anyone with experience making cat6 patch cables?

vibe666

my wireless bridge (two linksys wrt54gs's running tomato firmware with WDS) linking the two halves of my LAN together has been causing me some headaches recently due to everyone and his auntie in my street getting wifi'd up.

over the last 3 years i've had to channel hop every so often to get some clear bandwidth until recently i just ran out of free airspace.

i've tried homeplugs, but the performance was worse than the wireless, so i decided to just do it the old fashioned way and just run a 20m ethernet cable outside and up the wall and then back in again where i needed it.

i had planned on cat5e, but noticed that shielded cat5e and cat6 were the same price per metre, so i thought why not go all out?

i'm only running a 100 meg network right now, so cat5e would have done, and possibly so for a 1gbps network too, but if i find suitable gigabit routers any time in the future i thought that cat6 would (probably/maybe) give me better overall performance.

anyways, when i bought the cable (maplins, yeah i know, I'm a bad boy but i was in a hurry!) the surprisingly knowledgeable guy asked me if i wanted some cat6 rj45 connectors to go with it, to which my (rather novice) reply was "they're not the same?"

long story (slightly) short(er), he gave me a 10 pack of these:



i've only ever made cat5 cables before, but with some guestimation i reckoned that i'm supposed to put two of the 4 pairs of twisted wires through the holes in the yoke at the bottom with the other two pairs over and under in the middle (something to do with minimising interference I'd imagine) and then poke each coloured wire into the little yoke on the left in the appropriate order, snip it all flush and tight with the little boxy thing at the bottom and jam it all into the yoke at the top as far as it will go and then crimp it as i would with a cat5 regular connector.

so my (very long winded, sorry) question is, did I do it right more or less?

KeRbDoG

Google it and yea get this:
http://www.lanshack.com/installing_cat6e_plugs.aspx

You have an extra bit though, but the small bit to the left of your picture looks like the 'loadbar' as that dude calls it. If yea have problems, get yourself a load of 'normal' RJ45 connectors and connect it all up and think about crimping proper whenever (if ever) you need to and have equipment that would take advantage of the extra shielding on the cable.

You could have got away with using cat5e to run at 1gig - also no need to upgrade your router to run your network at a gigabit, just get a gigabit switch and connect it to your router via a patch cable and all your machines to the gigabit switch. Simples!

Maplins again but you could find one cheaper - http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98064

FusionNet

Right before I start I mean all this in the best of humour!! What are you at??!!

Ok very brief lesson on CAT6. Unless cat6 is terminated and installed correctly it wont work as cat 6. Your better off going with a well done Cat5e than a crimped cat6. Making your own cat6 patch lead will not give you the performance you want. If you insist on making up a lead your better off patching up a socket either end and using patch leads. See people forget that as you plug stuff in and out of a network your slowly damaging the lead. If its a patch cord no bother you bin it and replace it. But if its your main connection you could experience all sorts of connection to speed issues and not know the cause of it.

What I would have done if I were you was bought a 20m Factory terminated Patch Cable. This would have been tested and certified. You can pick them up easily at places like:

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/20m-cat6-network-patch-cable.html

or any good network company. Please please remember too that SHIELDED does not mean BETTER.. The only way a shielded system works is if its grounded right, if its not it picks up more interfearence and causes you worse network performance. Also on a last note, dont listen to people in maplin about network installation unless you know they did it for a living!!

Sorry Im not exactly helping in the termination of the cable but I completely disagree with that practice. For my clients sake and my own sanity..

vibe666

yes kerbdog, the bit in the left of my pic is the bit he calls the load bar, but mine differ slightly in that mine go all the way into the boot so i cut my wires flush with the end of it once they're threaded through.

i figured that as cat6 was the same price as the cat5e, i might as well go with cat6 as it *might* work out faster down the line and at the very least couldn't work out any slower than cat5e if i wire it up even half right.

i was never looking to get a plaque on my wall saying i was gigabit certified, it's a small home network, i was just looking for the best i could get on my budget at short notice that would suit my needs. all i'm doing is linking two routers together in a semi permanent fashion and i've no interest in wiring up a patch panel in my attic or chasing cables down my walls and making up faceplates in all my rooms, it's just a simple router to router ethernet cable.

also, a gigabit switch would be no good to me either, I have two routers for a reason, i've got all the ports on both in use on the LAN (inc. the unused WAN port on the second router), so if i am to ever upgrade to gigabit at some stage, I'll need to replace both routers with two new ones with gigabit LAN ports or i'm just creating another bottleneck.

FusionNet

dont be miss quoting me.. I mentioned nothing about a patch panel or a semi professional set up. I merely said if you want better results then use a socket as its more reliable.. And yes you are wrong a badly patch Cat6 lead will can perform worse than a cat5e lead..

We're here to help, if you dont want advise from someone who does it every day then dont post.. I believe in helping people out but I want to advise whats best. If you dont like it dont use the advise but dont be sarci about it that does no one any good.

rmacm

FusionNet can I suggest you go have a pint and a smoke.....it might help you relax a little

On a serious note, myself, Gavin, the Cmod and Admins are the people who's job it is to tell others not to post here if it comes down to that and I'd prefer if it didn't so less of that please.

I don't think vibe666 was being sarcastic for what it's worth.

FusionNet

Hi Rory,

Well you do know I go out of my way to help people here and comments like "i was never looking to get a plaque on my wall saying i was gigabit certified, it's a small home network, i was just looking for the best i could get on my budget" doesnt really sit well when all I was suggesting that the route he was taking wouldnt give hime the performance that he was hoping to achieve.

And for the record I dont smoke but I do like the odd cigar, though the recession has kicked that one in the ass..!!

And the not posting comment was in relation to if someone doesnt want professional advise why ask a question, it wasnt meant as a "dont post I know where you live" kind of statement. And Rory I of all people appreciate what ye do. I wouldnt be here if I didnt want to do the best for people, I mean we get no awards for "post of the year" so the only rewards is knowing people get the best advise and have a big fat smile on their face when everything works.

vibe666

sorry, wasn't meant to be sarci, I was just trying to get across my point that I was trying to apply a quick, simple fix to the problem. i know you do it for a living, but this is just an amateur job so it'snot going to be up to the same standards either way.

I'll have to crimp it myself anyways as I'm going to be poking it through a hole drilled in my wall first.

I was just hoping that someone would confirm that I'm more or less right with regards to the usage of the 3 parts of the plugs I have.

I've already knocked up a rough go at it with he cable dangling out of the windows and running along the gutter and it seems to be okay, but since I don't have any gigabit hardware other than onboard NIC's I'll have to give a direct connection a shot to test the full potential of the cable.

FusionNet

Hi Vibe666,

Im sorry too I didnt mean to get narky I just wanted you to have the best possible connection as I know the feeling when it doesnt work. If you get stuck PM me and Ill send you two sockets and bits so you can poke it through the wall but have a nice solid connection. Those will be on the house if you want them just shout..

BTW Ill talk you through the terminiating too on the phone..

best of luck

vibe666

thanks for the offer Eoghan, do you mean something with a face plate that I'd screw to the wall, or is it like an extension cable socket (sorry, not sure the correct term for it)?

the cable i got is stranded, not solid so hopefully it will cope okay with whatever limited movement it will get once it's all in and i also figured it would be better suited to having plugs crimped onto the end too. (I'm right in that aren't i?)

I'm not actually over fussed about i as long as it does the job. it's our house, but we'll probably be moving in the next 3-5 years anyway, so it doesn't have to last forever either.

all i was thinking was trying to get a stable connection now and (possibly) a bit of prep work done for when UPC upgrade me from 20mbps to 60mbps (allegedly) by the end of this year, as my wireless bridge wouldn't be up to the task.

FusionNet

mmmm 60mb, god Id love that!!

Ya I meant a module you clink into a faceplate and back box. But actually the brand I use (Panduit) have these cool boxes they are designed for specifically what your doing a loose connection. I mean in our industry you can always screw stuff to the wall.

Your right about the cable, stranded is better for crimps. Im not sure how it would work for terminateing on a module. Ill check and see do I have any and can do a test?

One of the reasons Im not mad about these plugs is a competitor of mine wired up a network near me. The client rang us, "the network justs drops every so often" she sadi. After much searching I found a good chubk of the network relied on one connection using these crimps. If you sat at the computer near the cable and rattles the keyboard too much the network would drop!!! Oh it was funny in a way!

Have you had any luck figuring out the crimps yet or is it still a bit of a task???

vibe666

i did a test run at the weekend (with the cable loose, just in and out of the windows) and it's working, but i didn't do any proper speed testing yet so I don't really know how well, other than that my media streamer (an xbox running xbmc) seems several times more responsive than it was with either the wiresless or via the homeplugs so it must be half decent.

i'll do speed test tonight and see how quick it actually is.

vibe666

lol, the test didn't work out too great. turns out I've only got one device with gb ethernet!

the plan was to use a direct connection between two devices at home with gb ethernet, but the 2nd device only has 100mbps ethernet and i can't find a spare gb card anywhere to do a proper test.

a bit of a pain in the tits, but the cable is working fine so far so I just need to run it properly now and re-crimp it once it's in place and just not worry about it till I decide to upgrade to gb routers with wireless-N when UPC go to 60mbps (and 120mbps if your wallet will stretch that far).

humaxf1

Id have to 100% agree with FusionNet. Terminate both ends with RJ45 faceplates and use CAT5 patch cables. If the patch cables crap out, just replace em!

Job Done!

FusionNet

Hi Humax,

Not to be a pain but I feel this is a forum of education more than anything else. Just a little note. If you terminte a cat6 network (or cable backbone like wise is) and you use cat5e patch cables the network will only peform to cat5e standards, ie 100Mhrz. If you terminate at cat6 you need to use cat 6 patch leads also.

I know you may know this so dont want to seem like a pain but it is an interesting fact for anyone who wasnt aware of it.

Cheers

KeRbDoG

FusionNet wrote: »

Hi Humax,

Not to be a pain but I feel this is a forum of education more than anything else. Just a little note. If you terminte a cat6 network (or cable backbone like wise is) and you use cat5e patch cables the network will only peform to cat5e standards, ie 100Mhrz. If you terminate at cat6 you need to use cat 6 patch leads also.

I know you may know this so dont want to seem like a pain but it is an interesting fact for anyone who wasnt aware of it.

Cheers

Would that be the case if say you terminated a cat6 patch correctly and used it between two HP gig switches (say one office to another) but connected other devices either end to the HP switches using cat5e patches?

FusionNet

Yes your backbone would potentially perform at 250Mhz plus and easily do gig but after your switches in theory could do gig but its at the limits of Cat5e, where as thats the beauty about Cat6 IF terminated right it can do gigabit with its eyes closed!!!

A lot of people think a patch is a patch is a patch, but im afraid not..

KeRbDoG

I've ran (pulled/crimped etc) literally 1000's of CAT5e 'patches' of up to 50~ meters and have all ran at a gig and never shown any major issues as shown by the managed network equipment I've used. These patches would have been running at high utilisation.
Some of the patches have been particularly badly ran and crimped but still worked under load at a gig. Wonder how bad of a cat5e patch yea gotta make for it not to run under load at a gig without errors

FusionNet

Have you ever certified any?? Thats the true test. A certified cable means it will run according to the specs set out by TIA 56B blah blah blah..!!

Its like anything in life Kerbdog, a car can run from A to B, but give that car to a professional tuner or mechanic and he can probably make that car go from A to B quicker.

Im not about to get into a debate about this as there is just hundreds of pages of docs and websites that go on about it. Remember a mangaed switched cant tell you if a network is performing to code, it can tell you if got a 10mb, 100mb or 1000mb connection but not a whole pile more, if it did we'd use managed switches to certify or networks and not 8000 euro Flukes!!!

Ill give you one bit of info that people might be interested in. If you run a cat5e cable in a hot or humid area, do you know that the hotter it gets (to a point) the shorter the cable can be??!!! If for example you are running it in an area of 60 degrees you must reduce your maximum cable length to 75m.. Mad eh?!

At the end of the day a badly terminated cable or patch will not perform as well as a good one. There is only one way to pull and terminate cable and that is the right way (within reason). And that applies to home and business..