Is this a patch or crossover cable?

I read somewhere that a crossover cable is used to connect between two bridged devices (pc to pc, pc to xbox) without the need of a hub unlike the patch cable which is used to connect the device to a hub. Not sure if this is correct someone please confirm?

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5332703&CatId=750

^ Thats the cable i bought from CompUSA ^

Now, the name of the product is a PATCH CROSSOVER CABLE, ?!?! so wth kind of cable is it? On the box of the cable it says "This enables computer-to-computer connectivity without the need for a switch or hub", but on the cable it says "Cables To Go Patch Cable" all throughout the cord.

So this contradicting conflict has me confused, can someone please help me understand? Thank you.

 

By the way, I'm using this cable to make a bridge connection between my laptop and xbox 360 to get on Xbox Live, is this cable the ideal cable that i need? Thank you again.

 

also just another question, Does the "Turn off the Display" setting in Power Management turn off the wireless connection because it seems that when the display turns off i get disconnected from xbox live. not sure tho cus i dont observe the whole time.

 

A crossover cable is used to transfer data between 2 PCs and the ends of the cable are wired in a different configuration.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5766/images8914948.jpg

Just compare the two ends of the cable and if they look like the diagram it is a crossover.

A patch cable is used to connect peripheral units (printer,external hard drive) to a single PC.

 

"patch cable" is the generic term for any cable that connects two devices. These could be PC to PC PC to XBOX or PC to hub or switch.

There are two types of patch cable in the computing world: straight through and crossover. A straight through cable connects a PC to a switch or hub, and a crossover connects a PC to another PC or an XBOX.

What you have is a crossover cable which is what you need.