Matt D Murren

Cat 5 Cable

Information About Cat 5 Cable

Today, most of those who network – at home or at work – make use of what is known as a cat 5 cable.  Cat 5 cables are cables designed to send signals to a particular destination at a high rate of performance.  The balanced lines that are seen with these cables help prevent interference – including a form know as crosstalk.  There is another classification of cat 5 that is called cat 5e; this classification does not recognize the original.  Yet the 5e cables are well-equipped to take on what is referred to as high-end crosstalk.  Cat 5e cables are strong for 1000BASE-T Ethernet, plus the signal-to-noise ratio is quite high.

Those who are investing in one cat 5 cable or more – or wish to make their own cables – should be aware of how to make these cables, as well as what forms and types of cable to look for.

With cat 5 cables, you have straight-through cables, which send data straight from one end of the cable to another.  Crossover cables connect two computers – and it doesn’t take any sort of switch or hub to accomplish this.  Then there are rollover cables, responsible for connecting your personal computer to a router.  In addition, you must know the difference between stranded cables – cat 5 cables which have the kind of flexibility that makes for good home use; you can move those cables around much better within the home, without fear of cracking or damaging the inner wires of the cable.  Meanwhile, solid cat 5 cable is more commonly seen in businesses or office settings, because of the sturdiness of the cables.  This sturdiness allows the cables to be longer-running cables.

So how do you put all this together, should you decide to make your own cat 5 cable??  You’ll want to purchase a large roll of cable – a 1000-foot roll, which can be gotten for anywhere from 6-10 cents per foot.  You also need a good crimping tool, which should have cutters to cut and strip wire.  Once you have these, you then take your wire and cut them evenly...then shear approximately an inch off the insulation.  You then take the wires and realign them, based on standards set by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) – more on this in a minute. When the wires are properly aligned, clip them so that they are all the same length – then take a plug known as an RJ-45 connector and attach it to the end of the cable.

Now, where a straight-line cat 5 cable is concerned, the alignment of the multicolored inner wires should be as such:

white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, brown

Regarding the cat 5 cable known as a crossover cable, the wires on one end align just like straight-line – but the other end should be set up like this:

white-green, green, white-orange, blue, white-blue, orange, white-brown, brown

No matter what kind of cable you want to set up, cat 5 cable is a very vital networking tool.

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