Cat 5e Problems?

Question

Hi,

I have never had luck with the Riser-Rated Cat5e cable that is common at Home Depot (made by General Cable).

All other cabling I've ever had, I've ignored the rules of the wire order and basically do striped/unstriped/striped/unstriped, etc....so they line up the same on both sides. --Walla! It works.

However, with this Riser Cable, I can't get data do get through it using this method.

Questions are:

1.)WHY? Why is it this brand and style that can't get data through it by using the same method I've used on dozens, if not hundreds or wires?

2.) If it has something to do with it being stiff, riser cable, and if I need to follow the "rules" of cable order, which rules should I follow?

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

Over short distances not paying attention to the color code may not matter. The reason why it does matter is that the different colors are twisted at different rates. By not using the color code indicated on the jack, the pin pairs will have different levels of resistance. A longer wire will have more resistance.

If you are a cable installer I would definitely not make a habit of ignoring the color code. Sometimes you can even get away with running gigabit over cat5e if the color code is right and the twist is maintained faithfully.

It shouldn't be an issue finding a jack with the color code written on the jack itself. I buy mine from www.cablesupply.com and they all come with the color code written on them.

Answer 2

There are two ways to setup the wiring inside a CAT 5 cable. There is regular and crossover. I believe the proper order is Brown, Brown Stripe, Green Stripe, Blue, Blue Stripe, Green, Orange, Orange Stripe (that may be wrong, it's off the top of my head). For a crossover cable, you switch the order of the middle two. Crossover cables are meant to work with switches and will not work correctly for normal network cables.

Answer 3

Please refer to the below link. Regarding your statement of "I've ignored the rules of the wire order" is just not good practice. Standards are meant to be just that.