H
O
W
T
O
How to make your own network cables
|
|
H O W T O |
|
|
Ethernet History Ever wonder about how an Ethernet cable worked? Ethernet cable may be familiar to you as the "bloated" phone cable like wire. To be honest, this is possibly a true statement for Ethernet is derived from the telecom industry; invented on the date of May 22, 1973 by Bob Metcalfe. Inside of the general term of Ethernet cable, there are specific categories that have become distinguished over the years. Cat3 is the older form from the early 80's, and is really just rated for telecom (voice grade) usage. Cat 4 is an improved version of the cable, and really just started to be rated for data transit, only running with a maximum throughput of 10 megabits per second. A megabit (mbit) is actually not a unit of speed, it is on the contrary a measure of throughput. Theoretically a file moving at 1 mbit through a 10 mbit line versus moving the same file the same physical distance via an OC-768 would be identical timing. Now that I could guess I have lost 80% of the crowd while I was on my soapbox as I attempted to broaden your closed mind, the cable that you are interested in for your home needs is Cat5e. Cat5e is the best way to go for home networking needs. It supports rates of 10 mbit, 100 mbit, and 1,000 mbit, also known as the new gigabit standard (gbit); lots of flexibility. The larger the number is, the less saturation on intra-network communication, which leads to packets being dropped when saturation gets too high; perhaps an easy example of this would be to what some video gamers may be familiar called "lag." Wireless network frequencies using approved FCC frequencies in the United State have a theoretical (but never attainable outside of lab conditions) 54 mbit per second link. Clearly the 100-1000 mbit is better to prevent lag, and simply just to move larger portions of data faster. Now that the background on why an Ethernet cable is better than a wireless network, and just basic networking history, I shall now proceed onward on how to make a network cable, done in any length or style (patch or crossover, later to be explained). |
|
|
Steps 1. In stage 1, cut a desired length of cable from the spool box. |
|
|
2. Strip the external jacket off of the UTP cable. When using a ratchet type crimper (the one pictured), click to the first click only. Do not knick any of the 8 internal twisted wires. An automated wire stripper is acceptable, as long as once again, don't knick the wires inside the jacket! |
| 3. Unravel the twisted pairs and
arrange both ends in the "B" standard shown to the left.
The colors starting from the left are white-orange, orange, white-green,
blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, and brown.
Make sure you straighten them out between your fingers; it will save time later |
|
| 4. Push the wires into the RJ-45 end
cap. Do not use RJ-11, these are for phones, and also can only hold
4 wires instead of 8.
Probably the wires are not going to fit quite right the first time, but do your best. At this point just get them in lined up well. |
|
|
|
5. Carefully remove the end cap from the wires, preserving the order of the wires, then cut to even the tops straight across as shown. |
|
|
6. Replace the wires into the RJ-45 cap, assure the correct order and that they are in all the way to the end. Now the fun part. Take the special slot that the RJ-45 fits into on the crimper, and likewise squeeze down hard on the handle. If all goes well, the gold pins should have bit into the individual copper wires |
| 7. Repeat for other end, unless making a crossover cable. A crossover cable allows direct connections between computers, without the use of a switch or a hub. Fairly sloppy architecture in my opinion. |
 |
Enjoy |
 |
