Cat 5 Cable Configuration
Cat 5 cable is currently the most common cable used for the purpose of networking – whether in the comfort and privacy of your own home, or in a business or office setting. There are those who decide they wish to try their hand at putting together their own cables – but whether you do that or simply purchase pre-made cable, it’s important to know just what goes into a cat 5 cable configuration. First off, attached to the cable is a modulator plug known as an RJ-45 connector. These connectors very closely resemble large versions of what a typical phone jack plug look like. These connectors are most commonly utilized in a cat 5 cable configuration for use in an Ethernet connection. These RJ-45s have pins inside their plastic shell; these pins help communicate information in the data transmission process. Of the eight pins inside the connector, there are only four which are responsible for the transmission and reception of data. The first two pins are responsible for transmission; they are to be matched with wires inside the cat 5 cable which are colored with striping. This match-up should look like: Pin 1/white-orange; Pin 2/orange. The third pin serves as a receiver, and is matched with a white-green wire. The next two pins do not transmit/receive signals, and are matched with wires that are (respectively) blue, and white-blue. The sixth pin will match with the green wire, and is considered another receiver wire in the cat 5 cable configuration. Pins 7 & 8 are like 4 & 5 – and will match respectively with white-brown and brown wiring. Now, the cat 5 cable configuration described above is what is known as a 568B configuration. There is another configuration known as 568A – which places the wires in the following fashion: Pin 1/white-green; Pin 2/green; Pin 3/white-orange; Pin 4/blue; Pin 5/white-blue; Pin 6/orange; Pin 7/white-brown; Pin 8/brown. These classifications matter when deciding whether you are looking for what’s called a straight-line cable, or whether you want what’s called a crossover cable. When setting up a cat 5 cable configuration with a straight-line cable, it doesn’t really matter whether you use the 568A configuration, or the 568B configuration – straight-line means a cable whose wires send data directly from one end of the line to the other, and thus it only matters that each end is set the same way. On the other hand, crossover cables are designed to connect a pair of computers or devices in lieu of a switch or hub of some sort. This means that you must use the 568a grouping on one end, and the 568B on the other. These are the things you need to know in determining what your cat 5 cable configuration should look like. |