How to Wire Your House With Cat-5 (or 6) For Ethernet Networking

Step 5 Connecting the Wires to the Jacks and Patch Panel

Now the we've got the cables run we can punch down the the cables to the patch panel and the to jacks!

I noted in the materials that a patch panel was optional. You /can/ take the raw cable directly out of the wall, put a RJ-45 plug on it and plug directly into the switch. I feel that for permanent installation it is much more professional to mount a patch panel.

This is pretty easy. Most patch panels and jacks have diagrams with wire color diagrams for the common T568A and T568B wiring standards. To be honest I don't know if either would work. I have seen "A" used for ISDN before but, in looking at the T568B color guide I recognized it as the same as the tons of patch cables I have made before so I went with it. Make sure you use the same on both ends. You can use the punch down tool or a small screw driver to punch the individual wires.

Once you have all the cables connected you can mount the patch panel to the wall and click the jacks into their respective wall plates on the other ends. You can also screw the wall plates into the gang boxes.

Now we can check that things work!

Comments

[shortw]

I am a maintenance man at a big company and all we use is 568 A , witch most was installed 10 years ago.
Also to note, the longest run can not be more than 100 meters without signal loss.

[forgottencitizen]

FYI, The bit about the maximum length being 100 meters was mentioned earlier in the instructable.

[DavidMR]

Yes Thanks, had read about it here. I don't see it as a challenge here though as longest run to date is just over 25 Meters.

[hdlrtc88]

Pretty good advice... a few hints if I may...One thing to make sure of...do not untwist the wire pairs more than 1/2 inch when you strip off the jacket and punch down the wires. Excess unwrapping affects noise immunity and other performance related characteristics. Use the 568B wiring pattern... It has better performance primarily due to lower power sum, near and far end crosstalk characteristics. These measurements can be made using a CAT 5 or 6 tester, but most people don't have those. DO NOT use tie wraps or staples, and do not make tight bends in routing your cables... Distorting the cable jacket affects transmission characteristics and reduces bandwidth (speed).

[Hextor]

HDlrtc88, why not use tie wraps?

[hdlrtc88]

Most people over tighten tie wraps...that distorts the cable jacket, and the pairs, and can cause very slight losses in performance at every tight spot... Just good practice not to make tight turns, crush the cable, untwist the pairs, etc.

[ericj77]

I'd like to add that where cables are exposed and need to be bundled, velcro is the way to go.  It's a tad more expensive, but you can pick up a 35' roll at Harbor Freight for about $8.  Inevitably you'll find yourself needing to pull a little more slack in a cable, move it to another jack, replace a bad one, or add another one to the bundle.  Rather than pull out the scissors or wire snips and cut every zip strip along the way, unstrap it, do what you gotta do, and strap it back up.  No tools needed, and you don't have to go find your zip strips to strap it all back together.  In the long run, you'll be glad you spent the extra money.

[zyphlar]

The best way I've found to handle excess and ensure that changes are easy is to run wire in open channels ("J hooks", ladder rack, cable tray -- as opposed to closed channels like conduit and loose-but-closed situations like drilling holes thru studs and walls) and then keep 2-6 feet of excess cable at each end. Cable is much, much cheaper than the manhours involved! 

Keeping excess at each end, and running cable through open channels, allows you to re-route wires as necessary without time-consuming pulling or fish taping. Imagine moving your patch panels 3 feet to the right and needing to re-wire a whole office building! Or, more commonly, if you mess up the ends while crimping you'll need at least a few inches of slack in order to re-crimp. Extra wire will save your butt.

[zyphlar]

 I should clarify-- using conduit is great when running wire over an inaccessible location since you can easily fish-tape the whole length. It's not flexible, however, so J-hooks are a cheap and flexible way to bundle wires while allowing for a cable to be re-routed at any point along the line. Just make sure you'll be able to reach the J-hook if necessary.

[alberto8793]

What is the ring around the cables called? it in the wall?  

[Rogue Agent]

It's called a grommet.  Most hardware stores have generic plastic grommets like this.

[narnboy1]

The reason for type a or type b is to create a straight-thru you use one type on both sides. To create a cross-over cable is use one type on one side and the other type on the other,

[thezman78]

 That's not accurate. T568B is an older standard that is still widely in use mostly in large office buildings where the building was originally wired as T568B and therefore would be too expensive to rewire to T568A. T568B is still a viable option (and most network professionals people choose it because of its wide usage and its what they already know).

T568A is the STANDARD as EIA/TIA sees it and all new wiring schemes are supposed to be wired by T568A. Most aren't the because as mentioned above basically "can't teach an old dog new tricks". The difference in B vs A is that A allows for backward compatibility with analog telephone lines in a 2 line phone run and/or structured wiring in a home (mostly structured wiring in a home). This allows you to use a T568A wired jack for either telephone or data depenending on what signal you have patched at the other end.

If you decide to place phone signal on the line, the orange and blue pairs will carry the signal for both lines so when you plug in an RJ11 phone cord, you can now support a phone with 1 or 2 lines. If you decide to run data, just pull the phone cords out at the other end and patch data into it.

T568A is the current Standard over T568B which will be completely phased out by 2012 if not sooner. However, most contractors do it like this:

T568A = Residential

T568B = Commercial (unless otherwise requested for A)

[IdeaVault]

T568A and T568B are both Residential and Commercial...there are many different therories and best practices..

But what is taught and Used 95% of the time...

Is:

T568B = DATA, networking, IP (IP Security, IP PHONE, ETC)
T568A = MOSTLY USED ONLY WITH PHONES..Analog and NON-IP phone systems.  

In both the 2 types the Blue/Blue-White Pair is the same, from there on are the differences.

I have been installing for over 20 years and stay up to date with industry courses every 6 months and certifications ... and I have NEVER seen A used for anything other than what I indicated for  above...

Like many phone systems use 2 pairs...usually the blue and orange pairs and all terminated in the A configuration. And it can vary form system to system...one pair carries power and the other carries the data to the phone (line status, LCD info, etc)

but B is king with everything else...

[RADavenport84]

 To summarize there are two wiring standards T568A & B, and both have straight through and cross over wiring.

[RADavenport84]

 I'd like to edit my own comment and renege what I said. It's completely wrong. narnboy1 has the right information and thezman78 is actually slightly off. 568A and 568B would be the same cost as they are used by the same wire, ie cat5 and cat5e.

Also since you only need 2 wires for an RJ-11 connection (analog phones), it does not matter what 2 pair you are using as long as it's the same on both ends. ie red and blue for the first line, yellow and black for the second line, and blue and white for the third. In summary you can still use 568B or 568A for analog phones.

As for old dogs not learning new tricks...that's true, but 568B is NOT being phased out and 568B is also AS backward compatible as 568A.

A contractor might have a favorite way of doing things, but to be honest, as long as you know which standard is being used continue using that standard.

The following info is from the CCNA class straight from Cisco, which is probably the world's largest networking company:

Ethernet straight-through: Both ends T568A or both ends T568B
      This configuration would be used for connecting a network host to a network device such as a switch or a hub.

Ethernet crossover: One end T568A the other end T568B
     This configuration would be used for connecting two network hosts; connecting two intermediary devices (switch to switch; router to router).

On newer switches however there is auto MDIX, which will switch to the correct configuration automatically, ie if using a straight-through and a crossover is needed, the auto MDIX will kick in and change the straight-through to act as if it were a crossover. A nice feature for the clueless or accidents.

All that to say originally I was wrong and narnboy1 was right.

[CoinLaundry]

The cable will call out a wiring standard on the jacket (and usually it will be 568B). Both standards are printed on jacks for your convenience. If a jack gets ripped out of the wall and disappears, you can bring a length of cable out, read the standard (it's in there with things like "CAT-6" and "500MHZ"), and wire up to the jack without having to find the other end of the cable and analyzing it.

[tecnico0104]

I haven't see such a cable yet. And as long as I know, I't doesn't matter what standard do you use as long as you terminate both ends with same standard for straight-through or different standards for cross-over.

[narnboy1]

Hey,  things happen.

[Rogue Agent]

 Excellent information!  Thanks!