Ethernet cable...

[Geek King]

Orange-white, orange; green-white, blue; blue-white, green; brown-white, brown!

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of? I generally just make sure all the colors are in the same order at either end (unless making a crossover cable, or other specialty cable). What do you do when those aren't the colors the company put in the cable? I have some that are all various solid colors. I'm at least fairly sure the electricity doesn't care about the color of the insulation...

IS TOO!!!

:: runs off, crying ::

Jenni, the techie who cannot make a cable to save her life.

Aw, come on TA. You just need a little practice. I have huge hands--big enough that the original XBox controller fit nicely (I miss it ). If I can get it to work, I'm sure you can. You just have to learn from your mistakes (I made plenty of crappy cables myself before getting it down), and keep trying. Now come on back. I made a batch of my homemade chocolate peanutbutter fudge. SFX: <tempt> <tempt>

[drunkenwildmage]

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of? I generally just make sure all the colors are in the same order at either end (unless making a crossover cable, or other specialty cable). What do you do when those aren't the colors the company put in the cable? I have some that are all various solid colors. I'm at least fairly sure the electricity doesn't care about the color of the insulation...

yah.it is....Something you got to remember is that.. if you do up a cable that doesn't follow the standards, and one of the ends goes bad , or they need to change the length of the cable, later on down the road, then some schmuck is going to have a heck of a time troubleshooting it

[technical.angel]

I made a batch of my homemade chocolate peanutbutter fudge. SFX: <tempt> <tempt>

Don't like peanut butter and chocolate!! :: pouts and runs away again ::

[Bandit]

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of?

It's TIA/EIA 568B. There's also 568A where the green and the orange pairs are swapped.

I've made *far* too many of them. Even more fun to do with 2 pairs of latex gloves on and a clean-room suit.

B

[csquared]

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of? I generally just make sure all the colors are in the same order at either end (unless making a crossover cable, or other specialty cable). What do you do when those aren't the colors the company put in the cable? I have some that are all various solid colors. I'm at least fairly sure the electricity doesn't care about the color of the insulation...

That order insures RF shielding. That is also why you want to maintain the twist as close to the end of the jack. Keeps the signal strong and also keeps noise out.

If the wires are not those colors, I would wonder if the wire is cat3-6 certified.

[Geek King]

Good to know all. That's the problem with being self-taught on a lot of this stuff. You miss out on all that standerdization stuff.

I'll make a note of it for the next time I make cables.

I still kinda question the need for it (yes, I'm perfectly aware of RF issues and signal interferance over a distance of cable), since the cable should already be twisted the whole way through as part of manufaturing, but that's more of a curiosity. If that's the standard order of colors, then that's what needs to be done.


Aside: The solid color wire cable is an older cable. I'm not sure where it came from, as it was a repair job--it needed a new jack on one end. It is working just fine so far, so I'm not sure why it has non-standard coloration. Made before the standard, maybe?

[Geek King]

Oh, one other question: Is the color order as inserted looking down on the clip-side of the RJ-45, or the connector side?

[drunkenwildmage]

Oh, one other question: Is the color order as inserted looking down on the clip-side of the RJ-45, or the connector side?

Connector side.. with clip-side down.

[TheRabbi]

I find that the RJ-45-ended cables with all solid colors tend to be rollover cables or console cables. If you're buying real Cat5(/5e/6), your cable should always come in the colors in the standard.

[roothorick]

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of? I generally just make sure all the colors are in the same order at either end (unless making a crossover cable, or other specialty cable). What do you do when those aren't the colors the company put in the cable? I have some that are all various solid colors. I'm at least fairly sure the electricity doesn't care about the color of the insulation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568-B#Wiring

A crossover cable has an A end and a B end. Straight-through has either both A ends or both B ends.

Each pair actually has a different number of twists per foot/yard/meter/whatever, and this becomes important in some of the higher bandwidth standards (especially 1000BASE-T aka common gigabit). If you don't follow the spec, it might work, but you'll have noise problems that can crop up with 100mbit and long lines, and really hamper gigabit.

[Geek King]

Each pair actually has a different number of twists per foot/yard/meter/whatever, and this becomes important in some of the higher bandwidth standards (especially 1000BASE-T aka common gigabit). If you don't follow the spec, it might work, but you'll have noise problems that can crop up with 100mbit and long lines, and really hamper gigabit.

Considering we're just now convincing the board that runs my workplace that a program using multiple Remote Desktop Connections and streaming video from over a dozen security cameras just might require us running more bandwidth out to the remote sites, I'm not thinking we're going to be in too much danger of that anytime soon. My boss had to spell out, in small words, why we needed a major overhaul of our network hardware. The techs from the company that handles the T3 for our network can't believe we're still running the Cisco equipment we have. What we have should have been retired a long time ago, and have so many dead connectors that we keep a running list taped next to the rack. It still took months to get the money okayed.

We might be allowed to order the equipment soon.

We, in all seriousness, have a switch running that has been repaired with string (to hold up cables in loose ports so they maintain good connection with the contacts). I've honestly not worked anywhere as tight on the purse strings as this place. It took a major crash (and three days of lost worktime) for them to allow us to budget for an extra server to be kept onsite. I'm going to have some great "coolness under fire" stories for interviews when I leave this place. If anyone will believe them.

[technical.angel]

We, in all seriousness, have a switch running that has been repaired with string (to hold up cables in loose ports so they maintain good connection with the contacts).

Pics, or it didn't happen!!

I'd tell you how much bandwidth we're going to be getting in Dec, but then you'd probably cry.

[Geek King]

Pics, or it didn't happen!!

With apologies for the crappy pic, but its the only camera I could lay hands on in short order:



Please also note the multiple dead ports to the right.

[technical.angel]

I sent the pic to my server and network admins.

Whatever works, baby.

[Geek King]

I sent the pic to my server and network admins.

Yeah, plus I can now honestly tell people I've kept this place's network and servers running with duct tape and twine.