Making Cat-5 Cable
This section covers the basics of making your own Cat-5 cable. You do not need to know how to make Cat-5 cable in order to set up a home network. The information in this section is directed at a more advanced technical audience.
To make your own Cat-5 cable, follow these steps:
- Skin off the cable jacket approximately one inch or slightly more.
- Un-twist each pair, and straighten each wire between the fingers.
- Place the wires in the order of one of the two diagrams shown on the previous page (568-B or 568-A). Bring all of the wires together, until they touch. It may be easier to stick the wires into the RJ-45 jack in order to bring them together.
- At this point, recheck the wiring sequence with the diagram.
- Optional: Make a mark on the wires at one-half inch from the end of the cable jacket.
- Hold the grouped (and sorted) wires together tightly, between the thumb, and the forefinger.
- Cut all of the wires at a perfect 90 degree angle from the cable at one-half inch from the end of the cable jacket. This is a very critical step. If the wires are not cut straight, they may not all make contact. We suggest using a pair of scissors for this purpose if you do not have a pair of wire cutters on hand.
- Conductors should be at a straight 90 degree angle, and be one-half inch long, prior to insertion into the connector.
- Insert the wires into the connector (pins facing up).
- Push moderately hard to assure that all of the wires have reached the end of the connector. Be sure that the cable jacket goes into the back of the connector by about 3/16 of a inch.
- Place the connector into a crimp tool, and squeeze hard so that the handle reaches it's full swing.
- Repeat the process on the other end. For a straight through cable, use the same wiring. For a crossover cable, wire one end 568-A, and the other end 568-B.
- If possible use a cable tester to test for proper continuity.
