You want to connect a twisted pair cable segment to a fiber-optic cable segment. Which of the following networking devices will you use to accomplish the task?

Question

Options

• AHub
• BSwitch
• CRepeater
• DRouter

• A
  3% (1)
• C
  91% (30)
• D
  6% (2)

Explanation

A repeater is the correct device because it regenerates signals between cable segments and, crucially, can bridge different physical media types - including the electrical signals used by twisted pair and the light pulses used by fiber-optic cable. This makes it (or its modern equivalent, the media converter) the only listed device specifically designed to handle the physical-layer translation required.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• Hub (A): Operates only at Layer 1 but simply broadcasts signals to all ports on the same media type - no media conversion capability.
• Switch (B): Works at Layer 2 (data link) to forward frames by MAC address; it manages traffic between devices, not between different cable media types.
• Router (D): Operates at Layer 3 (network) to route packets between different networks (IP subnets), not to bridge different physical cable technologies.

Memory tip: Think of a repeater as a "signal translator" - it repeats AND converts. The "Re-" in repeater = Regenerate the signal across different media. If the question involves two different physical cable types, the answer lives at Layer 1, and only the repeater/media converter does that job.

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