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LAN Wiring & Pinouts

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10base-T, 100base-TX/T4, 1000base-T

There is NOTHING more annoying than spending 30 minutes debugging a network problem to find it was the cable. Badly made or non-standard cabling is a foolish thing to spend time on - do it once and do it right. This guide may help you to forget cabling problems and spend time doing really useful things - like pondering the meaning of life.

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Contents

Crossed and Straight cables - when to use them.

Standards Summary

Category 5 (UTP) colour coding table

10base Straight Cable (PC to HUB/SWITCH)

10baseT Crossed cable (PC to PC or HUB to HUB)

100baseT Straight Cable (PC to HUB/SWITCH)

100baseT Crossed cable (PC to PC or HUB to HUB)

1000base-T Gigabit Ethernet

RJ45 Connector Pin Numbering

RJ45 Connections - some hints

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

Notes:

1. LAN cables are generically called UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and are identified with a category rating. When installing new cable, unless there is a very good reason not to, you should be using category 5, 5e or 6 UTP which is rated for both 10 and 100mb LAN operation.Info on Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cabling.

2. UTP comes in two forms SOLID or STRANDED. SOLID refers to the fact that each internal conductor is made up of a single (solid!) wire, STRANDED means that each conductor is made up of multiple smaller wires. Stranded cable (which is typically more expensive) has a smaller 'bend- radius' (you can squeeze the cable round tighter corners with lower loss) and due to its flexibility should be used where you plug and unplug the cable frequently. All other things being equal the performance of both types of cable is the same. In general, solid cable is used for backbone wiring and stranded for PC to wall plug (patch) cables. Beware: Each type of wire, solid or stranded, needs its own connector type....