Building a RJ-45 Ethernet cable of a specific length

As usual, I cannot be responsible for any damage to your machines when you will experiment the following tutorial. Objective: to build a small Ethernet cable (max 15 cm of cable) to get rid of long cables which burden your desk...for instance to connect an airport station to a router or to connect any element to a network...i mpatient you are after reading this (in french), or this (also in french)...
1)

First of all, you need a class 5 cable (see specialized shops). One can also shorten the cable included in the router package.
2)

Ah yes: we need a special tool to crimp the RJ-45 connectors... let's say around 15 euros. From the tool's hinge up to its handle: blades to denude the cable, the crimping metal pieces and a cutting area.
3)

As far as the crimping only part of the job is concerned, I use this tool.
4)

RJ-45 connectors and coloured caps; the latter helps to protect the ethernet connector as well as they differentiate the cables in the muddle of cables a network can produce! If the caps are used (optional), they, of course, have to be placed on the cable's ends before crimping the connectors!
5)

Connectors can be of various types: with/without guides, shielded... These ones are simples.
6)

We see here the metallic pins which will be inserted in each of the cable's wires.
7)

I do not use the cutting blades of the tool described above to remove the plastic coat which protect the cable's wires. I use a cutter and I make an incision at 2/3 cm from the cable's end.
8)

Doing this, I'm sure that the wires will not be damaged and that their length will be sufficient

to untwist them!
9)

Untwisted... easier to operate no ? :-)

10)

Down flat... and in the right ordre to be manipulated; from left to right:
1. white/orange 2. orange 3. white/green 4. blue

5. white/blue 6. green 7. white/brown 8. brown

To build a "direct" cable, both cable's ends must be in this order. To build a "crossed" cable, one end like the one above, the other end as the following:
1. white/green <-[1] 2. green <-[2] 3. white/orange <-[1] 4. blue 5. white/blue 6. orange <-[2] 7. white/brown 8. brown

You see that, from the straight configuration, we permute "white/green" and "white/orange" on one hand [1], "orange" and "green" on the other hand [2]. These two pairs are the ones which are used in a base-10 or base-100 or base 1000 connection. Other wires do not carry signal in the connection.
11)

After cutting the wires, we insert them into the connector like this.
12)

... up to the pins at the end of the connector!

13)

Push the girdle firmly up to the metallic pins...

14)

... like this: the wires are well placed on.

15)

The yellow arrow points to the contacts which will go fixed into the the conducting parts, the blue one shows the plastic lug which will lock the conducting parts and their coat into the

connector.
16)

And plug the connector into the crimping tool.

17)

Again, we check that the cable and the girdle are well placed before crimping them.
18)

The cable is ready...10 cm long as the webmaster of powerbook-fr.com, requiers it. But this cable is quite rigid and as the network's components will be surimposed, a little gap between such home-made cables will be required to avoid problems.

Ethernet Cable - Color Coding Diagram

The information listed here is to assist Network Administrators in the color coding of Ethernet cables. Please be aware that modifying Ethernet cables improperly may cause loss of network connectivity. Use this information at your own risk, and insure all connectors and cables are modified in accordance with standards. The Internet Centre and its affiliates cannot be held liable for the use of this information in whole or in part.

T-568A Straight-Through Ethernet Cable

The TIA/EIA 568-A standard which was ratified in 1995, was replaced by the TIA/EIA 568-B standard in 2002 and has been updated since. Both standards define the T-568A and T-568B pin-outs for using Unshielded Twisted Pair cable and RJ-45 connectors for Ethernet connectivity. The standards and pin-out specification appear to be related and interchangeable, but are not the same and should not be used interchangeably.

T-568B Straight-Through Ethernet Cable

Both the T-568A and the T-568B standard Straight-Through cables are used most often as patch cords for your Ethernet connections. If you require a cable to connect two Ethernet devices directly together without a hub or when you connect two hubs together, you will need to use a Crossover cable instead.

RJ-45 Crossover Ethernet Cable

A good way of remembering how to wire a Crossover Ethernet cable is to wire one end using the T568A standard and the other end using the T-568B standard. Another way of remembering the color coding is to simply switch the Green set of wires in place with the Orange set of wires. Specifically, switch the solid Green (G) with the solid Orange, and switch the green/white with the orange/white.

Ethernet Cable Instructions: 1. Pull the cable off the reel to the desired length and cut. If you are pulling cables through holes, its easier to attach the RJ-45 plugs after the cable is pulled. The total length of wire segments between a PC and a hub or between two PC's cannot exceed 100 Meters (328 feet) for 100BASE-TX and 300 Meters for 10BASE-T. 2. Start on one end and strip the cable jacket off (about 1") using a stripper or a knife. Be extra careful not to nick the wires, otherwise you will need to start over. 3. Spread, untwist the pairs, and arrange the wires in the order of the desired cable end. Flatten the end between your thumb and forefinger. Trim the ends of the wires so they are even with one another, leaving only 1/2" in wire length. If it is longer than 1/2" it will be out-ofspec and susceptible to crosstalk. Flatten and insure there are no spaces between wires. 4. Hold the RJ-45 plug with the clip facing down or away from you. Push the wires firmly into the plug. Inspect each wire is flat even at the front of the plug. Check the order of the wires. Double check again. Check that the jacket is fitted right against the stop of the plug. Carefully hold the wire and firmly crimp the RJ-45 with the crimper. 5. Check the color orientation, check that the crimped connection is not about to come apart, and check to see if the wires are flat against the front of the plug. If even one of these are incorrect, you will have to start over. Test the Ethernet cable. Ethernet Cable Tips: A straight-thru cable has identical ends. A crossover cable has different ends. A straight-thru is used as a patch cord in Ethernet connections.

A crossover is used to connect two Ethernet devices without a hub or for connecting two hubs. A crossover has one end with the Orange set of wires switched with the Green set. Odd numbered pins are always striped, even numbered pins are always solid colored. Looking at the RJ-45 with the clip facing away from you, Brown is always on the right, and pin 1 is on the left. No more than 1/2" of the Ethernet cable should be untwisted otherwise it will be susceptible to crosstalk. Do not deform, do not bend, do not stretch, do not staple, do not run parallel with power cables, and do not run Ethernet cables near noise inducing components.

Basic Theory:

By looking at a T-568A UTP Ethernet straight-thru cable and an Ethernet crossover cable with a T568B end, we see that the TX (transmitter) pins are connected to the corresponding RX (receiver) pins, plus to plus and minus to minus. You can also see that both the blue and brown wire pairs on pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used in either standard. What you may not realize is that, these same pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are not used or required in 100BASE-TX as well. So why bother using these wires, well for one thing its simply easier to make a connection with all the wires grouped together. Otherwise you'll be spending time trying to fit those tiny little wires into each of the corresponding holes in the RJ-45 connector.

Cabling

8P8C modular plug pin positioning TIA/EIA-568-A T568A termination Pin Pair Wire Color 1 3 tip white/green 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3 2 1 1 2 4 4 ring tip ring tip ring tip ring green white/orange blue white/blue orange white/brown brown

TIA/EIA-568-B T568B termination Pin Pair Wire Color 1 2 tip white/orange 2 3 4 5 2 3 1 1 ring tip ring tip orange white/green blue white/blue

Twisted-pair Ethernet standards are such that the majority of cables can be wired "straight-through" (pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2 and so on), but others may need to be wired in the "crossover" form (receive to transmit and transmit to receive).

6 7 8

3 4 4

ring tip ring

green white/brown brown

10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX only require two pairs to operate, located on pins 1 plus 2 and pins 3 plus 6. Since 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX need only two pairs and Category 5 cable has four pairs, it is possible, but not standards compliant, to run two network connections (or a network connection and two phone lines) over a Category 5 cable by using the normally unused pairs (pins 45, 78) in 10- and 100-Mbit/s configurations. In practice, great care must be taken to separate these pairs as most 10/100-Mbit/s hubs, switches and PCs internally hardwire pins 45 together and pins 78 together, thereby creating a short-circuit across each "unused" pair. Moreover, 1000BASE-T requires all four pairs to operate, pins 1 and 2, 3 and 6 as well as 4 and 5, 7 and 8. It is conventional to wire cables for 10- or 100-Mbit/s Ethernet to either the T568A or T568B standards. Since these standards differ only in that they swap the positions of the two pairs used for transmitting and receiving (TX/RX), a cable with T568A wiring at one end and T568B wiring at the other is referred to as a crossover cable. The terms used in the explanations of the 568 standards, tip and ring, refer to older communication technologies, and equate to the positive and negative parts of the connections. A 10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX node such as a PC also called MDI that transmits on pin 1 and 2 and receives on pin 3 and 6 to a network device uses a "straight-through" cable in the MDI wiring pattern. A straight-through cable is usually used to connect a node to its network device. In order for two network devices or two nodes to communicate with each other (such as a switch to another switch or computer to computer) a crossover cable is often required at speeds of 10 or 100 Mbit/s. If available, connections can be made with a straight-through cable by means of an MDI-X port, also known as an "internal crossover" or "embedded crossover" connection. Hub and switch ports with such internal crossovers are usually labelled as such, with "uplink" or "X". For example, 3Com usually labels their ports 1X, 2X, and so on. In some cases a button is provided to allow a port to act as either a normal or an uplink port. To connect two computers directly together without a switch, an Ethernet crossover cable is often used. Although many modern Ethernet host adapters can automatically detect another computer connected with a straight-through cable and then automatically introduce the required crossover, if needed; if neither of the computers have this capability, then a crossover cable is required. If both devices being connected support 1000BASE-T according to the standards, they will connect regardless of the cable being used or how it is wired. To connect two hubs or switches directly together, a crossover cable can be used, but some hubs and switches have an uplink port used to connect network devices together, or have a way to manually select MDI or MDI-X on a single port so that a straight-through cable can connect that port to another switch or hub. Most newer switches have automatic crossover ("auto MDI-X" or "auto-uplink") on all ports, eliminating the uplink port and the MDI/MDIX switch, and allowing all connections to be made with straight-through cables. A 10BASE-T transmitter sends two differential voltages, +2.5 V or 2.5 V.

100BASE-TX follows the same wiring patterns as 10BASE-T but is more sensitive to wire quality and length, due to the higher bit rates. A 100BASE-TX transmitter sends three differential voltages, +1 V, 0 V, or 1 V [4]. 1000BASE-T uses all four pairs bi-directionally and the standard includes auto MDI-X; however, implementation is optional. With the way that 1000BASE-T implements signaling, how the cable is wired is immaterial in actual usage. The standard on copper twisted pair is IEEE 802.3ab for Cat 5e UTP, or 4D-PAM5; four dimensions using PAM (pulse amplitude modulation) with five voltages, 2 V, 1 V, 0 V, +1 V, and +2 V [5] While +2 V to 2 V voltage may appear at the pins of the line driver, the voltage on the cable is nominally +1 V, +0.5 V, 0 V, 0.5 V and 1 V.[6] 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T were both designed to require a minimum of Category 5 cable and also specify a maximum cable length of 100 meters. Category 5 cable has since been deprecated and new installations use Category 5e. Unlike earlier Ethernet standards using broadband and coaxial cable, such as 10BASE5 (thicknet) and 10BASE2 (thinnet), 10BASE-T does not specify the exact type of wiring to be used but instead specifies certain characteristics that a cable must meet. This was done in anticipation of using 10BASE-T in existing twisted-pair wiring systems that may not conform to any specified wiring standard. Some of the specified characteristics are attenuation, characteristic impedance, timing jitter, propagation delay, and several types of noise. Cable testers are widely available to check these parameters to determine if a cable can be used with 10BASE-T. These characteristics are expected to be met by 100 meters of 24-gauge unshielded twisted-pair cable. However, with high quality cabling, cable runs of 150 meters or longer are often obtained and are considered viable by most technicians familiar with the 10BASE-T specification.[citation needed]