HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables

Here is the basic information you will need to make your own ethernet cables.

Parts

You'll need several feet of CAT 5/5e/6 cable, RJ45 ends and an RJ45 crimper to complete
this. You'll also need a nice cut-off plier. A wire striper and a cable tester are greatly
helpful aswell.

Cable

First, start off with good quality cable, it has to be UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
Category 5/5e/6 cable, don't skimp on this (Shielded works too, but isn't necessary). Bulk
cable comes in many types, there are 2 basic categories, solid and braided cable.
Braided cable tends to work better in "patch" applications for desktop use. It is more
flexible and resiliant than solid cable and easier to work with, but really meant for shorter
lengths. Solid cable is meant for longer runs in a fixed position. Plenum rated cable
should/must be used whenever the cable travels through an air circulation space. For
example, above a false celing or below a raised floor, you’re likely going to want braided
type cable.
There are 8 color coded wires. These wires are
twisted into 4 pairs of wires, each pair has a common
color theme. One wire in the pair being a solid or
primarily solid colored wire and the other being a
primarily white wire with a colored stripe (Sometimes
cheap cable doesnt have any color on the striped
cable, the only way to tell is to check which other
wire it is twisted around). Examples of the naming
schemes used are: Orange (alternatively
Orange/White) for the solid colored wire and
White/Orange for the striped cable. The twists are extremely important. They are there to
counteract noise and interference. It is important to wire according to a standard to get
proper performance from the cable. The hardware expects the cable to have certain
properties, a cable that does not fall within tolerance will cause errors and or failures.
Besides, this maintains all your cables to the standards and makes it easy to find errors
and cross-over cables. The standard I'm referring to, is primarirly the TIA/EIA-568-A
standard. This standard specifies two wiring standards for a 8-position modular connector
such as is used in twisted pair ethernet networks. The two wiring standards, T568A and
T568B vary only in the arrangement of the colored pairs. As shown below I have chosen
T568B for the straight through cable and T568A for the cross-over cable. I believe this to
be the most common arrangement for ethernet cables. It is also possible to wire it the
opposite way (ie straight through is a T568A). Your choice might be determined by the
need to match existing wiring, jacks or personal preference, but you should maintain
consistancy.

RJ45 Ends

The RJ45 end is a 8-position modular connector that looks like a large phone plug. There
are a couple variations available. The primary variation you need to
pay attention to is whether the connector is intended for braided or
solid wire. For braided/stranded wires, the connector has contacts
that actually pierce the wire. For solid wires, the connector has
fingers which pierce the insulation and make contact with the wire
HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables
by grasping it from both sides. The connector is the weak point in an ethernet cable,
choosing the wrong one will often cause grief later. If you just walk into a computer store,
it's pretty impossible to tell what type of connector it is, if it isn't specifically labelled.
Strain relief boots are somewhat helpful sometimes.

Ethernet Cables

There are two basic cables. A straight through cable, which is used to connect to a hub or
switch, and a cross-over cable used to operate in a peer-to-peer fashion without a
hub/switch. Some gigabit copper interfaces can cross and un-cross a cable automatically
as needed, really quite nice. Since you are making your own cables, I will assume you
understand which cable you need.
Standard, Straight-Through Wiring (both ends are the same)

10Base-T/
RJ45 Wire
Wire Color 100Base-TX 1000Base-T Signal
Pin# Diagram
Signal
White/Orang BI_DA + </CENTER
1 Transmit+
e <td>
2 Orange Transmit- BI_DA - </CENTER<td>
3 White/Green Receive + BI_DB + </CENTER<td>
4 Blue Unused BI_DC+</CENTER< td>
5 White/Blue Unused BI_DC-</CENTER< td>
6 Green Receive- BI_DB-</CENTER< td>
7 White/Brown Unused BI_DD+</CENTER< td>
8 Brown Unused BI_DD-</CENTER< td>

Table 1 - Straight-Through Cable Pinout

Cross-Over Cable

RJ45 RJ45
Diagram Diagram
Pin# Wire Color Pin# Wire Color
(End 1) (End 2)
(End 1) (End 2)
White/Orang
1 1 White/Green
e
2 Orange 2 Green
White/Orang
3 White/Green 3
e
4 Blue 4 White/Brown
5 White/Blue 5 Brown
6 Green 6 Orange
7 White/Brown 7 Blue
8 Brown 8 White/Blue
HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables

Tables 2 - Cross-Over Cable Pinouts The crossover cable layout has been updated
for 1000Base-T operation.

Procedure

To create the cable, strip off about 2 inches of the cable sheath. When you get to the
second side, cut the wire to length and make sure it is more than long enough for your
needs. Remember, an end to end connection should extend at least 1m (3ft) and not
more than 100m (~328ft). Yes, there is a minimum, its little known, little referred to and
not usually important, but I have seen cases where short cables caused problems. The
longer the cable becomes the more it may affect performance, usually it is a gradual
decrease in speed and increase in latency. When uplinking between (cascading)
hubs/switches, you usually need a very short cable, less than 1m, check the device's
specifications.

Next untwist the pairs, don't untwist them beyond what you have exposed, the more
untwisted cable you have the worse the problems you can run into.
Now you want to align the colored wires according to the diagrams above. When nicely
aligned, hold them in line together and trim them all to the same length, about 1/2" to
3/4" left exposed from the sheath. And then you want to insert them into the RJ45 end
and make sure each wire is fully inserted to the front of the RJ45 end and in the correct
order. The sheath of the cable should extend into the RJ45 end by about 1/2" and will be
held in place by the crimp. Crimp the end with the crimper tool and once again verify the
wires ended up the right order and that the wires extend to the front of the RJ45 end and
make good contact with the metal contacts in the RJ45 end. If you have a cable tester,
put it to use, and verify the proper connectivity of your newly made cable.

That should be it, if your cable doesn't turn out, look closely at each end and see if you
can find the problem. Usually a wire ended up in the wrong place or more commonly, one
of the wires didn't extend to the front of the RJ45 connector and is making no, or poor
contact. If you see a mistake or problem, cut the end off and start again.

Notes

Fre Symbol Sign Symb Data Date Pairs/ No. Min

q Encoding al ol encodi Bits/ Trans of Cable
Mhz Rate Rate ng Symb mit Pair Cat
(mba ol Chann s reqd
ud) el use
d
10BaseT 10 Manchester 10 10 None 1 1 2 3
100Base Multi-level,
12.5 25 25 8B6T 8/6 3 4 3
T4 2T/Hz
100Base 31.2
MLT-3 125 125 4B5B 4/5 1 2 5
TX 5
100Base PAM5x5 (2D- 4
12.5 25 12.5 None 2 2 3
T2 PAM5) (2x2)
1000Bas 31.2 8
4D-PAM5 125 31.25 None 4 4 5*
eT 5 (4x2)
HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables
* Designed to work on MOST category 5 cable, category 5e specifications ensure 1000Base-T
operation

Standards

Category 5/5e/6
ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A/B

Category 5 Testing

TIA/EIA TSB 67 – “Transmission Performance Specifications for Field Testing of Twisted

Pair Cabling Systems”
TIA/EIA TSB 95

Category 5e Testing

TIA/EIA 568-B.1

Category 6 Testing

TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1 “Transmission Performance Specifications for 4-Pair 100W Category 6

Cabling”

Rated Freq
Cable
Bandwidth Common Uses
Category
(MHz)
1 None
2 1 Telephone Wiring
3 16 Telephone Wiring, 10Base-T
4 20 Token-Ring, 10Base-T
5 100 100Base-TX, 10Base-T
1000Base-T, 100Base-TX,
5e 100
10Base-T
1000Base-T, 100Base-TX,
6 250
10Base-T
HOW-TO - Ethernet Cables
Increasing category levels are backward compatible.
Manufacturers will often test and certify their cable well beyond the standards.

Related Reading Material ( @ Amazon.com )

Get IEEE 802 - Ethernet Standards

Charles Spurgeon's Ethernet Website

Apple Airport Card Revisions

Ethernet : The Definitive Guide

The Switch Book

TCP/IP Illustrated: Vol 1: The Protocols

Vol 2: The Implementation
Vol 3: TCP for Transactions, HTTP, NNTP & UNIX Domain
Protocols @
Volumes 1-3 Box Set

UNIX Network Programming - Vol 1: The Sockets Networking

Vol 2: Interprocess Communications