Repair a Broken Ethernet Plug

GREAT Hack. I destroyed one of my good cables to give this a spin. It works like a charm!  Thanks!

This is amazing! It actually made me consider breaking all the locking tabs in the house and replacing them.

MUAHAHAH!!! NEVER will I EVER be disconnected from Xbox Live because of that cursed cable!!! :D Thanks a bunch dude! 

When I buy a cable tie pack, what is meant with the dimensions 35x100mm?
Is 35mm the head width or the cable width?
I not sure which to buy.
Thanks

very nice but i prefer the crimper but in a pinch i bet you could do with a cople of screw drivers  

Much needed!  Thank you.  ...Rich

 Nice job !
Thank you!

thx

dont suppose you have any other idea how to fix this? maybemake it out of icecream lid or something?
i dont have any zip ties atm, besides the ones inside my computer

You could cut off the plug and crimp on a new one

What kind of netbook is that?

This is exactly what used to make instructables great.  But now many of them just aren't that useful.  Thanks for being relevant.:) 

I stick a bit of double-sided tape on the tip of the plug and shove it in, works great but it's only a temporary measure, blu-tak is a more permanent solution though... :P

I would try it if i had a broken ethernet connector tap.

Nice. I have one that doesn't stay plugged in on the back of my computer but it still has the clip. I'm not sure why it doesn't stay.

Try clipping a bit off a pen spring and jamming it under the tab, it did wonders for mine

i could try that thanks.

Nice trick
Just sorted out 1 broken catch.
Using a piece of cut up zip tie that was on the floor after unpacking something recently & a new zippy that came with some hardware ( as I don't carry a stock of zip ties!) this killed 2 with 1 stone, all that went to waste was the piece of  cut zippy pulled out of the 1 from the floor.
  Top rated

 Absolutely brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

That is downright ingenious!
I always believed that cable ties could fix anything :)

There needs to be a GREAT SHOOT-OUT between Cable-Ties VS DUCT TAPE There should be at least 2 classes in this shoot out; one WITH a DREMAL Tool ALLOWED and the other class WITHOUT a DREMAL Tool ALLOWED :-) :-)

 haha I like it! :D I have to admit I use Duct tape to fix like EVERYTHING. hardly use cable ties...

OLD SCHOOL DUCT TAPE has a couple of old slogans
"DUCT TAPE can fix anything"
or
"If DUCT TAPE can't fix it IT CAN"T BE FIXED"

We need a similar slogan for the NEW SCHOOL 'bailing wire' guys who use high tech 'Zip-Ties' and 'Tie-Wraps'.
 Also I would like to include the 'VELCRO' guys too.

I've always been partial to: "If you can't DUCK it, _ _ _ _ it." ;)

Very nice idea! I've just tried this with the Ethernet cable that came with my Xbox 360 and it doesn't work too well because it's one of those Ethernet cables with a large connector 'housing' like this:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7649/41ofkhmf2alss500.jpg

Is there a way to fix these types of Ethernet cables? Thanks.

Zippers, normal plugs... yes, but had never thought about fixing Ethernet plugs ... Thanks exactly what I needed!

My grown up, know it all, computer expert kids now think I'm a fix-it God. Once again "Pop can fix anything." I'll never tell them about this site. Thanks for the tip. A great one. Now, what can I do to impress the grandsons?

Hovercraft

Nice guide! I have a lot of broken ethernet cables but don't want to replace them.

That's a pretty sweet idea, dude.

This is actually pretty clever.

Although if one owns a zip tie tool (optional), one will most probably have the RJ45 jack press too. But still a great instructable.

I DID it!!!!! I fix mine using this great technique! Thanks so much for sharing!

AWESOME I have a friend who has a broken cable. Cant wait to try this out. :)

nice instructable...nice emergency repair...while i'm on the go otherwise i would just crimp a new connector...i see you have the acer aspire one!!!the netbook i'm using now!!! anyway nice instructable!

yeah i have the 8gb ssd one (i think you have that as well) with linpus light linux...i upgraded to a 60gb hard drive with 1.5gb of ram...i now run xp and ubuntu!!! ubuntu installs with ease...althought i have installed it inside xp...so it can be easily be deleted...also i just got a new 9 cell battery for £36 from ebay and my battery lasts over 8 hours!!! much better than the 1.5hrs that i got from the standard battery...they also do a 12 cell battery which would probably last over 10 hours!!! all good!!! i'm still loving my aspire one after a year!!!although the screen is a little small...

Nice Hack! This is a great improvised solution, for where that's appropriate.

Furthermore, I'd like to see a tab design that is more like this than the current style, as I've only seen one that doesn't suck, and it's pretty much the same idea but attached at both ends, sorta like a leaf spring.

Two bits of advice though: as others have noted, crushing the cable is both easy to do and a bad thing. I was thinking 5min epoxy on the jack head, but that would be harder to do right. Just be careful I guess.

Secondly, the days of building your own cables is really past, *don't* do it! As much as I love DIY, hand crimping doesn't hold a candle to the $20K machine that does factory made cables, crimp depth and so forth are regulated at the factory, not at the hand crimper. They're generally cheaper store bought than the time you'd spend messing around with it, and goal #1 is reliability.

A bad hand crimp (and they're virtually impossible to do well) can really take a long time to figure out while troubleshooting. The fault can be both intermittent and not bidirectionally broken. The worst part is that it's never clear if it's been done right, even if you have the right heads/cable type. I speak from vast networking experience, 60K+ node network and 16 years on the job. Just not worth it, resist the urge!

Have to disagree, as an IT Technician who installs cat5e cable professionally (for only 2 years, but I've done plenty of retail network installs/moves/remodels, 1000's of terminations, etc), crimping modplugs (rj45s, aka icecubes) is not brain surgery. If you know the basics, a $10 crimper will last you 2 years. The only 3 things you need: Crimper with adjustable stripper, Bag of icecubes, RJ45 4pair Continuity tester. $18.95 on ebay from hongkong, these packages last quite awhile if you take care of them. After you crimp your 2 ends, run the continuity tester while moving around the cable near the modplug. If you get a short(s), cut and reterminate that end. I sell custom length patch cables all the time too and have never had a complaint or return. Do not be afraid to DIY regardless of what people within the industry say!!!

Glad you've had success with it, but on a broader scale and long term, I've seen problems. You can have success with it, but the issue I have is reliability, and in my experience it's something that folks are "getting away with". Sure it will work, even most of the time, but not as well as a precision made cable. This is probably more of an issue for me running a larger enterprise than most businesses. Your odds of having a bad cable in a smaller install is of course less, and if you're doing it all day you're probably better than the occasional use guy. Also you've got a tester, so you've got a fighting chance there. With stranded core and the right type of ends to match, you'll probably do fairly well. I used to do cable installs, much like yourself, and also worked for companies that had their own cable fab plants (where I encountered the aforementioned expensive auto-uber-crimpers), now I'm responsible for a huge and very diverse network. I see everything possible, and a few things that really shouldn't be. (Flat Satin on RJ-45's -CAT-Zero! what moron put this in!?!). In any case, the time spent on custom cables is really only justified cost/benefit wise if there's some specific real need other than "didn't have that length". I'm a huge DIY guy, but I know how to pick my battles. I don't build my own refinery for car oil either. My bar for reliability is very high because I don't have time to fix things at this scale. We run a 60,000+ node network with about 10 guys, so it's gotta be solid. My trouble duty rotations have put me in a position to see what technologies work, and which don't with a large statistical base. But hey, y'all are adults and make up your own minds. I use the best car oil I can find, as the extra $40 saves me $1000's down the road, and I use good network gear as downtime is more expensive in the long run than any equipment cost that's reasonably possible. Last thing, You're just as much "in the industry" as I am. Not like I sell the damn things, I just have to fix it when it's broke.

Let me tell you a little something about those "factory cables" you are recommending. I have worked on the commercial building installation side of things where nearly ALL the crimps are hand done, and I have also worked on the "factory" equipment.

To begin with they are about 6 to 8 times more expensive then DIY ones. They only come in predetermined lengths that are generally rarely suitable for the application unless the application has been specifically engineered for them. Next the failure rate for the "factory made" ones is one out of one hundred... about the same as a home crimp... why? because the dies wear, insulation doesn't cut right, wires snap, etc... the reason why the factory ones *Seem* so good is that they are tested before packaging. Even there the tests are quick continuity tests. Only about one in a hundred are sent to QA to be thoroughly tested.

On the home use side, I actually have to have a stash of several different lengths in order to find one that will match and don't get me started on longer runs. If you get the proper tools and a tester there is no reason why a DIY crimp can't be every bit as good as a "factory" crimp. Especially if you make several short practice cables to get the feel for doing it.

Maybe you have the nice deep corporate budget and regimented installation where factory crimped cables turn out to be easier but the average Instructables user does not have that luxury.

Finally, this is an expedient that is especially useful for field work and for low stress applications where the wiring only gets disturbed occasionally. I have had the clips snap off the ends of a perfectly good cable several times when trying to reroute the cable and this "fix" is an excellent idea.

Getting factory made whenever possible is a great idea because you have the option of returning it to the place of purchase if it fails out of the box. However, DIY can be done every bit as well if not better if taken the time to do carefully and properly.

There is no quality or reliablity diffrence betwen your cable or factory cable, if any, yours is better. All the phones all over the world work on cables with man-put connecters on them, factory cables are minority. Tester? A battery and one LED is your tester. It's just a copper wire, nothing more. No need to compare it with oil quality.

You have a great point, I can see why you wouldn't want to make every single patch cable within a 60k+ node environment, and for someone responsible for reliability of networks that large, you really wouldn't want to dabble around with crimping/testing patchcables all day. That's agreed. And TBH, I would never mess around with making short patch cables unless I need one in a pinch. With so many people moving to wireless routers, you can pick them up pretty cheap now. Mostly I get calls for 75-100' cables, where people are saving a substantial amount of money buying it from the guy with the bulk cat5e cable boxes for $10 instead of paying $25+ for one (about the cost of 500') instead. I don't mind helping people out locally, selling my leftover patch cables for cheap that I collect from jobs, etc. I only make $2-10 per cable but it costs me nothing to offer them on craigsli st. It's just the DIY mentality I'm trying to promote with that reply. When you have a small network of 2-3 computers, its much more cost efficient to find someone to make you cables and plug them in yourself than to hire a network professional to do the work for you. Your company probably saves a lot of money by buying their patch cables in bulk, but consumers end up paying a lot more in a retail store for something that works no better or worse than one that I make in 2.7 minutes. You are correct and logical in every point you make, we just come from opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm from the school of: stay 2-3 generations behind the 'newest thing' for reliability, cost, and knowledge pertaining to the technology. If something breaks, it costs me much less to replace. New technology only lasts so long anyway. All consumer electronics are engineered to break these days anyway.. I digress =]