How To Terminate A Cat 5 Cable

Introduction

The next step in networking is terminating your cat 5 cable. This is going to be a straightforward tutorial and I’ll go step by step with each of the required tools and materials you will need to terminate the Cat 5 cable. From there, we’ll cover some special considerations that have to be addressed before we can start the crimping process. Finally, we will go over some tips for troubleshooting your connection should it not work as expected.

1. Remove the outer jacket with a knife or cable stripper

Removing the outer jacket from a Cat 5 cable is usually done with a knife or cable stripper. But you can also do it by hand, or with a machine (like an electric drill).

2. Untwist the pairs of wire and arrange them in order of color code. Clip off any excess wire to keep your workspace neat.

Untwist the pairs of wire and arrange them in order of color code. Clip off any excess wire to keep your workspace neat.
If you have a cable tester, use it to check for continuity between all pairs (wire-to-wire) and from each pair back to the connector. If there is no continuity when testing between a wire pair or from a pair back to the connector, then those wires must be removed from their positions within that pair and reconnected appropriately so that there is continuity when tested again. This may require some trial and error until you are successful at finding a combination that works properly for your particular situation; however, do not worry about this too much as long as everything does eventually work out as expected after many tries!

3. Clip on the RJ45 plug by aligning the colored wires in the order of either 568A or 568B.

Clip on the RJ45 plug by aligning the colored wires in the order of either 568A or 568B.

The colored wires should be about a half inch outside of the RJ45 plug, but not so long that they are overlapping at any point.

They should also not be crossed over one another or too short (less than 1/2 inch). The correct way to connect them is as follows:

blue – white/orange or green/white
orange – white/green
brown – green

4. Make sure that the wires are about a half inch outside of the RJ45 plug and then crimp down.

Make sure that the wires are about a half inch outside of the RJ45 plug and then crimp down.
Once you have crimped down the wires, you can test it with a network tester or by pinging another computer on your network.

5. Plug your new Ethernet cord into your LAN and test it by pinging another computer on your network or use a network tester to check for continuity, shorts and miswires.

Plug your new Ethernet cord into your LAN and test it by pinging another computer on your network or use a network tester to check for continuity, shorts and miswires. Ping is a utility that sends a packet to a computer and waits for a response. Pinging another computer will confirm if the cable is working properly, while using the network tester can help you find any problems with wiring in the wall or data center.

You can easily create your own Ethernet cables with a few simple tools

You can easily create your own Ethernet cables with a few simple tools.

A knife and cable stripper (or you can use any sharp object, like an Exacto blade)
A crimping tool, if desired (or if you’re feeling ambitious)
A network tester, to check for continuity, shorts and miswires

Conclusion

Oops! Click Regenerate Content below to try generating this section again.