The Connections For A Cat 5 Crossover CableWhen two computers are required to be networked together in your home without the use of a hub, you would use an enhanced CAT 5 crossover cable to connect them. Today, the category 5 cable standard has been enhanced to the CAT 5e standard so you would use a CAT 5e crossover cable to make the connection. In a crossover connection, the transmit pins on each connector at the two ends of the cable are connected to the receive pins on the corresponding connector at the other end of the cable. The use of a crossover cable helps you to create a 2-node UTP (untwisted pair) network spanning the two computers. You can easily make a crossover cable connection in your home. All you need is a CAT 5e network cable of the required length to connect the two computers, two standard RJ-45 connectors, wire cutters, and a crimping device. For residential use, where you may need shifting the location of your computers from time to time, it is better to go in for the cheaper braided cable as it is more flexible than solid cable. On buying the braided cable, you will find that it is made up of 8 different color coded wires which are twisted into 4 separate pairs. Each such pair is formed by twisting 2 wires together. The 8 different wires are color coded sequentially as per the TIA/EIA-568-B wiring standard to fit into pins on the RJ-45 connector at one end of the cable as follows. The white/orange coded wire end goes into pin1, the orange into pin2, the white/green into pin3, and the blue into pin4. Next the white/blue color coded wire end goes into pin5, the green into pin6, the white/brown into pin7, and the brown into pin8. Coming to the connections of wires into the pins of the corresponding RJ-45 connector at the other end of the crossover cable, the fitment follows a different scheme. In this case, the white/green color coded wire end goes into pin1, the green into pin2, the white/orange into pin3, and the white/brown into pin4. Next, the brown color coded wire end goes into pin5, the orange into pin6, the blue into pin7, and the white/blue into pin8. Before you insert the wires, you will need to strip off 2 inches of the sheath. Then you need to untwist the pairs in the exposed wire portions and align the wires according to the fitment scheme described above. Next you need to trim all the exposed wire ends to about 1/2" to ¾" from the sheath end. While inserting the wires do ensure that the end of each wire is inserted fully into the front end of the respective pin of the connector and in the correct sequential order. Moreover, the sheath of each wire should extend into the corresponding pin by about ½". To complete the enhanced CAT 5 crossover cable connections crimp each of the RJ-45 ends with the crimping device. |