PCA Forums

whats the proper wire code for making cat 5 cables !

you mean this

WO
O
WG
B
WB
G
WB
B

atleast thats what I use.......but it doesnt really matter as long as its teh same on both sides

but for a X-over cable...im not sure what changes, never made one yet (never needed one)

Just to make sure yo understand, the color code is IMPORTANT.

Some people think that it doesn't matter what color you use as long as the wires are connected to the same pins on both ends. NOT TRUE.

The PAIRS are important. There are 4 pairs of wires. Each pair is twisted around each other in the wire jacket. The twisting provides electrical shielding (otherwise you would need to use cable with a braided wire shield like cable TV coax). You can swap pairs around (swap orange and blue pairs for instance as long as you're consistent on both ends) but NEVER break a pair or you destroy the shielding.

Without proper shielding you'll get MAJOR packet loss on anything over a few feet, and no protrection from RFI (radio frequency interference - like flourescent light ballast transformers).

You should ALWAYS use the standard color code though - makes life easier on the next poor slob that has to troubleshoot your wiring.

Can't tell you how many times I've gone to a new client's office who's complaining of intermittent network performance and I've found that some idiot wired the cables with no regard for wire pairing.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Just to make sure yo understand, the color code is IMPORTANT.

Some people think that it doesn't matter what color you use as long as the wires are connected to the same pins on both ends. NOT TRUE.

The PAIRS are important. There are 4 pairs of wires. Each pair is twisted around each other in the wire jacket. The twisting provides electrical shielding (otherwise you would need to use cable with a braided wire shield like cable TV coax).

i dont like to start arguments......mostly cause I am usually proved wrong in the end

but could you point out an article that explains this? And how it provides sheilding? I just cant understand why it would matter when the cabling is still wrapped (no matter the order) you will always have a part of it exposed and wouldnt be sheilded.

So far...one of my lines (which is running from the basement to my room on the second floor, opposite side of house) i ran the cables as wo/o/wg/wb/wbr/br/b/g and so far there is no problem with the line. (been like that since july I think)

The pairs being twisted helps prevent crosstalk or electromagnetic induction. One wire carries the signal while the other wire is grounded and absorbs signal interference. Unless you have alot of florescent lighting or electronics around it's probably not a big deal on short runs, but the longer the runs the more susceptible they are to interference.

ABSOLUT: There is no shielding at all in a CAT-5 cable. The jacket of the cable is just there to protect the fragile inner wires. As Mega says, the twist itself provides the shielding.

As I said before you CAN swap entire pairs (swap the orange pair with the green) and you can swap the wires WITHIN the pair itself (make orange-white first instead of solid orange for instance) aas long as this is consistent on both ends, Just don't break a pair. However it's easier to use the correct color code - makes it easier to troubleshoot and it's double work if you need to compare both ends of each cable while you make them to make sure they're consitent.

Trust me - from experience troubleshooting f@cked up installs - over just 8 feet on a cable with broken pairs and you'll get major packet loss. It'll SEEM to work okay if you use it just for Internet depending on how much packet loss there is (I sure wouldn't want to game on it though), but try to transfer a file and you'll find it's slow as molasses or wildly intermittent (like a bad WiFi connection).

Reference: http://www.kevinboone.com/homenetwork.html (under "More Sophisticated Wiring")