cat5e wiring newbie

[Jeraden]

So I've been wanting to install a cat5e jack in my living room for ages, just hadn't gotten around to it. I finally decided to get it done, so I bought what I thought was everything I needed for it. I had never done any kind of cat5 wiring before, so had to research what to get, etc, etc. I picked up a couple cat5e keystone jacks, wall plates, some solid riser cable. I thought that was all that I'd need.

So last night I managed to fish the wire through the wall and thought I was all set. Figured out how to wire the keystone jack, and then realized I was also supposed to buy a punch down tool, which up until that point I never even heard of. Looking online, some people say the keystone jacks sometimes come with a plastic one to use, but mine didn't. So, instead, I just used the top cover of the keystone jack, which seemed to work just fine for punching the wires down, and then used a utility knife to cut the excess off on the sides. Is there any problem in doing this? I tested the port and it worked fine, but just curious I guess. I want to wire 1 more jack, and now feel like I'm doing something wrong, but it seemed to work fine and don't want to spend more money if I don't have to.

 

[seepy83]

If you bought Tool-less keystone jacks, then they are made to be terminated just like you did.

If you did not buy Tool-less keystone jacks, then I would be concerned that you're not getting a good termination.

 

[imagoon]

This may help:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2053136

 

[RadiclDreamer]

The keystone is pretty much a piece of plastic with some metal edges on the side that cut into the plastic cable coating and make contact with the metal wire inside. As long as you made good contact and cut the side wires off cleanly you should be ok. A Picture would help to determine if this has been done well.

 

[Jeraden]

I didn't get tool-less, just the regular ones. If I had a bad termination, would the cable still work? Because everything seemed fine. I guess the cover of the keystone is the strain relief cover - so that is the technical term for what I used. It seemed to be quite suited for the task actually.

 

[imagoon]

They might be fine. You are supposed to use a 110 punch tool because the tool will push the wire in to the blades tightly. When you hand lay them you could end up with the wire doing something like this through the blade: ___/|\__ basically the copper bends a little rather than seats flat. It still might make contact but might not be good enough to work with out errors.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I didn't get tool-less, just the regular ones. If I had a bad termination, would the cable still work? Because everything seemed fine. I guess the cover of the keystone is the strain relief cover - so that is the technical term for what I used. It seemed to be quite suited for the task actually.

Yes, its possibly for a cable to "work" but not be within spec and thus have a high incidence of error. Typically this will result in retransmits and slower speeds and in extreme cases intermitant connectivity

 

[RebateMonger]

All I've ever used is the little plastic punch-down tools that (used to?) come free with a box of keystone jacks. I've never had a problem with these.

Nowadays, I usually buy tool-less keystone jacks.

 

[imagoon]

From what I know, the main difference for tool-less is that the clip on cover has a different shape so it actually pushes the wire all the way down in to the blade. Tooled ones don't (mostly) have enough length on the cover to seat it tight.

 

[bobdole369]

Yes, its possibly for a cable to "work" but not be within spec and thus have a high incidence of error. Typically this will result in retransmits and slower speeds and in extreme cases intermitant connectivity

This is precisely why low voltage guys will "certify" the connection. They use a TDR and/or other test equipment to verify that the termination is perfect. There are many degrees of certs, often "to 300mhz".

 

[ecom]

^ Yer...one of our electricians was tasked with installing a new ethernet drop in our office. He royally messed up the wiring because he cut an existing drop and used gel filled crimp connectors to splice into an existing drop and T is off. That branch is now only good for 10Mbps but was previously certified for 1Gbps.

 

[notposting]

^ Yer...one of our electricians was tasked with installing a new ethernet drop in our office. He royally messed up the wiring because he cut an existing drop and used gel filled crimp connectors to splice into an existing drop and T is off. That branch is now only good for 10Mbps but was previously certified for 1Gbps.

😀

A guy teaching a fibre class at our training center had a bunch of sparkies in it. Trying to get them to not strip it like they would some copper is just about impossible he said.