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Cat 5 Wiring Questions - T568A and T568B

M

mdcrab

Platinum Member
I am taking a straight thru patch cables (with RJ45's plugs on each end) and using them to wire to receptacles in some of the rooms in my house. I found out that the cables can be wired per schematic 568A or T568B and since they are straight thru pin to pin to pin it does not matter which is used as long as they are both the same at each end. The cable that I am using is a Cat 5, T568B, so when I cut this wire at the wall and attach it to an RJ45 receptacle I need to be sure to wire it to the T568B schematic.
1.) This is my first time at doing this so although I made a statement it really is a question to determine if I am on the right track?
2.) Also the receptacles come with a hand punchdown tool for teminating the wires. Is this sufficient? The instructions also refer to a "110 style impact tool for seating the wires into the IDC slots". I do not have one of these impact tools. Can I get by with just using the hand punchdown tool?

Thanks for any help,
mdcrab
 
As for #1, I believe you are correct. You can browse Practically Networked for more info. As for #2, I'd like to find the answer to that one myself, so at least this is worth a bump. 🙂 Smart folks with answers should be on later in the day.
 
Bad news....

Jumpers are made with stranded wire. ANYTHING requiring a punch is made for solid-core wire. Chances are that the punches will be flakey, the insulation on the wires is different, and the metal contacts may not make good enough contact for high-speed data.

Pick up some UTP somewhere (like Home Depot), and use that. Just about anything you buy from a reel will be solid-cord.

Good Luck

Scott
 
ScottMac, Thanks for reply even though it is bad news. Will have to restring wires and now I'll have to wire both plugs and receeptacles. Any answers on my original questions 1.) & 2.)?
 
I believe you're on the right track. 568A or B...doesn't matter. You're like to find 568B stuff (panels, inserts, etc) a little easier. 568B seems to be more popular...though I've seen some 568A stuff at Home Depot.

Just read the labels carefully, and if you're wired one way, and the only stuff you can find in a pinch is wired the other way...all you have to do is swap the positions of the orange and green pair. In fact, many of the commercial components come with the color code for both, you just pick which side of the label to use and stick with it.

The included punch tool should work fine, you might want to buy one or two spare jacks, just in case you fubar on the first couple. Just make sure you punch perpendicular in both planes (front/back, side/side) and you won't mutilate the punch slot.

If you have access to a meter, make two "pigtails" to plug into the jacks to check continuity. There's lots more to it, but continuity is a good start. On one pigtail, strip and twist the individual color pairs together. Plug that into the remote end of the cable. On the other end, put the meter into "Ohms", and connect the red and black leads to one color pair at a time (doesn't matter which lead goes to which UTP wire). The meter should read a low value, near zero is desirable, but DC resistance in UTP significant...don't worry too much about what the value is, just that it's not "infinite" or very, very high (Kohms or Meg ohms).

Good Luck

Scott
 
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