Cat5 - Cat6: twisting the nite away and standing in the gate

Hey, Mr. Newt, Sir.....

OK. 'Splain dis at me in little words like you know I can understand.

Back in march you told Bandido:

How much is too much? I'm old and feeble and blind (and stupid, but we won't argue that point) and I have to straighten out SOME of the end to be able to differentiate (esp. in newer CAT5 where they don't have a solid bright green or blue, but a pale lavender and a sorta pond-scum colour instead, which makes said differentiation real tough for me) the colours and their positions.
(ow/o/gw/bl/blw/g/brw/br)

I use a standard swedger/cutter which pre-determines how much jacket to strip and works a treat, but getting those (censored heavily and repeatedly) little wires in the right order, much less seated into their respective starting gates in the RJ45 connector is a major challenge.

For me, that is.

(Heck, getting dressed is sometimes beyond me!)

O Guru Of The Network Card, enlighten me gently if thou wouldst! There has to be an easy way to do this.

 

If you are like me (eyes ain't so great and hands ain't so nimble) then I strongly suggest you get someone else to crimp on the ends.

Ideal is the absolute minimum possible to still allow wires into the right slots. Any over that and you start to get some static introduced. ¼ inch is probably the maximum you should be happy with and tolerate but to be sure, you will need a meter that can test line quality.

I'd say if you have any that have as much as ½ inch untwisted you have a problem line if you are running at any reasonable speed at all. My guess is a patch cord or cable with that much untwisted would certify at about Cat3.

Note the insulation has nothing to do with this.

 

Youse de best

Thanks, Bub! But going by that protocol (and two sets of glasses) I try to keep the absolute minimum length of conduvtor out of the cable jacket... 3/8" or less, although it does get a bit hairy getting those little (VERY heavily censored) sonzab(whoops....missed one!) up into the connector and then up into the troughs. I managed by sheer willpower, superior good looks and the aforementioned two sets of glasses, abetted by a slim pair of needlehose pliers to hold everything in relation.

But tell me, then.... whuffo they got that one green pair split like they does in most of the pinout diagrams?

They show pins as "orange-white / orange / pondscum-white / blue / blue-white / pondscum / brown-white / brown" in every straight-thru pinout diagramme I can find.... I know this is probably a silly question, but why split up the pondscum and pondscum-white pair?



Yours in confusion....

 

No clue whatever. May have been some techies idea of a joke way back when and just got continued.

I imagine the idea came from the same folks who decided that 8 bits made a byte and that half a byte should properly be named a nibble. So there is probably no thing so low they wouldn't have done it.

 

Crossing Over Jordan...or the Green-white wire... "

Dunno, Newt....looks like there may be a solid readn for having that one pair split.... I took a small piece of CAT5 and terminated it using the schema o/w-o-g/w-g-L/w-L-bw-b (where L = blue) and got nada..., then did it the right way, which is o/w-o-g/w-L-L/w-g-b/w-b and got the connection just fine. Must be some arcane thing decreed by the Newtork Goddess at some ancient time.

Anyway, thanks to all your help and patient instruction I finally got the daggone thing working from third floor to first floor.

What was wrong? I'll never know.

One minute I had nothing in Network Neighborhood and suddenly I could see both computers and get online from either location.

Days when you wonder why you get outta bed, eigh?

D'ye suppose as having both ends plugged in at the same time has summat to do wi' it?

Yup.

Now, in my defense, the first cable DID have a dead short in the middle of it... apparently it had gotten well crimped at some time and a tester showed two wires as being open. and two others as shorted out and the second cable was reterminated so many times it shrank six feet, but I finally was absolutely sure that I had both ends terminated exactly and could not figure out whay I was not getting the connection (the which what suddenly appeared? That one?) until I made sure I had both ends plugged in. THEN I got a connection and am now in my present pleasant state of "network bliss ".

SUCH a dummy I am somedays!

 

Plugged in at both ends? Now who'd have ever thought of that?

 

Well, I never!



(Originator has unsubscribed)(Mebbe he should go shoot hisself, too!)

 

Crimping CAT5

I've crimped quite a few cables and the way I was taught by a pro is:

1) Strip SEVERAL INCHES of jacket, separate the wires so you can see them, hold all of the wires tightly between your forefinger and thumb RIGHT WHERE THEY COME OUT OF THE JACKET.

2) Then with the other hand, carefully pull one wire at a time into order while holding the bunch tight and flat (never completely let go).

3) When you've got them in order, fidget with them a little to pull them tight and flat and get your gripping fingers as close to the jacket as possible. At this point, the wires should be mostly bent into place and will be more cooperative. The trick is to wiggle your gripping finger and thumb to settle the wires into a nice flat ribbon and work your way as close to the jacket as possible.

4) When everything looks good, you can trim them off square with your crimping tool cutter. It's an easy guess, generally as close to your fingers as possible or leaving about 3/8" (1/2" max)of total exposed wire.

5) You then can feed on the terminal end very easily (do not let go until each wire has seated in its channel in the terminal) and shove al the wires up tight to the end.

6) If you do this right, the cable jacket should go right under the little crimping tab inside the terminal and you can then crimp it down. I always give it one last push to seat everything well before I actually squeeze the crimping tool.

"B" Network is what I run: OW/O/GW/B/BW/G/BRW/BR

It took me about three times to get it right and about ten times to do it fast. It takes me about two minutes or less to fully terminate a cable from first cut to finished product. If you like the boots, make sure you thread them on to the cable BEFORE you do any of the above.

To date I have Zero failed connections by this method. (except the first one)

By the way, if you buy cheap Chinese terminal ends, your life will be miserable. If you buy really good ends, your life will be much easier. I buy the ones made in the USA by Leviton Telcom and they are very nice to work with.


Good Luck!
Nate