating", which means that 100-BaseT devices are capable of working at 10-BaseT rates if needed (and also at either half or full duplex), to accommodate any older devices on the network. Just make sure your switch or hub isn't 10-BaseT only!

If you're curious, in Windows you can bring up the properties dialog for your network adapter (e.g. Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Computer Mgmt -> Device Manager -> Your adapter -> right-click): In the Advanced tab, click on "Connection Type". The value shown will probably be "Auto-negotiation" but the drop down will show what else the card is capable of.

 

The combo card is only 10mbps. Don't forget amielito the cards are only half of the equation. The hub or switch is the other half. So you connect a 10/100/1000 card to a 10/100 switch you will only get 10/100

 

Ok thanks guys, these infos really helped a lot.
It's nice to be here...

 

And note that the connector body is build to accept the standard RJ45 8 pin connector, which was the source of my confusion about your first query.