crimping my own cat5.. am i doing it right? having mucho network problems..

[Smokey0066]

well since i'm having some weird network problems.. i'm wondering if my cabling is correct..

looking at the gold pins of the plug from left to right.

orangewhite/orange/greenwhite/blue/bluewhite/green/brownwhite/brown

my problem with my network is that with 2 computers connected to the switch.. the lights come up.. and they blink.. but the computer will say the cable is connected/disconnected and will go back n fourth randomly.. it'll be fine for a while then go nuts and then settle down again.. nics are installed correctly and i assume the switch is working.. at least the last time i used it it was.. everything lights up okay.. so i'm really confused..

i'm going to a friends house tomorrow to test the switch and cabling.. the cable could be bad in the middle eh? which would not allow for proper communication between the two computers...?? which could be causing all my networking whoes??? right or is it something else???

BTW the nics i'm using are intel 8255x 10/100 dunno if these are problematic or what but i thought it'd be helpful to include..

 

[Bleep]

Looks right to me. the part the goes into the jack is facing away from you face the clip down so that the copper side faces up, when looking down on the copper side wire 1 (white with orange stripe is on the left). sounds like a bad crimp job.
Bleep

 

[Mucman]

Do you have a cable that you know is good? Try switching to make sure it is the cable that is the problem.

 

[FoBoT]

terminating cat5 plugs is as much art as science, it takes practice and more practice

as suggested check against a good/store bought cable, then if necessary, re-do your homemade cables

practice, practice

a good cable tester helps to, but those cost some $

 

[JackMDS]

CAT5 Straight, Crossover. What is CAT5, which one should I Use?

 

[Mje]

Its very easy to make junk cat 5 cables. The technique i use is to strip the jacket, line up the wires in correct order and insert them into the plug. Unless yoru really good, they will not all be the same length. Now pull them out, while keeping them in the same order and cut them so that they are straight across and the back of the crimp connector will be on the jacket. This way, when you reinsert the cable into the crimp connecter, the wires will go all teh way up the the front. If they dont, just push a little harder on the wire until they do. This will give you the best connection. It is a little time consuming, but after you make a few cables its easy. The hardest part is lining up the wires in the correct order.

 

[JustinLerner]

<< Its very easy to make junk cat 5 cables. The technique i use is to strip the jacket, line up the wires in correct order and insert them into the plug. Unless yoru really good, they will not all be the same length. Now pull them out, while keeping them in the same order and cut them so that they are straight across and the back of the crimp connector will be on the jacket. This way, when you reinsert the cable into the crimp connecter, the wires will go all teh way up the the front. If they dont, just push a little harder on the wire until they do. This will give you the best connection. It is a little time consuming, but after you make a few cables its easy. The hardest part is lining up the wires in the correct order. >>

Good techniques make a big difference. If you don't see the copper ends of each wire in the end of the connector, you haven't inserted the wires far enough and/or the wires are/were not cut properly.

 

[JustinLerner]

There shouldn't be anything wrong with your NICs or router, but much more likely to be your cable.
You can always cut off the connectors on each end and redo them. There may be other problems that you can't see, like a wire not making enough contact with the crimp pin. (If you can see the copper wire and jacket - not just the jacket - flush against the plastic inside face of the connector, it is inserted right.)

There are two primary color standards ANSI/EIA-TIA/568A, 568B for Ethernet, but three pair descriptions including IEEE 802.3 10Base-T with the two previously named for pin designations. Really, you only need two wire pairs for Ethernet, which is the IEEE 802.3 10Base-T specification, but most people adhere to the EIA/TIA/568A or 568B coloring schemes, which means they install and crimp extra pairs of wires that are not needed and not used for Ethernet (10/100). Does this make sense? (Not counting the pulling issues.)

Wire colors and pair designations are different according to the standard used, but pin designations are always numbered the same. With the pins facing the viewer and with wire inserted and while viewing from either of two faces where you can see each of the 8 pins and each corresponding wire, left to right, the pins are always 1 through 8.

In continuity and configuration, colors make no difference to operation just standardization and ease of use for the installer and user. Pairs of wires always do make a difference. Color coding always designates a pair of wires, sometimes with some wire it's hard to tell the second color pair white/x).
Wires with the same alterating colors make pairs. So the following two colored wires make one pair.
orange/white
white/orange
The first color is the predominant color on the wire and the second color is the stripe.

Color designations for ANSI/EIA/TIA-568:
pair 1 blue/white
pair 2 orange/white
pair 3 green/white
pair 4 brown/white

Straight through cable: 568A 568B 10Base-T
Pin 1 ------------- Pin 1 pair 3 pair 2 pair 1
Pin 2 ------------- Pin 2 pair 3 pair 2 pair 1
Pin 3 ------------- Pin 3 pair 2 pair 3 pair 2
Pin 6 ------------- Pin 6 pair 2 pair 3 pair 2
Pin 4 ------------- Pin 4 pair 1 pair 1
Pin 5 ------------- Pin 5 pair 1 pair 1
Pin 7 ------------- Pin 7 pair 4 pair 4
Pin 8 ------------- Pin 8 pair 4 pair 4

CrossOver Cable: 10Base-T (10/100)
Pin 1 -------------- Pin 3
Pin 2 -------------- Pin 6
Pin 3 -------------- Pin 1
Pin 6 -------------- Pin 2

Ok, that's it for me. Enough tutorial tonight. 'Twas fun though.

 

[Jwyatt]

If its short runs Its almost always easier and sometime cheaper to buy short cables. On long runs I ALWAYS use some sort of a teminal jack. If its the little phone looking box that sits on the base board it works well. Lowes sells the box's and cat5e recipticles(spelling?) they are a little pricey, but I usually make the customer pay extra for those