


The plug is an 8-position modular connector that looks like a large The 8P8C modular connectors for Ethernet are often called RJ45 due to their physical resemblance. Through cabling and just T568B for crossover cabling. Personal preference, but you should maintain consistency. Your choice might be determined by the need to match existing wiring, jacks or Suggest using T568A cabling since T568B is theĪT&T standard, but the US Government specifies T568A since it matches USOCĬabling for pairs 1 & 2, which allows it to work for 1/2 line phones.". Only in the arrangement of the colored pairs. Standards for an 8-position modular connector such as RJ45. To get proper performance from the ethernet cable. It is important to wire according to a standard The solid colored wire and White/Orange for the striped cable. Of the naming schemes used are: Orange (alternatively Orange/White) for Way to tell which is which is to check which wire it is twisted around). One wire in the pair beingĪ solid or primarily solid colored wire and the other beingĪ primarily white wire with a colored stripe (SometimesĮthernet cables won't have any color on the striped wire, the only Of wires, each pair has a common color theme.

Inside the ethernet cable, there are 8 color coded wires. Internal Cable Structure and Color Coding Here is what the internals of the ethernet cable look like: Impossible to tell from the package or labeling what type of ethernet cable it is, so peal out an For example, above a false ceiling or below a raised Plenum rated ethernet cable must be used whenever the cable travels throughĪn air circulation space. Solid ethernet cable is meant for longer runs in a fixed position. With, but really meant for shorter lengths. It is more flexible and resilient than solid ethernet cable and easier to work Stranded ethernet cable tends to work better in Bulk ethernet cable comes in many types, there are 2 basic categories, You can also use STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) for extra resistance to external interference but I won't cover shielded connectors. Gigabit (1000BaseT) operation and Cat 6 or higher gives you a measure of future Cat 5 is required for basic 10/100 functionality, you will want Cat 5e for You want UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)Įthernet cable of at least Category 5 (Cat 5). You can find bulk supplies of ethernet cable at many computer stores or mostĮlectrical or home centers. Wire Cutters - to cut and strip the ethernet cable if necessary.Ethernet Cable - bulk Category (Cat) 5, 5e, 6, 6a or higher ethernet cable.A 56K DDS cable uses T568B pairs 2 and 4, so a crossover cable for these devices swaps those pairs (pins 1, 2, 7, and 8 are connected to 7, 8, 1, and 2 respectively).How to wire your own ethernet cables and connectors.Specifically, pins 1, 2, 4, and 5 are connected to 4, 5, 1, and 2 respectively. A T1 cable uses T568B pairs 1 and 2, so to connect two T1 CSU/DSU devices back-to-back requires a crossover cable that swaps these pairs.Twisted pair Token Ring uses T568B pairs 1 and 3 (the same as T568A pairs 1 and 2), so a crossover cable to connect two Token Ring interfaces must swap these pairs, connecting pins 4, 5, 3, and 6 to 3, 6, 4, and 5 respectively.Some connection standards use different balanced pairs to transmit data, so crossover cables for them have different configurations to swap the transmit and receive pairs: A loopback is a type of degraded "one side crosslinked connection" connecting a port to itself, usually for test purposes.Using different wiring at each end yields a crossover cable (a given color wire connects to one number pin at one end, and a different number pin at the other). Such crossover cables are electrically symmetrical, meaning that they work identically regardless of which way you plug them in (if you turn the cable around, it still connects the same pins as before). For example, if pin 1 on one end goes to pin 2 on the other end, then pin 2 on one end goes to pin 1 on the other end, and the other pins remain unaffected. In a crossover cable, pins do not correspond – some or all of the conductors are swapped at the terminations. In this case, the terminations are identical, so only one pinout is required. Using the same wiring scheme at each end yields a straight-through cable (a given color wire connects to a given number pin, the same at both ends). In a straight-through cable, pins on one end correspond exactly to the corresponding pins on the other end (pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc.).

Straight-through cables are used for most applications, but crossover cables are required in others.
