10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet or thinnet) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable (RG-58 or similar), as opposed to 10BASE5 cable.

The name 10BASE2 is derived from several characteristics of the physical medium. The 10 comes from the maximum transmission speed of 10 Mb/s (millions of bits per second). The BASE stands for baseband signalling, and the 2 represents a rounded up shorthand for the maximum segment length of 185 metres.

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Based on material from FOLDOC, used with permission.